It’s a combination of factors. Having debt itself isn’t as important as payment history, age of accounts, etc. Credit card debt is probably the opposite of helpful; paying off a card every month in full for a long time is much more useful.

Always worth posting this classic.

Considering how many Americans have crippling credit card debt, especially poor people, would that be worse? I’m sure they’d still offer those credit builder cards with low limits that you have to deposit collateral for the limit.

The merchant is charged the fee, not you directly as the cardholder. It’s already figured into the price if they accept cards.

I don’t think this individual understands what a hobby is. Your job by definition is not a hobby.

This reminds me of a person I worked with who would wait until the evening to reply to most emails. I assumed this was so at every morning standup they could say they were waiting on someone else to get back on something.