AIBU to have never had a credit card?

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Has anyone else never had a credit card? I have literally never had one. Surely I’m not the only one?

Edited to add- I’m in Ireland so the “extra protection” they provide in the uk under section 75, does not apply here

My husband never had a credit card until he got a poor credit check score because he’d never had any “debt” to pay off he didn’t have a good rating. Go figure. I don’t know if that’s still true now, but that’s the only reason (along with earning points etc) I’d have a credit card.

I like the safety of "spending someone else's money".

My dad had his debit card skimmed on holiday. By the time he noticed, his mortgage payment had bounced as his account overdraft was maxed out. Caused a lot of stress sorting it out from a long haul destination.

If it had been a credit card there would have been time to sort things out when back at home.

I've never had one. I do have an overdraft on all my accounts for emergencies

I’ve never had one, but DH has one.
I watched my parents repeatedly get into debt spirals with credit cards through my childhood and adult life, and have a horror of debt. I don’t even let my current account go under £1k because I worry about overdraft fees.
A debit card is fine for anything I need in life and I’m well into my 40s so doubt that will change at this point.

I've also never had one. A teacher when I was at school told me he recommended never having one and that he never needed one to get a mortgage and neither did I, decades later, so I think that's a bit of a myth spread about by credit card companies themselves.

The way I see it is, they can cause a spending/borrowing addiction and get you into a spiral of debt. Everyone thinks "oh but I won't let that happen to me" but that's hubristic really. I see them potentially as addictive as gambling.

Ive never had one.

I have two that I earn Avios on. I use them as much as possible and usually qualify for a Companion Voucher each year.

I always pay whole balance in full by DD.

I use mine for everything. They are very handy. I always pay it off fully.

There was a thread on here where the op kept using her CC to buy something she didn't need straightaway when it was on a deal, like 20% off, but she was heavily in debt. She wouldn't listen when pp tried to explain that she was spending more on the interest than the discount on the items.

Your average person isn't that financially savvy, and I include myself in that too, so it's simpler to have the blanket rule "don't buy unless you can afford it".

We never do buy now pay later or hire purchase etc. We pay in full for a cheaper second hand car instead. The only exception is the mortgage.

I can't remember life without a credit card OP . I applied for one as soon as I got a job on leaving school many many years ago.

I use it for all my spending and I clear it off in full every month.

It enables me to keep a strict control on my spending because everything is itemised on the statement. It enables me to earn cash back on spending. It means I maximise interest on my savings because I am earning interest on my money until I use it to clear the card.

I think credit cards are a great tool if used sensibly and so long as someone isn't one of the unfortunate people who have no self control over their spending.

I haven't had one since my early 20s, now mid-40s. I don't trust myself to remember to re-pay it, I could never use it to buy everything for the air miles or whatever like some people do.

DP has one for buying large purchases and holidays.

ETA - I'm fine with money, don't overspend and have savings. I strongly suspect I have inattentive ADHD though, and I know my limits.

I also don't like having debt. We very rarely buy anything we don't have the money for (exception being the mortgage, and a small loan for a car once).

Dh has never had one and we still got a mortgage. His credit rating is good enough without it, although mine is higher.

I have one which I got to use in emergencies when I was traveling solo. I use it for big purchases and petrol now.

Edit to add is does get paid off in full every time. The balance is currently £0.

Avios is available in Ireland too I think? We’re another one who puts literally everything on our credit-card, then have a DD to pay the lot off each month. My kids are at an independent school & I even put the fees on the CC. Then we cash in the Avios as airmiles.

Of course you aren't, lots of people don't. I have one though to collect the points so buy everything on it and pay it off each month.

Use mine to pay for everything then pay in full. I have 3 and have never paid interest in 45 years. Had loads of JL vouchers back . Ive never checked my credit score either.

I’m based in Ireland and the points and free stuff is not really available or worth it here unfortunately

just one on offer with aerlingus and it’s fairly ridiculous. 6.50 per month to even have it. The rewards are only ok imo…not worth 6.50 a month for me.

You are missing out on free money. Get a card that gives cashback on purchases. Set up a direct debit to pay it off in full every month. Buy everything you can on the card and pay it off every month. We get about £100 a year in cashback, plus the money we would have spent earns interest while waiting in our account. As long as you are disciplined you can make a card work to your advantage. It is easy with banking apps, to balance accounts and shift money from an interest paying account to your current account to pay the bill. You can do it in the advert breaks or on the loo.

That doesn’t apply here in Ireland either thank goodness

I couldn’t be bothered to pay 6.50 a month to have it though.

You are missing out on free money

I hear this a lot and I think it's a bit naive really. How/why do you think the CC companies fund all these freebies? They are funding it via the interest everyone pays. OK, so just maybe you will be one of the few clever ones who literally never pay interest on any CC debt. But if it were that easy to profit off a CC company they'd all fold. In actual fact, everyone "pays it off in full every month" until they don't. Some "emergency" will come up and then it'll be just this once, etc and then you're on the spiral.

This is general "you". I'm prepared to believe it won't happen to quite everyone on this thread.

Can you not get cash back credit cards in Ireland? Might be worth posting in Craicsnet?

I have a debit card, which I only use once a month to keep the account open, as I much prefer cash, but I've never had a credit card; it's not something I've ever had any interest in having!

You can get a few yes, but the amounts are negligible.
the best one I can see offers:

Enjoy 5% cashback on groceries for the first 12 months and 1% after that*.
Plus, save €30 annually on government stamp duty**.
Earn up to €25 cashback per month on groceries
0% interest on Credit Card Balance Transfers for 6 months*
20.8% variable interest rate for purchases, transfers and cash withdrawals

I only got one to pay for a hotel upgrade in a country where I didn't want to take my current account card. I was in my 50s.
It was used only for that trip but does now live in my passport in case of emergencies when travelling.

I was too worried that I'd be too disorganised to routinely pay it off.