The Cashless Society Is Here......

[Murphy Slaw]

We had a real bad ice storm here several years back. The power was out, and the cell phone towers were also froze up for several days with no service.

The stores who could get people to them, and Mom and Pops, were open on a limited basis with poor lighting.

Your plastic and your phone wouldn't work.

Cash only.

I think during any emergency situation there are a lot of "I don't use cash" people going without toilet paper.

[jhmulkey]

Who wants to deal with bills and change and going to the ATM or the bank when it's so easy to pay with a card? Then you've got people wanting to pay for small charges with 50s and 100s

[ahorsewithnonam]

Rarely have much cash on me. I travel a lot for business. Not taking a chance on losing a wad of cash. Wife was the opposite until her purse was stolen a few years ago. Cash lost or stolen is gone forever.

I use my Southwest CC for everything. We rarely have to pay for airline tickets due to the points!

Just because you use a cc doesn’t mean you have debt. I have zero debt.

[Mr. Jelly]

I also love the accounting of your purchases with CCs. The protection with CCs is nice to have. Whenever I use my card in an odd way I get a txt to stop it if I didn't charge it. Seriously though for two of us we get over $1,000 a year in cash back. So for you guys that aren't doing it you can just figure you're pissing that down the drain. Use a charge card for a couple of years and buy a new D-18 or whatever. But if you don't want to do it it's fie by me

[Tico]

The main reason I use cash whenever possible is I don't trust big data spying on me.
Then there are the hackers.

[Neil K Walk]

We primarily use one credit card for all our purchases. Very rarely do we use cash except for small incidental expenses such as parking fees.

My wife worked as IT support at our bank for over 10’years. If she didn’t have a problem with it then neither did I.

By the way, I’ve heard of these rewards but my wife (being the sole provider of our family) gets to reap the rewards. Conversely, she also gets a text message from our credit card whenever I make an online purchase.

[Scott O]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

. I'll trust a CC company with protecting me when a certain mythical place freezes over.

Yo, you talkin smack about New Jersey!?!?!

[Tenzin]

I'm 53 and didn't have a personal credit card until last year. (I was an executive for a bunch of years and had a corporate card for travel and taking clients out.)

We only took out a couple of thousand dollar loan for any of our cars (which we paid off way before its time). We were fortunate enough to pay off our mortgage about ten years early. Do you know what happened? Our credit score dropped about 100 points (still in the 750s) because we didn't have any old credit.

Do debt, money in the kids 529 accounts and retirement accounts and my credit score drops.

I told my daughter that it's ok with me if she dates a drug dealer, just not a banker.

[Tico]

No. it's not here.
Not yet.

[philjs]

Originally Posted by rmyAddison

Change is inevitable...

Not if you use a credit or debit card!

Phil

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by Tico

No. it's not here.
Not yet.

I don't know, this thread kind of proves that it pretty much is.

I didn't count, but I'm going to say the majority of responses are "I don't use cash"

I only use plastic for occasional meals and internet and travel. But not always travel.

I prefer cash.

Anonymous.

Zero data.

[RedJoker]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Anonymous.

Zero data.

This gave me a chuckle. Right after these two lines are links to your YouTube and SoundCloud. I know that's not what you meant, though.

[imwjl]

Yes, the thoughts so many have about privacy are silly.

-Your cel phone provider tracks you by law.
-Law enforcement agencies all over the US have the systems where the police car behind you is reading your lic plate.
-Look at the cameras at intersections and highway ramps.
-Your ISP tracks you.
-Do you think your utility doesn't know a thing or two?
-This forum is social media and easy to capture.

And daily I face misguided or the daft who won't use the contactless payment systems that also do not give the merchant your card number.

If you're late middle age or middle age you probably spent years where your social security number was your school ID or maybe your insurance and health care ID.

Do you vote? That means any one of us could find out where a lot of people were and what they did Tuesday.

I know some who have businesses and do work that does mean a lot of cash handling. That's a red flag when they do their banking and very likely puts you at greater risk for an audit.

I'm not sure there was so much privacy in the 1960s. When I was 10 years old the police and sheriff came to our door to get me because several people saw me riding a green bicycle. Fortunately the kid who got beat up by someone on a green bicycle was honest because it wasn't me.

As for cash in an earlier era, I was an entrepreneurial teen and recall the bank tellers gossip and wonder if the cash from my painting and metals recycling was drug dealing.

Just live.

[PorkPieGuy]

Besides paying our monthly bills and utilities online, our family uses cash for almost everything. We do a cash/envelope system. One envelope for groceries, one for gas in the cars, etc. Instead of constantly checking bank statements online and swiping cards, we simply stop buying things when the cash runs out. Cash is still king in my house. If my money is no good at one place, I'll go somewhere else.

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

I carry very little cash. I use a debit card for most things. I cut up my last credit card in 2000. I do not miss it. Other than student loan I have no debt. I do not plan on ever having any.

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

I never let anyone auto-debit my bank account. If that credit card company gets hacked the hackers will have your account information including routing numbers. Consumer protection, yeah right. I'll trust a CC company with protecting me when a certain mythical place freezes over.

Try renting a car (specially outside the country) with a debit card! Gas stations often put a $200 'hold' on a card when you use them, it takes a few days to come off some times. You could find yourself with a debit card you can't use until it has cleared.
No debt = no credit = lousy credit score. When you decide you DO need a loan (house mortgage? car loan?), you could pay a higher % because of that.
I've had a debit card 'hacked' (in Mexico). It was a royal PITA to deal with (big multi-national bank). Had credit card hacked a couple of times, and the whole process is so easy to take care of - one phone call, sometimes a letter to sign off, but never any 'stops' or 'holds' on the account after the new card is issued.

Originally Posted by robj144

I've been doing it for 15 years without problems and I've gotten probably close to $10,000 back in rewards during that time. In fact, in the last year and a half, I have about $1,500 in rewards.

But, you do whatever you want.

Assuming you've got a generous 2% 'cash back', you've charged $75,000 on that card in 18 months?