<story><title>Stripe Raises New Funding and Partners with Visa</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/technology/stripe-digital-payments-start-up-raises-new-funding-and-partners-with-visa.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>arianvanp</author><text>can somebody explain why we have credit cards to me? Where I live it&amp;#x27;s kinda uncommon and I can&amp;#x27;t even get one as a student. And I never saw the need for one either as we can just pay everything with direct bank transfers. And yes you can undo bank transfers.&lt;p&gt;I just don&amp;#x27;t get the obsession? Why would anyone ever want debt? We have money to pay for stuff, why not use your money instead?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>patio11</author><text>They&amp;#x27;re far and away the most convenient payment method in the US, both for customers and merchants.&lt;p&gt;They work globally, for values of &amp;quot;globally&amp;quot; which include &amp;quot;most parts of the first world which you, as someone in the middle or upper middle class, are likely to find yourself in.&amp;quot;  You can take a wee little bit of plastic issued by a small bank in central Japan and buy dinner in Prague or take a cab in Portland.&lt;p&gt;They are the cheapest way to access short-term credit, which is an astoundingly useful thing to have available.  Poor folks in the US pay through the nose for it; middle class folks pay an amount between &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s literally a we-pay-you-to-access-it situation&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;A relatively modest APR in the teens, which -- in real terms -- means you can borrow $2k for an unanticipated expense without anyone judging you and it will cost you ~$25 a month.&amp;quot;  (Examples of unanticipated expenses can include medical expenses, car repairs which are necessary to continue one&amp;#x27;s employment, responding to sudden family emergencies like e.g. a parent&amp;#x27;s stroke while you&amp;#x27;re a student living in another state, etc.)&lt;p&gt;A credit card amounts to a no-haggling 1% discount on all your spending.&lt;p&gt;They create an instant, durable record of all spending, which is very useful for e.g. businesses or individuals who are attempting to budget better.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Why would anyone ever want debt?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I get the mindset behind this; I was terrified of debt growing up, for family&amp;#x2F;cultural reasons.  I&amp;#x27;ve matured a bit in my relationship with debt as a businessman.  $100 in interest is not morally different than $100 in SaaS expenses.  If it allows you to grow the business faster than you would be able to from your cash flow, than it&amp;#x27;s not a particularly difficult decision to borrow.</text></comment>
<story><title>Stripe Raises New Funding and Partners with Visa</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/technology/stripe-digital-payments-start-up-raises-new-funding-and-partners-with-visa.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>arianvanp</author><text>can somebody explain why we have credit cards to me? Where I live it&amp;#x27;s kinda uncommon and I can&amp;#x27;t even get one as a student. And I never saw the need for one either as we can just pay everything with direct bank transfers. And yes you can undo bank transfers.&lt;p&gt;I just don&amp;#x27;t get the obsession? Why would anyone ever want debt? We have money to pay for stuff, why not use your money instead?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ghshephard</author><text>If you do business travel, and rack up $20k+&amp;#x2F;month expenses (raises hand), credit cards are invaluable.  I certainly don&amp;#x27;t want to be extending my company $20K.  It was &lt;i&gt;impossible&lt;/i&gt; for me to have that much money just sitting around when I was in my 20s, particularly if it took a bit of time for the company to pay me back.&lt;p&gt;From the perspective of a company with hundreds of employees each spending $20k&amp;#x2F;month - this is effectively a $2mm+ interest free 30 day loan from the credit card company.&lt;p&gt;Credit Cards take all the fraud risk.  If someone fraudulently uses my credit card number, I am not on the hook for any charges.    In Canada, at least, the consumer takes the fraud risk for a debit card.   (Actually, for Chip+Pin Credit cards, last time I checked, they were trying to get consumers to take the fraud risk as well - not sure if that went through).&lt;p&gt;Lots of hotels want a credit card, not cash, when you are checking in.  Some of then &lt;i&gt;require&lt;/i&gt; a credit card, both for reservation, and your stay.  I believe that the vast majority of car-rentals require credit cards.&lt;p&gt;Credit cards in the United States are an effective mechanism for young people to jump start their FICO score, which is important if they ever want to get a loan to purchase a home, (I&amp;#x27;m presuming you see the advantage of buying a home with Debt).&lt;p&gt;Credit Cards, between points and various plans, provide 1-2% cash back on your purchases.&lt;p&gt;I can load my Credit Card onto my iPhone.  I don&amp;#x27;t know if it&amp;#x27;s possible to do that with a Debit Card.&lt;p&gt;Here in Singapore, OCBC will give me an extra 1%  on my savings account with their bank (up to $60K - so, $600&amp;#x2F;year) if I spend $1000&amp;#x2F;month on my credit card.  (And 1% cash back on said card for all expenses.)&lt;p&gt;With that said - different places have different culture.  Here in Singapore, Lots of Taxi&amp;#x27;s (all of them?) won&amp;#x27;t take Visa Credit cards, and around half of them won&amp;#x27;t take any credit cards.  Lots of places (all the hawkers that I&amp;#x27;ve run into) are cash only.    In West-Coast Canada, Debit-Cards seem to be pretty popular.&lt;p&gt;But, Net-Net, outside of some of those use cases - I totally agree with you.  I don&amp;#x27;t really see the fascination with credit cards either, particularly now that Visa+Debit cards+Chip+Pin+Smart Phones seem to offer a lot of the advantages of Credit Cards.</text></comment>