cash or credit

[ktheodos]

I do not like to carry cash anymore. I feel safer carrying wround my credit cards than a pocket full of money.
people these days rob and steal. I know at least if my purse is stolen and Im carrying cards if anything happens I can file a claim with my bank and I dont end up losing money.

Same here....if it's a small amount, I'll pay with cash sometimes, but usually it's CC....I'm responsible and can pay bills

[elandry]

Cash for purchases under 50.00, debit card for over 50-- I don't have credit cards. Thanks to my divorce, my credit is so bad bankruptcy would only improve it 

[kimberlymgiles]

I prefer cash over credit.

[ben50]

cash

[bholmes618]

I use credit for the cash rewards but pay off each month so interest doesn't cancel or outweigh the benefits of the rewards program.  Keep up with the total just as though I were using cash.  Read an article today that those who use credit cards instead of cash usually spend twice as much -  the exact reason I keep a running total in a checkbook register as though it were cash.  I can see where it would be way to easy to overspend using a card. 

[hawkeye3210]

I use a credit card for almost all purchases. It's simple and nice to get something back for the purchases I was going to make anyways.

[snowwmann5]

So yea credit will get you in serious trouble. Trust me I use to charge everything. Kinda caught up with me. Of course I enjoyed all the goodies I was getting. Then boom all of a sudden yea the bills came rolling in lol..

[southernhorizons]

I use cash when I make physical purchases at stores, and debit cards for online purchases. People think they are doing good with credit cards because of the cash back, but sooner or later they will forget or be unable to pay a bill on time, and then they'll end up paying more than what they get back, as well as start getting into debt which will be very hard to get out of. I have two debit cards that give me cash back for purchases, so I can remain debt free and get bonuses!

No, forgetting or unable to pay a bill doesn't happen to everybody, it hasn't happened to me in over 30 years.  I check my credit card on line and pay on line directly from my bank account 2 or 3 times a month.  I don't just pay the amount necessary to prevent interest charges, I pay the full amount, so I'm always ahead of the game.

I use the Discover card, and I use it for every possible purchase.  Right now they have a special deal where you get 5% cash back for gasoline purchases, that gets me at least $10 a month cash back for fuel purchases for 3 months.  In September I'll have to pay city taxes for my own rental property and one of my brother's rental properties that I manage.  That city accepts the Discover card and the total taxes will be over $2000.  Even at 1% cash back, that will add another $20 to my September reward.  If I go on vacation, I charge everything, airline tickets, hotels, car rentals, meals, gasoline and all other purchases.  I use that card for everything, appliances, electronics, furniture, groceries, I even tried to use it to help pay for cars, but they wouldn't accept a credit card for a car purchase.  There have been months (not very many) when I made over $100 on cash back bonuses.  Of course it makes it easier if you have a comfortable limit on your card, Discover allows me a limit of $12,700, my Visa allows me a limit of $12,000, but I only use my Visa when there are purchases that don't accept Discover.  

You're one of the rare ones for sure. You obviously have a comfortable income, if you're not actually wealthy, so it's probably easier for you to stay on top of things. But for a lot of people, who live in less affluent circumstances, having a credit card is the beginning of a downward spiral. Actually if you listen to Dave Ramsey's show, he can tell a ton of stories about people getting into crushing debt even with large incomes.

You're making a few presumptous assumptions, it's not a matter of wealth, it's a matter of life-style choices.

No, I'm not wealthy, absolutely not, if I were wealthy, I wouldn't be on this site for a few extra bucks.  As I said in another posting, I retired at age 57, live off of my military retirement pay (US Army), rental income from my second property and my wife has a part time job, even though I made it clear to her that she didn't need to work.  My income is maybe average, probably even modest, however, I don't have any rental payments, mortgage payments, own two cars without any car payments, and have no other debts.  I don't know who Dave Ramsey is because I don't use any TV service provider, I get my news on the internet, TV here in the US drove me crazy anyway because there's 18 minutes of TV and 12 minutes of commercials.  I don't have a phone, I use Magic Jack, I don't need a cell phone.  We, myself and my wife, only use our clothes dryer in emergencies, we hang up our clothes to dry.  We usually don't use our dishwasher, we wash by hand.  We only use our air conditioner when it gets really uncomfortable, this year I could hear our neighbor's air conditioners on for over a month before we started using ours.  My electical bill is 1/4 to 1/2 of what my neighbors pay and my water bill is about half, and, yes, we shower every day.  Guess what kind of financial attitude allowed me to pay off 2 mortages and pay cash for 2 cars that put me in this financial position in the first place?  I really never found it that hard to do, even with a modest income.

