Again, you take your specific disciplined experience and project to the rest of the population while I keep repeating that you're the exception, not the norm, with data showing the crazy amount of credit card debt in America. Europe allows very limited access to credit (cards) based on proven income over time. Most use debit cards drawing from their account therefore there is almost no overspending and it isn't culturally accepted to incur debt, other than buying a house or a car. Certainly, proper cc management is best. You can defer payment to the due date, manage transaction in one statement, benefit from perks, etc. But most who do are most likely to be financially well off enough not to contemplate taking on credit at 20% interest. It's like trading on margin... Done right it's a +, but bad management can be very costly.
You don't need to be financially well-off to not take on the credit at 20% interest. I had my very first credit card when I was university student. I had zero income at the time and I still didn't take on credit at 20% interest. @deaddog here doesn't either and out of all of the people that I know, only ONE, ONE person decided to take on credit at 20% interest but that's because she was depressed and deliberately decided to not just carry a balance but accumulate a balance. The collection department from the credit card company even called her to offer to consolidate all of her credit card debts with a consumer loan with a much lower interest rate and she refused stating that she just doesn't have the money to pay. She had a job, a stable job that she worked at for 10+ years that paid her a good salary, she was single with no family or kids so she had no other financial obligations and she didn't even splurge so she had no excuse for not paying her credit card balance but she just decided to accumulate a balance and not pay. EVERYONE else that I know all pays off their credit card balance in full by the due date. So yeah you can say I am extrapolating here but imo credit card management has very little to do with financial situation or ability to pay or abusing credit or whatever; it's a psychological issue sometimes and many times it's an attitude issue. And the level of credit card debts is in no way of an indication of the state of the economy because people carried balances in both good and bad economies. That's what I am saying. So Europe just decides to basically restrict people from using credit cards to reduce or eliminate the issue of not paying I get it but that's no indication of credit cards being bad or actually leading to overspending. People live their lives however badly they want but that doesn't mean life itself is bad.