>>Speaking of which, debit cards are used extensively up here but I've never seen the attraction. Assuming one is fiscally disciplined enough to responsibly use credit cards, why would anyone want one?
>
>As a wildly irresponsible credit card user, I am sure I am not qualified to answer...

From an even wilder debit card user (and no, never got around to uppercase my cards... they may charge me for that too, the banksters), here...

>- You can pay for your parking time in almost all parking spots in Lower Mainland with a Credit Card, but most of them do not take Debit, and with current prices here in Vancouver coins are not really an option :) I know that now there are more options, in particular in Vancouver I always use PayByPhone Application (which by the way, needs a credit card to set up the account), never used the phone call, but I guess you need a credit card too.

To all the places who require you to have a CC instead of a DC, screw you, you aren't getting a dime from me. Unless you mean "use your DC but sign instead of using the PIN" (which makes it ridiculous, but it's your policy, not mine). As for paying the parking, pretty much all cities here have it, for parking downtown - just send your license plate number in a SMS to a number written on the sign and you got yourself one hour (or two - depending on the zone). You get a warning message 10 minutes before it expires. No app at all, and that's my anonymous prepaid phone, where I bought the SIM card on a kiosk, cash, and am filling it the same way - cash, kiosk. For kiosk-challenged, no, it means newsstand, not a fenced-in zone in a mall.

>- Online shopping (this might be my irresponsible side speaking, maybe if I were responsible I should not be buying stuff - online or not) although in some places you can (now, not until recently) pay with Debit cards, paying with credit card is still the easiest way. You can also use Google Wallet or PayPal, but still the underlying payment mechanism is a credit card.

Did that a lot, with a DC. Here, I could do that, but I somehow don't trust the mechanism and the legal framework behind it. Instead, found that most of the places accept COD, so cash again. Bought various things that way, from a laptop to a scooter and even a heavy woodworking machine (between 300 and 600 kg, my back hurt for months as I helped unload it).

>- From time to time you can get buy with 0% interest in monthly installments, you need to be careful with this thou, if you miss one payment they might hit you outrageous interest rates.

And beware the tricks like automatic automatic payments, which you cancel but it gets back to automatic because you didn't see one checkbox (skype/m$, twice! - and I checked, there was no checkbox in their case). Or, payment dates set too near to major holidays, so when it's on a sunday when there's a holiday on monday, and your reminder doesn't go off on previous friday, you're in the arrears all of a sudden. Or their service is turned off on friday 14:00 (aka 2pm) and your payment goes through on tuesday... and other dirty tricks.

>- Insurance when you pay for air tickets or rent cars in some places with some credit cards
>- You can block payment if unsatisfied with your purchase, unlike the debit card
>- Points / Discounts

Small tricks to get you in, into the habit of being irresponsible. Which then somehow gives you better credit history and rating than if you never were in debt and always had a solid reserve. This distinction exposes the ulterior motive.

>I am sure there are more examples... And I am keeping with your premise of being fiscally disciplined, that means you pay the full balance of your CC before they hit you with the interests.

Means you use a DC and don't go for the few perks/baits offered by a CC. CC was invented to go around the legal limits of usury laws.