You might not have any idea of how little money you need on a monthly basis when you have no home, car or debt payments.  I suppose my wife and I are unusual, I know we're unusual for the US.  She's European and I've lived over there for many, many years.  People over there are just more frugal than people in the US, although I find the life-style much more comfortable in Europe than it is here in the US.  As far as I'm concerned you people just waste money over here, you make the wrong financial choices and then you cry about your debts.  However, in spite of a modest income, we're able to save at least $1000 a month, some months we can set aside over $2000.

For someone who never heard of Dave Ramsey, you follow his principles pretty well! (He has a radio show, by the way, not a TV show. Also, he doesn't like credit cards.)
Congratulations on being debt free, yes it is unusual for the US. It is also unusual to be able to buy a house and cars without getting into debt, at least on the income of many working families. I suppose in Europe people have to be more frugal, because the government takes most of their money for taxes. But in the US people have a much more spendthrift attitude as a whole.
By the way, I don't have any debts either, and I don't have TV, or air conditioning. But I could never save $1000, and certainly not $2000 a month, because I don't even earn $2000 a month, especially not after taxes, and that's working full time! So compared to my income, and that of many people in this area, you are doing really well financially. I do try to save what I can. I was brought up very frugally, in a large family, and still live that way. But it does take a certain income to be able to live debt free with enough spare cash to save a lot of money, as well as buy what you want when you want. So even if you aren't rich, you are doing very well (albeit by hard work and frugality), and don't look down on other people.

[lorettahknox]

I don't think that credit cards are bad. I think the abuse of credit cards are! Credit cards make some people forget that they are dealing with limits financially. They make you feel like you can have anything you want and you can't unless you are someone like Oprah or Bill Gates. I say just have one. One is enough of a headache and watch those sneaky spendthrift mates who open credit on your name without telling you. Be careful because credit is two-faced it can be your best friend or you worst enemy.

[alaric99x]

To southernhorizons:

I would never look down on a person like you, I don't know enough about you and I truly hope your financial circumstances become much better in the future.  I was talking about some of my neighbors where I live.  I mean the ones who leave all their outside lights on all night and, when we compare electrical bills, find that theirs is 3 times as high as mine.  No idea about what they do inside their homes but, considering their bills, it must be just as wasteful.  Some who have 2 cars and a pick-up truck, none of which are paid for, a cell phone for husband, wife and 2 of the kids.  Credit card debt with enormous interest payments, and then they cry about the fact that they don't make enough money to live from month to month, even though the husband and wife both work.

As for me, yes, I had to work pretty hard in the Army, and we put in some pretty long hours, but, like I said, I don't work anymore.  I'll give myself credit for that and for the fact that I've been very financially responsible my whole life.  As far as my present circumstances, I'm just a fortunate beneficiary of fortuitous circumstances.  My brother, in Germany, wanted to open a second business and he asked me to come over and manage his first business, a bowling center, and he paid me a generous salary.  I rented out the townhouse where I lived and I didn't need the rent money or my military retirement pay over in Germany.  Rent is cheaper over there and I was able to shop at a nearby US commissary and PX where prices were about 60% of what they are on the German economy, so I ended up with hundreds of dollars left over every month, in spite of the fact that I traveled all over Europe and was living pretty well over there.  Additionally, the business paid for my car, car repairs and my cell phone.  That all left me with a good amount of monthly cash that I didn't need for anything else so I was able to pay off the remainder of my first mortgage in just a little over 2 years.  Now I had that rent, retirement pay and extra from my job, so I was able to accumulate over $50,000 in about 2 years.  With that, I flew back to the US and used most of it as a down payment on a second townhouse, which I immediately rented out.  Of course, now I had 2 rents, retirement pay and extra money from my job in Germany, it wasn't any great challenge to pay off that second mortgage in less that 5 years.  Now, for my remaining (almost) 3 years in Germany, that income just accumulated.  I don't need to tell you how much money can pile up if you have several thousand dollars every month that you don't need to use.  Knowing that I was coming back to the US, I didn't buy a 3rd property, but it wasn't any problem to pay cash for 2 cars, put in about $30,000 for maintenance and improvements on my properties, buy some furniture, a desk top computer, 2 laptops and all electrical appliances and still have a comfortable amount of money left over.  (I had to leave all my electrical appliances in Germany, they're useless here, they have 220V over there and it's 110V here.)

