They do a particularly weird instrument called a "charge card." It's not a debit card because it's not pulling straight from a checking account, but there's no long-term line of credit either. It's like a credit card that you're actually required to pay in full every month. So no different from responsible credit card use, but still not credit.

> They do a particularly weird instrument called a "charge card."

It should be noted that they also offer regular credit cards, in addition to the charge card, and these do not require payment in full at the end of the bill cycle.

And prepaid cards too, iirc, through Walmart.

Edit: ignore me, I see somebody else has already mentioned this further down...

The benefit of the charge card (Disclaimer: I have an Amex charge card) is that you can have an extremely large line of credit for those 21-30 days. It's less for balancing your finances and more for spend management (they have great tools to see where all of the money is going, very nice management for multiple family/corp cards, etc).

I'd still trade the charge card for their Costco version.

it's credit if you don't pay it immediately. the lending institution is extending you a line of credit for one month.

True, but AFAK with Amex there is no "lending institution." You get the card from American Express itself and it does not involve a relationship with a bank.

Yes, they do (it depends on the issuing bank, though.) I guess technically it's just a credit card with zero credit limit so you have to have some money in the account.

I believe the AMEX SERVE card is relatively easy to obtain

https://www.serve.com