Originally Posted by tjk1976

Yeah, you've mentioned your experience dealing with credit cards in Denmark before. Credit cards in North America are not only readily available to anybody who has decent credit or above, most offer some form of rewards on spending, usually in the form of points or miles. Even cards with no annual fee often offer some form of rewards. Premium cards come with higher annual fees but they offer better rewards. Some also come with sign-up bonuses that can be significant (Amex is known to offer sign up bonuses of 100,000 points or more on their Platinum card which are worth significantly more than the annual fee). Premium cards also generally come with varying forms of insurance for things like out-of-country medical, purchase protection, car rental coverage, manufacturer warranty enhancements, etc. Consumer protection laws relating to credit cards vary by state and province, but generally speaking, fraud protection on credit cards is far better than it is on debit cards. In North America, it just makes no sense to use a debit card for anything other than ATM transactions.