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

So you're saying half of people get into debt on them, but keep using them. That's huge.

Would you say cocaine is addictive? Maybe a bad idea to start taking it, in case you get addicted? And yet stats show that only around 20% of cocaine users develop a clinical addiction.

A debt addiction is comparably as bad for one's well-being and family well-being as any other addiction, (in my opinion although others may disagree and I respect that). A 50-50 chance of getting into a debt spiral is enormous. I literally trust myself more going to the casino occasionally because that's time-limited to one evening rather than sitting in my wallet.

I grew up watching my parents go through cycles of trying to achieve a middle class standard of living using credit cards, then panicking and cutting them up. So I'm verrrrry wary of credit and debt. No CCs for me and I don't understand the credit score benefit.

I think it might depend on whether you have known anyone with a debt problem. Debt can really destroy one's quality of life. Once you get into it it's a slippery pit that's hard to scramble out of. Having a credit card is basically dancing on the edge of that pit, sorry for the awful extended metaphor but you get what I'm saying. With a 50-50 chance of falling in, even by the admission of the pro-camp. Those odds are dreadful

I had one in my 20s, paid it off every month but eventually thought what is the point, it's just extra manipulation of my money for little gain. Plus, when we got married the month after I bought the first obvious wedding related thing the amount I could borrow shot up and I just thought that was so cynical. So I stopped using it and eventually got rid of it. Never missed it. I have a mortgage so have a history of regularly paying for debt. Don't care about the small amount of extra money I might get with all the rewards schemes.

The stats don't say the other 50% get into a debt spiral. Some of them will pay it off in 2 months. But even if we assume they did, you're moving the goalposts. There's just no evidence that only a few people never pay any interest. It was an exaggeration. You can still say you don't think credit cards are a good idea for lots of people anyway, because that's irrefutably true.

While I personally am actually quite afraid of problem debt (also of gambling, ironically) and never buy anything I don't already have the cash for, there are people who use it as part of money management if they have an irregular income. For example, a person whose work is much more lucrative in some months than others, whose freezer breaks in one of the leaner ones, might take need to wait until the next busy month to fully pay it off but that doesn't mean they're debt addicts.

They are odds you have control over though. A credit card used as an intentional
part of money management is very different to using it like free money, someone doing that will find other access to “free money” if they don’t use a credit card.

Very true re odds.

I think the best way to put it is that the risk of problems is pretty much zero for some people. For others, the possibility of credit cards getting them into trouble is considerably above 50%. They're not a product where the risk is anything like evenly spread.

A lot of the benefits are overstated and the downsides understated, I've never had any issue travelling without a credit card and never had an issue hiring a car here or abroad. When do companies check your credit rating? I've no debt except my mortgage for a long time (cars etc all bought with cash) so this has no impact, and it's not just credit cards that impact credit rating, if you regularly pay your bills (electricity etc), are on the electoral register, have no CCJ and don't keepapplying for credit then your credit rating will be absolutely fine. You need to spend regularly on a credit card to have a reasonable allowance on it for holds, I stopped using mine as my income increased in my 30s and because I wasn't using it my spending allowance was so low it wasn't useful vs the cash I had sitting in my current account. Obviously that's a position of privilege. I never got into the habit of 'paying for everything on my card so I earn points' which I can see is reasonable if you're disciplined and have a DD set up but when I tried to set up a DD the CC I had at the time would only do it for the minimum repayment not the total so that was useless.

I'm not morally opposed to CCs, they are clearly useful when you are a young adult with cash flow issues (assuming you're sensible) and can be beneficial if you are disciplined as an older adult focussed on maximising your benefits. But I'm too well off and lazy to be worrying about monitoring credit card cashback when it's easier for me to just buy something with my debit card and then not have to think about it again.

