Roland Perry writes:
I wonder how many retail businesses accept only plastic ?

It's quite difficult to buy airline tickets with cash
(notwithstanding the alarms bells that would ring at Homeland
Security). My lawyer and realtor don't accept cash, and I've often
encountered railway ticket vending machines where the banknote
facility was broken, and only cards would work.

I suspect it's pretty location specific.

Japan (where I live) is still very much cash-based, for instance.
Retail acceptance of credit-cards in Japan is much broader than it was
15 years ago, but people using them are still very much "the
exception." It feels verrry different than the U.S., for instance,
where scads of people do stuff like use a CC/DC to buy their morning
coffee, newspaper, stick of gum.... :/

[I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
_can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
realize you're a bit skint this month; if you don't pay off in full,
you risk losing your card (you can get extended payment periods, but
you must explicitly arrange them in advance). In the U.S., by
contrast, people routinely extend payment of their card bill over long
periods of time; this isn't financially very sensible of course, but I
think the ability to do it does give people a feeling of security, and
probably greatly helped popularize CCs...]

-Miles

--
Ocean, n. A body of water covering seven-tenths of a world designed for Man -
who has no gills.

"Miles Bader" schreef

: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
: realize you're a bit skint this month

Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start with a
zero balance.

It is not possible casually to accumulate large amounts of credit simply by
allowing your payments to get further and further into arrears.

Colin Youngs
Brussels

Colin Youngs wrote

"Miles Bader" schreef

: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if
you
: realize you're a bit skint this month

Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay
the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start
with a
zero balance.

It is not possible casually to accumulate large amounts of credit
simply by
allowing your payments to get further and further into arrears.

In the UK plastic is defined as debit cards, credit cards and charge
cards.

Charge cards are the "pay in full each month" type defined above for Be
& Jp. Classic American Express is the usual example though AmEx now
have credit cards too.

Most UK CC issuers offer an option for automatic payment of the minimum
or the full bill by bank transfer (Direct Debit) so avoiding interest
costs and late fees unless you can't pay or deliberately choose to
underpay.


--
Mike D

On 24-Jan-12 17:19, Colin Youngs wrote:
"Miles Bader" schreef
: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
: realize you're a bit skint this month

Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start with a
zero balance.

At least in US parlance, a "credit card" is linked to a "revolving"
credit account, i.e. you are not required to pay the full balance every
month. A "charge card" is linked to a credit account that is _not_
revolving.

For completeness, a "debit card" is one linked to a deposit account, and
a "payment card" is the generic form for any of the three types.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:49:30 -0600, Stephen Sprunk put finger to keyboard
and typed:

On 24-Jan-12 17:19, Colin Youngs wrote:
"Miles Bader" schreef
: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
: realize you're a bit skint this month

Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start with a
zero balance.

At least in US parlance, a "credit card" is linked to a "revolving"
credit account, i.e. you are not required to pay the full balance every
month. A "charge card" is linked to a credit account that is _not_
revolving.

For completeness, a "debit card" is one linked to a deposit account, and
a "payment card" is the generic form for any of the three types.

UK terminology is the same.

Mark
--
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk

In message e.net, at
07:47:43 on Wed, 25 Jan 2012, Mark Goodge
remarked:
At least in US parlance, a "credit card" is linked to a "revolving"
credit account, i.e. you are not required to pay the full balance every
month. A "charge card" is linked to a credit account that is _not_
revolving.

For completeness, a "debit card" is one linked to a deposit account, and
a "payment card" is the generic form for any of the three types.

UK terminology is the same.

Although a "deposit account" is the UK term for a long term savings
account, and most people will only have a debit card linked to checking
(aka current) account.
--
Roland Perry

On 25-Jan-12 02:14, Roland Perry wrote:
In message e.net, at
07:47:43 on Wed, 25 Jan 2012, Mark Goodge
remarked:
At least in US parlance, a "credit card" is linked to a "revolving"
credit account, i.e. you are not required to pay the full balance every
month. A "charge card" is linked to a credit account that is _not_
revolving.

For completeness, a "debit card" is one linked to a deposit account, and
a "payment card" is the generic form for any of the three types.

UK terminology is the same.

Although a "deposit account" is the UK term for a long term savings
account, and most people will only have a debit card linked to checking
(aka current) account.

At least in US parlance, a "deposit account" is a checking, savings or
time deposit account. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_account

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

In message , at 09:35:52 on Wed, 25 Jan
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
Although a "deposit account" is the UK term for a long term savings
account, and most people will only have a debit card linked to checking
(aka current) account.

At least in US parlance, a "deposit account" is a checking, savings or
time deposit account. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_account

That article badly needs some international aspect adding to it.
--
Roland Perry

Stephen Sprunk wrote:
On 25-Jan-12 02:14, Roland Perry wrote:
Mark Goodge remarked:

At least in US parlance, a "credit card" is linked to a "revolving"
credit account, i.e. you are not required to pay the full balance every
month. A "charge card" is linked to a credit account that is _not_
revolving.

For completeness, a "debit card" is one linked to a deposit account, and
a "payment card" is the generic form for any of the three types.

UK terminology is the same.

Although a "deposit account" is the UK term for a long term savings
account, and most people will only have a debit card linked to checking
(aka current) account.

At least in US parlance, a "deposit account" is a checking, savings or
time deposit account. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_account

A time versus demand deposit account has to do with the bank's cash
position and assets on its balance sheet. They wouldn't be terms
used in retail banking. Fewer assets back time deposits, as the assumption
is made that not everyone will withdraw from these accounts at once, and
if they do, the bank can prevent them from having immediate access to
their money. In retail banking, certificate of deposit (CD) would be
the term used for these types of accounts.

Prior to the late aughts, assets had to be real, even.

How many British bank customers lost money in Iceland?

In uk.railway Colin Youngs twisted the electrons to say:
"Miles Bader" schreef
: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
: realize you're a bit skint this month
Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start with a
zero balance.

Same in Austria. Confused my (ex)girlfriend a bit when her first credit
card statement arrived and there was no section saying "You must pay $EUROS
by $DATE".
--
These opinions might not even be mine ...
Let alone connected with my employer ...