So you see, there's no wizardry here, these are all things that fall into the category of those things that "any dam fool can accomplish."  I just got lucky with these circumstances, and I truly wish the same luck for you.    

[alaric99x]

I use cash when I make physical purchases at stores, and debit cards for online purchases. People think they are doing good with credit cards because of the cash back, but sooner or later they will forget or be unable to pay a bill on time, and then they'll end up paying more than what they get back, as well as start getting into debt which will be very hard to get out of. I have two debit cards that give me cash back for purchases, so I can remain debt free and get bonuses!

No, forgetting or unable to pay a bill doesn't happen to everybody, it hasn't happened to me in over 30 years.  I check my credit card on line and pay on line directly from my bank account 2 or 3 times a month.  I don't just pay the amount necessary to prevent interest charges, I pay the full amount, so I'm always ahead of the game.

I use the Discover card, and I use it for every possible purchase.  Right now they have a special deal where you get 5% cash back for gasoline purchases, that gets me at least $10 a month cash back for fuel purchases for 3 months.  In September I'll have to pay city taxes for my own rental property and one of my brother's rental properties that I manage.  That city accepts the Discover card and the total taxes will be over $2000.  Even at 1% cash back, that will add another $20 to my September reward.  If I go on vacation, I charge everything, airline tickets, hotels, car rentals, meals, gasoline and all other purchases.  I use that card for everything, appliances, electronics, furniture, groceries, I even tried to use it to help pay for cars, but they wouldn't accept a credit card for a car purchase.  There have been months (not very many) when I made over $100 on cash back bonuses.  Of course it makes it easier if you have a comfortable limit on your card, Discover allows me a limit of $12,700, my Visa allows me a limit of $12,000, but I only use my Visa when there are purchases that don't accept Discover.  

You're one of the rare ones for sure. You obviously have a comfortable income, if you're not actually wealthy, so it's probably easier for you to stay on top of things. But for a lot of people, who live in less affluent circumstances, having a credit card is the beginning of a downward spiral. Actually if you listen to Dave Ramsey's show, he can tell a ton of stories about people getting into crushing debt even with large incomes.

You're making a few presumptous assumptions, it's not a matter of wealth, it's a matter of life-style choices.

No, I'm not wealthy, absolutely not, if I were wealthy, I wouldn't be on this site for a few extra bucks.  As I said in another posting, I retired at age 57, live off of my military retirement pay (US Army), rental income from my second property and my wife has a part time job, even though I made it clear to her that she didn't need to work.  My income is maybe average, probably even modest, however, I don't have any rental payments, mortgage payments, own two cars without any car payments, and have no other debts.  I don't know who Dave Ramsey is because I don't use any TV service provider, I get my news on the internet, TV here in the US drove me crazy anyway because there's 18 minutes of TV and 12 minutes of commercials.  I don't have a phone, I use Magic Jack, I don't need a cell phone.  We, myself and my wife, only use our clothes dryer in emergencies, we hang up our clothes to dry.  We usually don't use our dishwasher, we wash by hand.  We only use our air conditioner when it gets really uncomfortable, this year I could hear our neighbor's air conditioners on for over a month before we started using ours.  My electical bill is 1/4 to 1/2 of what my neighbors pay and my water bill is about half, and, yes, we shower every day.  Guess what kind of financial attitude allowed me to pay off 2 mortages and pay cash for 2 cars that put me in this financial position in the first place?  I really never found it that hard to do, even with a modest income.

You might not have any idea of how little money you need on a monthly basis when you have no home, car or debt payments.  I suppose my wife and I are unusual, I know we're unusual for the US.  She's European and I've lived over there for many, many years.  People over there are just more frugal than people in the US, although I find the life-style much more comfortable in Europe than it is here in the US.  As far as I'm concerned you people just waste money over here, you make the wrong financial choices and then you cry about your debts.  However, in spite of a modest income, we're able to save at least $1000 a month, some months we can set aside over $2000.

