In the US, loans are distinct from lines of credit and credit cards. Just having a credit card won't make it easier for you to get a loan, but having a history of on time payments while making use of the credit cards will increase your credit score. Having high utilization on your cards will decrease your credit score. Mortgages will take a variety of factors into account, with credit score being among them.

>The only reason I have one is that my work insists that I get an Amex due to some dirty deal they have. Which is a horrible card for traveling in Europe, nobody accepts it besides hotels. Try getting a taxi in Paris for example

I've actually been quite successful in utilizing my Amex card across roughly two dozen countries in Europe and Asia, so this doesn't really match my experience. I haven't specifically tried to use it for a taxi in Paris, however. I do keep a Visa in my wallet in case I need it, but my bigger issue has been places that don't take cards at all, and having to carry cash. Cash only locations are basically nonexistent in the US - even the smallest hole in the wall type places and random food stalls in gas stations tend to allow for cards ever since Square became popular.

I've never used it in Asia, but for example the main Taxi companies like G7: https://www.g7.fr/en/paris-taxi-fares do accept credit cards but are very difficult about amex. When you wait at Charles de Gaulle airport there's some bouncer in the taxi queue who will ask specifically what card you have and if you have Amex then they have to haggle with the queue of waiting taxi drivers for one to accept it. And often when you do get to your destination the machine is suddenly 'broken'.

One of the taxi drivers told me that amex charges them a lot more than the others.

In Romania you'd be hard-pressed to find a taxi that accepts cards at all and if you show them an Amex they will laugh in your face (though taxi drivers aren't very nice people there generally speaking, two of my colleagues even got literally robbed).

The same with other minor expenses. Like rail tickets, food in a 7/11 style shop etc... The big hospitality outlets like upmarket restaurants and hotels do generally accept it. But my work requires me to pay all my travel expenses with amex and I get a lot of bitching from them if I don't. But especially in Eastern Europe I just don't get anywhere with it.

Amex gives its customers great benefits. It charges merchants an arm and a leg to do that. Literally double the fees. Merchants then refuse to accept it a lot of the time, but every time a customer "only has an Amex card" they lose business, so a lot do accept it, grudgingly.

Of course customers prefer to use their Amex card whenever they can, because benefits. So they often pretend to "only have an Amex card" (much like "the machine is broken" in taxis, that then miraculously fixes itself when you pull out some loose change as "the only cash I have").

the customer is king, as always.

Which part of Europe? That's not how it works in the UK. You build up a record by using credit products and it benefits your score to keep them in good order.

Though it is how it works here in Australia. When you apply for a mortgage they take your credit card limit into account as a negative.

> And we don't get much additional fraud protection

That's interesting. The UK (again) has significant legal protections for credit that mean the credit card company is jointly liable for the debt in some circumstances, like fraud, and must return your money pending an investigation. There's much less protection with debit cards.

Good point, Europe is not one entity. The UK is more aligned with the US legally (common law etc) than the rest of Europe. Especially now with Brexit.

In the Netherlands it's definitely something that works against you. Even something simple like a phone contract with subsisided hardware will lower the credit score.

And the advice for customers is often to buy mid-to-high value items using a credit card for this reason. If you order £10k of furniture for your new home from an online retailer that goes bust before delivery and you paid by credit card then you might well have a claim against your card provider instead for example.

Of course the direct connection between whether you have certain consumer protections by law and whether you technically paid on credit doesn't actually make much sense today and mostly exists for historical reasons. The corresponding risk created for card companies also contributes to the raw deal that merchants get in the terms for accepting card payments, which is a drag on the whole economy.

Lots of (for example) food stalls in London were popping up as card-only businesses over the last few years, because it was easier than dealing with cash. The EU rules (which presumably still apply until actually repealed) capped the fees pretty effectively.

Typical terms for merchants accepting credit card payments are probably the most one-sided legal agreements I've ever seen.

Across Italy, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal, over the last thirty days, I never had to provide a PIN over contactless. This was true for minor purchases to €5,000+.

But on the card itself I have to above €75 (or after transactions accumulating to that amount)

Mobile wallet based payments also don't need one, usually (since authentication already happens on the customer's device).

There's also generally a limit over the volume and the amount of consecutive payments, so that if someone steals your card, they won't be able to spend huge sums with contactless. It is set by your bank though

But I haven't been to France since I got Samsung Pay so I haven't had the chance to try it out. Here in Spain it works with any amount. Well, up to a few hundred anyway, I haven't bought anything over 1000 in ages :)