When I first moved to North America, the idea that a credit card company was allowed to give people cash back, offer insurance, etc. for using their cards seemed like some bizarroworld "how is this legal" concept. Having lived here for decades, it still is. It's like an alcohol shop rewarding its most alcoholic customers by giving them free booze.
And then if you sign up for a new card, or you cancel a card, some random private company decides to rate you and then banks look at that private company's data to decide whether or not you're a good little consumer worthy of their business?
Credit cards might have been a reasonable idea, but give me direct, free, immediate digital banking and debit cards any day of the week please. The US went "what if we took the worst way to do banking, and made that the default?" and that's why banks don't even handle affordable EFTs themselves. It's the creditcard companies again.
And then if you sign up for a new card, or you cancel a card, some random private company decides to rate you and then banks look at that private company's data to decide whether or not you're a good little consumer worthy of their business?
Credit cards might have been a reasonable idea, but give me direct, free, immediate digital banking and debit cards any day of the week please. The US went "what if we took the worst way to do banking, and made that the default?" and that's why banks don't even handle affordable EFTs themselves. It's the creditcard companies again.