eu webmasters: are there no real "credit cards" in europe?
 

i just heard that in order to get a credit card in europe, it needs to be tied into a bank account, and needs to be paid off in full by the end of the month (and if its not, the company debits your bank account for the amount), so its essentially a charge card where you cannot keep building the balance, not a credit card.

this compares to the US, where you can basically pay the min. balance each month and keep loading the card with charges until you reach the ceiling, and then the company may increase it anyway.

i think the answer to this is pretty relevant to some economic differences between european consumers and US consumers

is this true?

The US is bleeding cash. Not a single American bank in the top 10.

The "real" credit cards are in the rest of the world, not in the States, for your information. We don't make rules out of exceptions.

No.
When I was living in the Netherlands both options were offered.

Some countries have credit cards tied with local bank cards, so they actual becomes debit cards. Most stand-alone credit cards I have had were paid out full every 30 days, however it could be changed to over several months.

My credit card gives me credit for a month, then the amount is billed from my bank account. (Germany)

No thats not true at all. We have Maestro cards in the UK tied to your bank account where you can only spend whats available (debit card)

We also have Visa and Mastercards where its like in the USA. You get a set limit and you can either pay it off when the bill comes in or you can pay the minimum payment - normally £5 or 5% of the total balance whichever is greater.

Don't get me started on the various "services" local banking system offers.

Second most expensive banking system in Europe here.

I got three cards, two debet one credit card, none of them is really usable,even it's visa and mastercard I can't do a damn thing with it in US and always have to carry cash.

The requirements you need to meet in order to get a "real" credit card are stripping you of declaring every penny you made in the past years which is something I won't be doing.

Getting an offshore company with an account in USD soon.

Yea what people say, most EU countries (at least western) offers multiple options for both credit and debit cards.

Most credit cards are tied to a bank account where you usually pay the full amount after 30 days, but you can in most instances, choose if you want to or just build the balance. But only to a certain point ofc ;)

You could have it all but how much do you want it!

yup - and they bill the full amount - no choice

I dont know about the rest of europe but in the UK we have normal credit cards as well as debit cards, in fact we are nearly as bad as america in terms of running up huge debts on our credit cards that we cant pay off.

But there isnt one rule in the whole of europe everyone does things differently, europe isnt a country...


EDIT: wow didnt know that about germany you cant have real credit cards as well? that country is nearly as bad as china...

Interesting subject. I have always wondered about other countries credit cards.

Hey this is nice!

its completely false. and whoever told you that is a fucktard. sorry but dont listen to that person anymore. ;)

:Oh crap:Oh crap:Oh crap

why the sad face? this seems to be good information, bet that affects the rebill length depending on the country

yep, mine too. visa and mastercard.

sux.. i wanna have 30-300$ minimum deposit each month and 20k credit too.. :)

As mentioned already - absolutely not true.

The UK is in a desperate state with massive credit card consumer debt. One of the biggest issues is people just paying back the minimum amount each month so the card balance just literally goes on forever.

seems to be true in some areas like germany, no?

yeah, real nice bot you got there :thumbsup