[Skybird]

I have a Visa - for the occasional internet buy where other sales methods are not available or not trustworthy. I get any deficit straight within 4 weeks. I use it 1-3 times per year, at best.

The card is not in my wallet. Together with my driving license it is stored in a safe drawer in my desktop.

In every-day-life I hate plastic money. It is not convenient, becasue it takes longer time at the cashdesk to get through the payment procedure than if oyu hand over real cash and get back the change. Street robbery also is still some kin d of an exotic crime over here, so safety also is no real argument in most situations. I am more worried about electronic crime and my banking data ending up in dark channels where they do not belong, getting abused for fraud by somebody else. Stolen card info, phishing attacks on home PCs, and manipulated bank automats that steal the card info and PINs as well, according to the Gemran "FBI" (=BKA) now are a very serious crime problem since some time, with ever exploding rates of cases.

I share the sentiment of ducimus and Takeda that plastic money is a good opportunity to let you escape from a material, real expereince of that you actually have given away money, which makes it easier for people to dive deep into debts. It is a psychological problem. Banks support the idea of people going into debts, since they make profits by it. People like me offering them little or no opportunity to collect interests from me, are not what they want to see too often.

The shifting of debts from one credit card to the next, to the degree it is common habit in the US that is a relatively uncommon practice here in Germany. There are tighter rules and monitors in place.