Europe and a splitted continent due to the cold war? How many europeans said the same thing to you before?
And if "almost nobody has [a credit card] in eastern europe" is true, germany is then an eastern europe country?
And if the size matters, I'd be really interested in what's used most frequently in russia and china.

What I tried to point out is: not having a credit card is not a personal thing, at least in some regions. Someone who grew up in the states would say "everyone has a credit card (and everyone else should get one)", while people who grew up in different countries could say other things, like "there are people around who have one (but I don't have one, since I don't need one)", or "nobody has a credit card (and you can't even use them, so why bother?)".