I'm surprised you haven't heard of them. I'm still paranoid enough about online security not to consider paying by providing numbers over the Internet. Regarding credit cards, you've got me riled. I resent having companies try to coerce people into using a financial medium that principally is a benefit to them and not necessarily to me, the customer, just as I resent the U.S. government allocating the federal tax on long distance telephone calls to military expenditures without ever asking me if I want that money spent on guns and armies. The celebrated 'float' that is often touted as a benefit to credit-users is at least partially illusory.
Credit imposes a hidden tax.
Credit cards allow tracking of your individual expenditures. I object to having my expenditures tracked on general privacy grounds. I do not want my purchasing patterns analysed by 'data miners' or other unknown agents in order to try to target market to me, or for any other purpose for that matter. With credit, it is all too easy to spend money you haven't earned yet. With personal and corporate bankruptcy rates reaching historical highs this year, that may be something worth thinking about.