[mrsD]

Why the absolute refusal for a credit card?

Is it because you think it will be stolen...used without your permission?

Or do you not trust yourself ( I know this is embarassing to ask)

If it is the former...let me offer this experience.

We have one Visa that we only use on the internet. I have used it to buy music CDs from Britain and it worked very well.
In the several years we have used it...on many sites, there has never been a theft. But then we only use it on secured places.
Visa has a guarantee that any fraud purchase is quickly refunded.

My son years ago bought something from a "person" with his Capitol one card.
That person did steal the number for use at a porn site. He just called them up and all purchases were refunded that were fraudently done. No fights, nada. That was his only experience, so now he knows to use only secured places.

If you got a Visa to only use the way we do carefully, it is easy to track, and very refundable. It would solve the whole problem and secure for you what you need at a very low price, with little effort. So basically that is what I would do. Use a Visa.

We are not big credit card users. Emergency car repairs is the most I've done on them. We use two rebate Visa cards now locally, and pay them off each month and get rebates on them besides. It takes some discipline, but now it is working for us. Each one is sponsored from a discount club, so their rebates pay for the membership plus more for us.

I don't know how Aussies do their laws however, but I would expect Visa to have similar rules across the board. That is just my 2 cents.

If you have "credit" issues, there are cards now that YOU pay into, like a bank and then use to buy things. I wonder if you have
those there down under? They are really handy. That way you really control how much is available to spend if you worry about theft.