It’s a super cheap way to borrow though if needed and you qualify for a long term interest free one !! After we bought our house 5 years ago we had zero cash left but badly needed a fridge and a washing machine (again as I mentioned above we also used a credit card last year for a once in a lifetime holiday)

we both have 2 year interest free credit cards

so only need to chip away at repaying it each month - we bought what we needed on credit cards and divided it by 24 months and set up a direct debit - put the card away in a drawer and never used it again ! It cost us zero interest to pay back the big purchases over 2 years. 🤷‍♀️

easy to balance transfer too if it did happen that we needed more time to pay it back interest free - but that didn’t happen us.

also have flown to Ireland for Easter break for 1£ just there with my kids to stay with family because of my Ba Amex (and flights were super pricey so that was a win) basically a free trip because I do everyday spending on Amex

I too live in Ireland and they certainly do have extra protection.

Yes, credit cards provide extra protection in Ireland primarily through chargeback rights and by safeguarding your actual cash if fraud occurs. While both debit and credit cards have chargeback procedures for issues like non-delivery or faulty goods, credit cards offer a buffer because fraudulent charges are made against the bank's money rather than your own current account funds.

what I mean is Ireland doesn’t have Section 75 consumer protection legislation, meaning credit card providers are not automatically jointly liable for breaches of contract by retailers. Irish consumers must rely on voluntary Visa/Mastercard chargeback rules for refunds, which have a 120-day limit.

I don’t think that’s right.

‘Credit cards in Ireland generally offer less protection than the UK's Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. While UK credit cards provide legally mandated joint liability between the retailer and card issuer for items costing £100–£30,000, Irish credit cards primarily rely on voluntary "chargeback" schemes.’ ( Money Guide Ireland)

Debit cards have chargeback schemes too so there’s no extra protection gained by using a credit card in Ireland, unlike the UK. I don’t think the buffer you speak of exists in Ireland.

https://www.moneyguideireland.com/protection-when-buying-with-debit-or-credit-cards.html

(You can’t trust the AI blurb when you look things up.)

I’ve never had one.

In 1986 Debenhams made the mistake of giving me a store card days after my 18th birthday. I discovered my brain thinks paying for things with a plastic card means FREEEEEEEE. We both regretted the decision to treat me like a functioning adult with credit.

I’ve only ever had pre-paid “credit” cards. Before that, cash.

Well the point still stands there’s no extra protection through section 75

Yes, that was my point too 😁

Oh sorry, I’m in the middle of making dinner and I read that all wrong 🤣🤣🤣🤣

No I've never had a credit card

When I had my credit card scammed, the money was back on my card within 24 hours. The bank did all the work. If you are going to apply for a loan or mortgage, you will have no credit score to be judged by. If you are not then you do you.

Nope never needed anything in that sense for my mortgage.

I'm 45 and have never had a credit card.
If I can't afford it outright, I don't buy it!

Same here as to affordability but I buy it on my credit card, pay it off in full immediately but get the credit card points which pay for business class flights and hotels for holidays.

No credit card, driving licence or passport.
First mortgage 30 years ago, I was advised to take out three store cards to get a credit rating.

I didn’t have one until 2001 when I was working for over 3 years out of Uni - and got it then because I started travelling for work and having to pay for hotel rooms up front. I wasn’t on a high wage then. I always pay it off - I’ve had interest charged (and then removed) twice in over 25 years when the payment got delayed in the system and I queried the charge. And once had some interest due to drawing cash from CC by mistake overseas (instead of debit card).

I do still use it - but more because my debit card charged 20c per transaction up to recently and credit card is free. (Now my bank is charging a monthly, all-in, fee instead on current a/c). So I buy everything on that and pay it off before the bill comes due.

And I already had a joint mortgage before I got the CC.

Only time I’ve ever felt I needed one was when abroad and hiring a car. A lot of firms needed me to have a credit card and it was too late to get one when I realised.

I can’t be arsed with cashback incentives. I like to see what I have left in my bank account. If I had a credit card I might just go nuts the first month and spend more than I could pay off 😀