I think we most be from different parts of Europe. Where I live it is hard to avoid getting one or more credit cards

Everyone I know in Europe with a “real”credit card just has an Amex.

According to https://merchantmachine.co.uk/visa-mastercard-amex/ there are very few places in Europe where AmEx is #1 for credit cards (and, being from the UK, I'm actually surprised to see UK as one of those countries... I would have bet money on Visa/Mastercard having higher market share than AmEx here, even for credit cards alone).

From personal experience: what kind of cards (both debit vs credit, and what network they're on) varies massively in different EU countries.

In the US it collects points and cashback and you can magically go above the limit if you have money on your checking account. You have to do really really crazy stuff to get a transaction rejected. It gives you insurance for car rentals and concierge services for things I never considered.

In Europe I had a Visa and a MasterCard. No points, no cash back. Couldn’t go over the limit, forced to pay everything off every month. If you don’t, card is blocked.

In the US you can (often?) pay off as little as $25 on a massive CC debt and there’s a lot of interest on what you don’t pay off. I didn’t have any interest in Europe, it just stopped working if I didn’t pay it off next month.

From what I can tell, most Americans wouldn’t recognize my European Visa or MasterCard as a credit card. It behaves like a half step between debit and credit.

Are other cards in Europe closer to the American version?

That being said the debit card version is the one you get by default, and the credit card version is something you have to ask for separately.

- In the UK, Visa/Mastercard are the most common networks used for bank debit cards, using them pulls money from your bank account directly. Most banks give most adults (citation needed, but I think) a debit card by default with an account.

- In the UK, you can apply for credit cards from a number of companies, including banks (but it's a seperate to any bank account you might have with them), and credit card only companies. Different providers offer different types of cards, and the kind of deal you can get will depend on your credit history, salary, etc. They will (nearly always) have a credit limit, which could be a few hundred or could be very large. They will have a specific rule about minimum payments - some might want your balance paid in full each month, others will ask for a minimum payment (which could be a tiny percent of the amount owed) each month. If you pay in full, you don't get charged interest. If you take longer to pay, but within the agreed terms, you'll pay some sort of interest, which could be reasonable or extremely expensive depending on the card you have. Some cards offer benefits (points or cashback, maybe other perks like special deals, concierge services, etc.) while some are purely lines of credit with no other benefits.

- In France, I was given a Visa debit card when opening a standard bank account. No experience with French credit cards.

- In Belgium, if you want a card on the Visa/Mastercard networks, you need to get a credit card - most people use debit cards which use different networks (I think they use Maestro and another one..)

They basically don't exist here.

I have a small "CREDIT" label next to the chip of my new card and airlines (EasyJet, Ryanair...) now reject my card if I select the cheaper "Debit card" payment option.

But it has different laws so that they're not as exploitative. The card companies accepted these laws in order to get a chance at the relatively wealthy British customer base. In particular:

* Issuers have to tell you each month how much it's going to cost in total to pay off your debt gradually, which is usually a scarily enormous figure. * Issuers own the risk of buying most things with the card. If you pay £200 for a hat from an online merchant with the card, and then the merchant goes out of business without delivering, the law says the Issuer bought that hat, you owe nothing. * Issuers own the risk of card fraud. Unfortunately juries and judges both tend to believe the smartly dressed bank official in a trial, but in law all the responsibility for fraud lies with the Issuer unless they can prove it's your fault.

A lot of people like me have a credit card, and then have the issuing bank also automatically pay off the balance every month from their current account. So the effect is that their credit card is a rolling 30 day interest free loan.

So I am not sure what is the difference between these cards and "US-style" cards. Maybe that we only need to get an automated credit check based on past years tax reports to get them, instead of having to work hard to get a good credit score?

The differences between different parts of Europe can be larger than the difference between some parts of Europe and USA

Lived in Sweden for the past 12 years, and never seen anybody us an Amex card (seen lots of ads for Amex though). Mastercard seems to own basically the entire credit card market here.

In my country (Bosnia), there's pretty much no difference between them. Maybe half a euro more per month for one or the other. All the banks I know of let you pick between them. Citizens usually pick randomly. They're accepted the same, you still have to chase your own bank's ATMs to avoid unnecessary fees etc.

In the USA, wire transfers average $10-25 on the outbound. Inbound, domestic wire transfers are often free, but inbound International transfers can run you $15.

This fee structure is why you see Vimeo and Square Cash (and PayPal before those) become so popular.

Were these wires to a company that receives lots of similar wires? Do/did you have a history of sending wire transfers? Were any of these wire transfers a significant chunk of your account balance?

All of these things matter. In the US the average person is simply far more likely to be sent to the branch when wiring $10k than in EU.