Quote Originally Posted by radish View Post
Which was not my intention, I was simply putting the term out there for the benefit of readers from places other than Germany I remember eurocheques very clearly from my childhood, and their evolution into debit cards in the UK. I also remember being amazed last time I was in Germany as I was in a large electronics store watching people buy e3000 home theater setups with huge bundles of cash. Different strokes I guess!
Was not meant negatively
Quote Originally Posted by surly View Post
Maybe it's just not as much a living on credit society here...

But it's getting worse.
I don't think that's it. Credit Cards in Germany are also not "real" credit cards but just a means of deferred payment for one month.
I think it's a mixture of the dominance of the public savings banks in Germany, which force a system with unfavorable conditions on users (EC cards are worse for users than credit cards in almost any sense) and a very low margin retail market not being ready to cover credit card fees (that's a fortunate aspect unfortunately easing up).