You do realize that countries outside the US exist, right? Because the answer is No. No, they do not do these things outside of United States of America - which is 1 country.

Yes, as weird as it seems to you - the world is not entirely in one country called United States and what applies to what you know of your country does not apply in the entire world.

Here in the UK even grandma does not mail in bill payments, nor do most places accept this, she does it via the app or the utility company website for Direct Debit, or she has someone do it for her via the app before she goes on to be racist on Facebook.

This is the same way for blue collar workers. They in-fact - must have debit cards because they must have bank accounts to even get paid via PAYE and IR35 and thus pay taxes. While there are jobs outside of that, the people who work those jobs will be paid into bank accounts, and cash in hand jobs mean via PayPal or Venmo or some such that all also require bank accounts and KYC.

Hell, you can't even rent a place without showing them your bank statements, or straight up letting the letting agency login to your bank account via some third party data harvesting / "income analysis" tool so they can "confirm" your income and employment status. I had this exact thing demanded when I was looking for a place up and down the country just over half a year ago by every letting agency under the sun, from small to big, south to north.

Yes there are people without bank accounts, but it's usually only because they've either:

a) Just arrived and have no permanent address which is required to set up a bank account, meaning they have to pay rent upfront for 6mo to a year to avoid checks to even get an address, which they can't get because they can't get a job which again - requires a bank account - trapping them in a cycle of poverty unless they have savings in a foreign bank account with which to pay upfront rent Or: b) Are destitute and homeless, again - without a permanent address, which is required for a bank account.

The same goes for smartphones. You're not realistically gonna get a job without a smartphone.

Credit cards yes - most people do not use them, and their dominance as a default and even commonplace household usage as 'deficit spending' on Temu is most commonly a US phenomenon.

That's because debit cards are the default in the rest of the world - credit cards are not. Since everyone has a bank account and smartphone, most people pay with Google Pay via NFC on their phone anyway IRL, and many people shop online, which is the use of a debit card - paying for things.

As opposed to credit cards, which are seen as borrowing. Not that many people are keen to borrow money or engage in any finance that could be seen as "gambling", definitely least so the wagies, with the exception of some horse betting or memestocks or in the case of 100% brain use - a savings account at a bank or building society, all of which almost universally already require a bank account meaning a minimum of 2 apps.

I personally do have one but I'm in the minority.

You saying this interaction is pointless is very self-reporting, because you are essentially stating that you will not change your mind regardless of how many times and how much you are corrected.

It is an admission that your bizarre insistence that your experience is universal - as if you not knowing how things are in the rest of the world is some sort of attack on you - is in fact, terminal. I'm sorry for you.

I don't claim to know how things work in America, I've heard American colleagues say crazy stuff about how everything is tied to your credit ratings, which isn't the case here nearly as much, but I also don't claim that everything i know about my country - the UK - applies to the rest of the world, because of course it doesn't, I'm claiming that what you're saying - what might be true in your country - the US - is a universal worldwide experience.

I'm not sure what you expected claiming this in this international discussion on this international community on this international website on this international internet.