For someone who never heard of Dave Ramsey, you follow his principles pretty well! (He has a radio show, by the way, not a TV show. Also, he doesn't like credit cards.)
Congratulations on being debt free, yes it is unusual for the US. It is also unusual to be able to buy a house and cars without getting into debt, at least on the income of many working families. I suppose in Europe people have to be more frugal, because the government takes most of their money for taxes. But in the US people have a much more spendthrift attitude as a whole.
By the way, I don't have any debts either, and I don't have TV, or air conditioning. But I could never save $1000, and certainly not $2000 a month, because I don't even earn $2000 a month, especially not after taxes, and that's working full time! So compared to my income, and that of many people in this area, you are doing really well financially. I do try to save what I can. I was brought up very frugally, in a large family, and still live that way. But it does take a certain income to be able to live debt free with enough spare cash to save a lot of money, as well as buy what you want when you want. So even if you aren't rich, you are doing very well (albeit by hard work and frugality), and don't look down on other people.

Taxes are higher all across Europe.  I only have direct knowledge of taxes in Germany.  Sales tax is 19% for every purchase.  Gasoline and diesel includes a number of taxes.  Many years ago the Green Party managed to get support of an ecological tax on gas and diesel in order to try to discourage people from driving so much.  That tax is then applied to social security funds.  That's kind of strange because taxes in one area are usually related, so fuel taxes would normally be applied to highway maintenance.  Anyway, after several other taxes on fuel, they apply the 19% sales tax, so you're effectively paying sales tax on other taxes that you've already paid.  As a result of all these taxes, gasoline costs about twice as much as it does here in the US.

There are economic and mathematical facts that govern the reality of taxation.  Obviously, governments need to tax in order to maintain infrastructure, government services and to pay off all the crooked politicians.  However, taxation is a very fine and complex science, if you tax too much, you'll drive too many people into cheating on taxes.  If a government raises taxes by 5%, they might find that they collect 3% more revenue, raise tax by 5% more and there might be only 1% more revenue collected, now raise tax by 5% more and suddenly there's 3% less revenue collected.  There's a mathematical curve that governs this phenomenon, and it's modified by the natural resource situation, social, cultural and political factors, etc. etc., but, basically, a government will suddenly end up collecting less tax revenue because so many people have been driven to cheat on taxes.  This is the situation in Germany where cheating on taxes is extremely common.

In my job in Germany my pay, car, cell phone bill, meals and travel would have amounted to about $6500 per month in pay and benefits.  We reported a monthly pay of about $1000 to the Finanzamt (tax authority).  That's an absolutely ridiculous salary for a general manager of a business, and I'm sure the Finanzamt knew that very well.  But my brother has been managing businesses in Germany for well over 30 years and he knew very well that the Finanzamt doesn't spend time and resources going after families and relatives, the success rate for prosecution is almost nonexistent.  My brother paid the majority of my salary "under the table."  Still, on that $1000 of reported salary, I paid 34% in taxes, so out of my gross pay of $1000 I was making $660.  If we had reported my actual salary, the tax on that would have been well over 50%.

I had to learn this the first week I was there.  We had people come around the business for maintenance and repair work, they would ask if the work would be paid with or without a receipt.  With a receipt meant that you paid the 19% tax, without receipt meant no tax and the workers and business both profited from the 19%.  It's a completely normal way of doing business in Germany, at least 75% of the work done in my brother's business was done without a receipt, you just pay directly with cash.  We did that with car repairs, work in our homes and apartments, actually everything possible.  I had a Russian guy install a dish and receiver in my apartment and got a few hundred channels of British, German and Russian (for my wife) TV and never had to pay any bills.  It might sound kind of criminal, and, of course, it was, but that's just the normal way of living in Germany, it's even more extreme in many other countries in Europe.

What was that saying?  "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."    

[emily01]

Cash

[Griselda93]

I use to carry cash on me all the time till i got my debit card. Ive notice that i spend less with my card then with cash because I'm constantly limiting myself on the amount i spend then when i actually had cash on hand. Having dollar bills made me think it was ok to spend it just cause it was a small amount. But i remember when i had my hundred bills I wouldnt even touch it cause i wouldnt want to break it. Using a Credit card is good but you allways have to limit yourself. Just dont spend money that you dont have or you think cant afford later on.

[kewl4reals]

i use cash to pay for everything i have a prepaid credit card so i never go over the limit my ex put me in deep when we got divorsed thats why i won't have any regular credit cards plus i remember growing up mom and dad always told us if you can pay ofr it you don't get it

i also believe in cash instead of credit.  Because credit can totally RUIN a persons life for a long time if they get trapped in the spider web that is credit cards

[jowbow]

Debit Card.  Trying to pay off all my credit cards so i can CUT them up.  I am tired of the banks making more money off of me then they need too.