Credit or debit?
My wife used to work in an Alepa grocery store as cashier, and she collected lovely stories about Finnish people. Some funny, some surprising. This one I cannot categorize, it was just odd for a foreigner.
At the end of the month a lady come to the cash desk, and when my wife asked the usual question "credit or debit", ie which side of the bank card the customer wanted to use, she hid her mouth and whispered "credit". Like it would be sin to use credit card for daily products. It was the end of the month, so presumably she just run out of money on her account (debit).
According to Helsingin Sanomat, Finnish people prefer paying with debit card, even if most of the cards are combined, having both credit and debit facility in one. For these cards the cashier used to asks which side to use, and the customer had to tell it loud.
The story was surprising for me, as I could not understand why would one hide that she uses credit card. Do we have to worry here in Finland about what others see, think, or say?
I used to optimize the cash flow, and pay with cost-less credit, or even collect bonus miles using my credit card. There is no problem using credit cards, until the bill is paid in full. Falling into a credit spiral, so to say, taking credit to pay back previous credit card bills, and then ending up in a financial crisis, is a real problem.
Fortunately, nowadays cashiers do not ask, and our neighbors do not draw conclusions about our financial situation. We can select in the payment terminal before entering the PIN, if we want to use the credit or debit facility of the bank card. So there is no question, and no need for loud or whispered answer.
At the end of the month a lady come to the cash desk, and when my wife asked the usual question "credit or debit", ie which side of the bank card the customer wanted to use, she hid her mouth and whispered "credit". Like it would be sin to use credit card for daily products. It was the end of the month, so presumably she just run out of money on her account (debit).
According to Helsingin Sanomat, Finnish people prefer paying with debit card, even if most of the cards are combined, having both credit and debit facility in one. For these cards the cashier used to asks which side to use, and the customer had to tell it loud.
The story was surprising for me, as I could not understand why would one hide that she uses credit card. Do we have to worry here in Finland about what others see, think, or say?
I used to optimize the cash flow, and pay with cost-less credit, or even collect bonus miles using my credit card. There is no problem using credit cards, until the bill is paid in full. Falling into a credit spiral, so to say, taking credit to pay back previous credit card bills, and then ending up in a financial crisis, is a real problem.
Fortunately, nowadays cashiers do not ask, and our neighbors do not draw conclusions about our financial situation. We can select in the payment terminal before entering the PIN, if we want to use the credit or debit facility of the bank card. So there is no question, and no need for loud or whispered answer.
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