You can pay for almost anything online with a debit card if you get a Visa/Mastercard debit card, which is included with practically every bank account over here in Australia. Obviously Visa/MC charge merchants more to accept their debit cards than the national domestic EFT payment networks, but it works well from the consumer experience point of view.

Over here it's quite normal for middle-class people to have personal credit cards, but it's not as important for building up a good credit rating or anything like that as it is in the US.

> having a private credit card is like shaving with a straight razor - it's awesome if you can handle it without hurting yourself, but most people can't and are smart enough to not even try.

as someone who treats a credit card like a charge card (pay it off in full every month, without exception), I don't really understand this mentality. imo, managing a debit card is way harder. I have to ensure that I have enough money in my checking account every time I make a purchase. it feels like inevitably my payday will line up in such a way that I overdraft on a purchase I could have easily afforded by the end of the month.

In the US, the fraud protections on credit is way better than debit