Why use a free loan if I have the cash to cover expenses every month? Twice before I have forgotten that i charged something and got slapped with a $30 fee for late payment- luckily I called and got it removed. But I'd rather not have to keep up with it. Generally I take out a certain amount of cash for food and entertainment, so I only use the debit card for things out of the ordinary like an oil change every six months or if something else comes up. I also use it for monthly bills like cable, car, and insurance. The credit card is really just for large online purchases.
I love using my cc. Between personal and business use I sometimes rack up close to $20k a month in charges which of course means 20k miles. I have never paid to travel internationally and I've travel a little bit.
Some stripper at Treasures started yelling at me for losing her vibrator so I cussed her out and told her to charge the stupid thing on my credit card. Two days later I got a call from my credit card company about a large purchase on my card in Houston at Best Buy, although I still had my card on me and I didn't make such a transaction. I informed my credit card company that it wasn't me, and they also reported another attempt for a large purchase that they didn't let go through. I know that b**** copied my card some how when she ran off with it just to screw me over.
Let your cash accrue some interest in a money market. It might not be much at the end of the month, but it's better than nothing. Add to that the rewards and cash back you can earn on CC purchases. I have my credit card on an automatic payment so I never have to worry about forgetting to pay my bill and getting additional late charges.
That's worth repeating. All things being equal, when I log into my CC or DC account, I'd much rather see that someone's charged $1000 on my CC than to have that $1000 missing from my bank acct.
Pretty surprised about a lot of responses in this thread. The article is basically advocating not using a debit card in situations where there is an increased chance you may be overcharged, a victim of fraud, or where the card leaves your sight. You use your credit card in those situations because it offers better consumer protection. If your debit card fraudulently compromised, or even merely overcharged mistakenly, your money is gone and it is a tougher/lengthier process to get back compared to a CC. My bank is actually now offering a fraud-protection debit account because so many people have been getting ripped off by ATM skimmers and at restaurants. It's basically a third account in addition to your checking and savings, and you just transfer small amounts of cash over to it from your checking whenever you know you are going to be using your debit account. That way your entire checking account isn't wiped out if you are a victim of fraud. I think the best practice is to use your debit card to get cash out of your ATM, or on smaller point-of-sale transactions where the card doesn't leave your sight.
Hmm..didn't know about these things. Now I might consider using my CC more. I use my Debit for most things, I've been lucky so far.
Is this chick the Hunter Thompson of personal finance, just makin' **** up to piss people off? Half the freaking stores I see don't take personal checks anymore. And not everyone in the world can get or use credit, or even wants to with 30% APRs, $100 annual fees, $10 monthly "maintenance" fees, $7.00 online payment fees et al. Some people actually like tracking their fixed expenses by taking it directly out of their checking account. Jesus Mc****stick.
I have my credit card account set to pay off the balance every month automatically, so there's no risk of late payment. And if I were paying cash for everything, I would be keeping track of it in my checking/savings anyway, so I don't look at it as extra work. Over the course of the year, I don't make very much on the extra month of float, but its better than nothing. Another option would be to use AMEX, where you can't carry a balance. I generally use AMEX for business travel, and get some decent rewards.
i don't know what world you live in where you only can have CCs that charge those fees. There are hundreds of fee free cards. as for the APR, it's irrelevant if you pay off the whole balance every month. You're already using cash with your debit. what's so hard about saving that cash to pay off the CC when the bill comes around? the downside i can see is that it is easy for someone who isn't disciplined with their money to get into huge debt if they rack up charges and only pay a portion of it.
One thing to consider, at least for small local businesses that you might like, is that credit card companies charge businesses more than debit cards. For places I go to a lot and like to help out a little, I try to pay cash if there is an ATM in walking distance, otherwise I use debit cards. For big box stores, gas stations, etc I usually use credit.
