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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2026
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For anyone that doesn't know, currently because of stuff like this, people in Australia can't even access their Steam games that they've already bought unless they have a credit card, which I've learned most people over there don't. Valve isn't allowing the third-party 'steal your data' options like face scan and government ID, so Australian folk without a CC are out of luck.
Australians, please fight back against these anti-privacy laws. If these are successful, they'll come to other countries.
You are completely wrong.
Credit cards are very common here. Also, I don't have a credit card and I haven't lost access to any of my steam games.
I've played games like Wuthering Waves and VPN'd to America and the game has asked me to verify my age then I've disabled the VPN and started the game again and magically it's not now.
I'll chime in to say that I'm an Australian and on the flipside I don't know anyone with an actual credit card (not debit). So yeah you're also making a sweeping generalisation.
Also none of my debit cards work around the steam requirements, it depends on which bank you're with.
I don't know what to tell you, I got my information from an Australian, and everything I've seen online confirms this.
I’m an Australian
I don’t know an adult Australian who doesn’t at least have a Visa debit card, which more or less functions as the same.
Many use EFTPOS (and quite frankly our government should move that to a credit payment facility so we can ditch the American ones) but what that Aussie told you is not correct; in fact most of the larger retailers are pushing for cashless transactions.
But a debit card explicitly isn't a credit card, which is what's being talked about here
It uses the same function and the point stands…most Australians use a credit card or BNPL which is essentially the same.
Are you sure that a Visa debit card is a credit card? I ask because in Canada we also have those (I have one) and it is specifically not a credit card. Rather, it is a debit card that is sometimes accepted by systems that ask for a credit card.
It uses the same function and process as credit. Besides which, most Australians have a credit card of some form anyway.
Visa debit cards are accepted by Steam's payment system and can be used for age verification.
Thank you for some further explanation.
Regardless of this, I believe these changes should be protested. None of this is ever looking out for children, and I'm sure if stuff like this succeeds over there, it'll just be a matter of time before we've got the same thing in the Americas.
I will say, as is alluded by discussion further on, there is a big lean from many toward Visa debit because it uses existing funds. Most I know who are working and even a few not working maintain credit cards however.
Or BNPL; I actually prefer it because there’s no maintaining credit fees and I can maintain it well enough.
It really depends on which Australia you qualify in. I’m in the B team so credit offerings aren’t something I’m really a part of, aside from BNPL. Many Aussies who ‘own’ homes run most of their lives through credit cards and home loan equity.
I'd wager this person who spoke about it to me is on the younger side - probably early 20s, so some more of this is making sense.
I also believe Steam doesn't allow Visa Debit - at least, it doesn't here, so perhaps it's the same over there.
I believe it does, in fact I can find out for sure because my son is on Steam I believe, and runs Visa debit
I’ll go ask him
Edit: yes he does and yes he adds funds to his Steam account using his Visa debit card
Glad I could help here ay, most of the time I’m fairly useless
Appreciate it, thanks for checking!
Total tangent here... austrailians don't have credit cards? Tell me more, I am very curious.
Not in the same sense as North America. We have debit cards tied to bank accounts with a similar functionality as a credit card, but they often don't work at a negative balance. No one I know has a debit card that functions the same as a North American credit card. (I'm a Canadian living in Australia.)
I have a MasterCard debit card, but it doesn't work as an age verification for Steam.
Credit cards are mostly a US thing. Most other places you just use debit cards.
Credit cards are of course used worldwide but most people don't own one and those who do use it rarely, since why would you borrow money to pay for something unless it's an emergency or some big / long term thing (at which point an actual loan is probably better, so again CC not needed).
what ? im Aussie and im 60 I've been using credit cards as an Aussie for 35 years or so.
I don't know anyone who doesn't have a credit card, i have 3 with a $0 balance that are paid off automatically monthly (I use 1 exclusively and the others are backups). I earn a extra month of income in a HISA and get JB HiFi and Woolies/Coles gift cards as rewards. I also have 5 debit cards because they give them out like candy every time you open an account somewhere and never use any of them at all, aside from one occasionally at the ATM.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/150?g=369
I said "mostly a US thing" for a reason! Australia is definitely one of places where credit cards are more common. Still, from what I checked now, only around 50% of adults in Australia own a credit card, let alone use one.
In US they are popular becase they give lots of rewards (which may be the case in Australia, you definitely know better than me). These rewards come from charging credit card fees to merchants. In the EU the law protects merchants from unreasonable credit card fees, and without charging fees, there are no rewards. And without rewards, there is no point in using a credit card day to day - leaving it only for emergencies, etc.
As you said, you use it because you get nice rewards for it, which makes sense. These comes from the credit card companies fleecing sellers. In countries where the law prevents that, it just isn't a thing.
Debit cards make sense. Though I would expect those to be usable as CCs for the verification part.
I'm not sure the reason, but my guess is that a child can own a debit card, but can't own a credit card.
At least in my corner of the world, debit cards can be used anywhere online that requires credit cards, but at least some banks disable it by default so you have to enable online payments. 15 -20 years ago it was different and you HAD to have a credit card to buy shit off Amazon or Steam so most kids couldn't get shit.
I'm not an expert, I'm just being told this from an Australian. They do have credit cards, but it's not as much a necessity to do things as it is in North America. So, from what I'm told, a lot of adults don't have one.
Australians absolutely have credit cards. The previous poster seems to be getting their information from a single Aussie.
I couldn't find numbers specifically for the percentage of people who have at least one card, but the total number of CC accounts indicates that it's likely that the majority of working adults have one. That being said, credit card usage is low compared to other countries, I suspect because the government made the banks get together and create a universal electronic payment network in the 1980s, and we've all been used to paying virtually anywhere with our regular ATM cards, direct from our normal bank accounts, for decades. Credit cards are primarily used for, y'know, credit, and not just everyday transactions.
And for all the talk of the credit card companies, my personal experience with online payment processors has been that they often won't accept Cirrus or VISA Debit cards, or at least not cards issued outside their own country. So online shopping can be difficult without a credit card.
I just want to be clear, what my post meant to say is that it's (apparently) not as common to use a credit card like you would in North America (basically a necessity if you want to get a car, apartment house, etc).
This person that I got the information from was very up in arms about this, so I'm not sure why they would lie about this. Again, I looked this up after. You can find posts about people discussing this very issue from a month ago.
My whole point wasn't even about the credit cards. It's about the anti-privacy laws.
im an Aussie and I don't know anyone who is an adult with a job who doesn't have a credit card. I mean it doesn't come up in conversation that often, so I am sure there are folks i know without one though.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/150?g=369