Remember old days of cash only

debodun said:
Credit cards open you up to identity theft. I only pay with cash or check (cheque). I found out that my aunt had a CC and ran up a huge debt (+$40K) before she passed. What a can of worms settling her estate. I'm not sure she understood the concept that she had to pay it back at some point.
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You're at greater identity risk with checks, because they include your account number, name, address and phone number. Not to mention if someone writes a phony check or otherwise withdraws against your account, good luck getting the bank to reimburse you - because they rarely will.

On the other hand, CC fraud is virtually always covered 100%.

As soon as we added CCs, we stopped taking checks at our business because it was such a hassle to chase bad checks. Cash or CC only unless we knew the customers very, very well.

Here's a laugher - occasionally people would try to pay with a CC that got declined, then another CC - another decline. Then they'd whip out a checkbook, thinking they'd pay by check. Ummm. no thanks. I'd offer to hold their order until the end of the day. They could go to their bank or ATM for cash, then return and pay me. Some did, some didn't.

@debodun, your aunt had a spending problem. Credit cards may have facilitated it, but they weren't to blame for her financial issues. It's like blaming a (properly calibrated) oven for inedible results when the fault clearly lies with the baker rather than the oven.

CCs are a tool that can be used wisely or not.
 

Our son has my bank card, he shops for us. He does so much for us and never takes a penny. Today I wanted to write a check, my handwriting is the pits (people used to tell me I had a beautiful handwriting) I couldn't write legibly and had to get DH to write it for me!
 
Packerjohn said:
I like to pay with cash. Credit card debt is sky-rocketing in Canada. Young folks are crying the blues about the debt they have accumulated. Not me! I am debt free and enjoying my life from that aspect.
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You paying with cash isn’t going to change anything with those that overspend on their cards.

These young people need a basic education on finances.
 
Packerjohn said:
I like to pay with cash. Credit card debt is sky-rocketing in Canada. Young folks are crying the blues about the debt they have accumulated. Not me! I am debt free and enjoying my life from that aspect.
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I use my CC cards most of the time except my little cash purchases).. and I am not in any debt .. I pay off my cards diligently every month.. or well before.

In this country a lot of people get into debt because bankruptcy much easier than it once was and not stigmatised as much as it once was either ..and so many people run up masses of debt, declare bankruptcy and begin again very quickly with all their previous CC debts wiped out...
 
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Marie5656 said:
I kind of remember that. On a different note...when I was younger, all the stores down town (Main Street) would close on Wednesday afternoons. Every week. I think I used to know the reason for this, but do not remember.
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All our town store s here used to close every Thursday afternoon. I worked in 3 of those stores when I was young, yet I never knew the reason for the 1/2 day. Mind you that's when the shops were closed on Sundays too
 
StarSong said:
I actually do better buying gasoline with a CC. It's still over $5.00/gallon here. Most stations charge an extra dime per gallon for CC. My Venture card gives me 2% back on all purchases, so more than that dime per gallon.
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OH wow !! Our fuel ( petrol/Diesel) prices are set at the pumps , whether you pay by Card or cash.. there's no discount... we're at an average of £6.57 a gallon currently, that's for unleaded which is the cheapest. Super unleaded , or diesel costs more.

It's expensive but thank God it's not at the price it rose to last year at £9 per gallon
 
hollydolly said:
OH wow !! Our fuel ( petrol/Diesel) prices are set at the pumps , whether you pay by Card or cash.. there's no discount... we're at an average of £6.57 a gallon currently, that's for unleaded which is the cheapest. Super unleaded , or diesel costs more.

It's expensive but thank God it's not at the price it rose to last year at £9 per gallon
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Ours went up to $6.00 at the high, dropped to the low $4.00 range, are now in the mid $5.00s, and their current trajectory is upward.

Despite what the CPI and other tortured economic statistics show about inflation, my utilities, groceries and other everyday expenses continue to increase apace.
 
When I commented to my DD I couldn’t understand why people will still be in one gas station when their price is $.10+ cents per litre higher. (~$.40/gal), her reply was she got money back on her CC. She’s so attuned to stopping at this chain, she’s never thought about the value of cash back may not always be the better option.

In the US, we stopped at cash only places because our CCs didn’t work in the gas stations pumps. One thing I noticed was people would put money down to pay and then they ended up buying something. It seemed like a good business plan for the gas station. It probably happens here too if people don’t use their card at the pump.
 
debodun said:
Credit cards open you up to identity theft. I only pay with cash or check (cheque). I found out that my aunt had a CC and ran up a huge debt (+$40K) before she passed. What a can of worms settling her estate. I'm not sure she understood the concept that she had to pay it back at some point.
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I can’t remember the last time I used a credit card, I pay using a debit card. Even bought a car with a debit card a couple of times.

The last time I used a cheque was about 3 years ago, it felt quite nostalgic. As I’d not written a cheque prior to that for about 25 years. About 3 years ago I sent someone a cheque in the US from here in the UK, to a woman with a small business who was doing some research for me and obtaining some documents. She said she had tried bank transfers from the UK before but her bank had reused, and she didn’t have a PayPal account.

I had to call my bank to make and send me a cheque book, which took a week to arrive. Then sent a cheque to the US that took a week to deliver. It felt as though I was stepping back into the middle ages.
 
hollydolly said:
All our town store s here used to close every Thursday afternoon. I worked in 3 of those stores when I was young, yet I never knew the reason for the 1/2 day. Mind you that's when the shops were closed on Sundays too
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When I was a kid, all the stores were open late on Thursday nights only, no other day had evening hours. Probably only till 8pm was considered late and of course, all businesses except for a very few were closed Sundays.
 
Pepper said:
When I was a kid, all the stores were open late on Thursday nights only, no other day had evening hours. Probably only till 8pm was considered late and of course, all businesses except for a very few were closed Sundays.
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I remember that... not sure if it was Thurs or another weekday, but there was one evening when they were all open late. Totally forgot about that until I read your post!
 
StarSong said:
I remember that... not sure if it was Thurs or another weekday, but there was one evening when they were all open late. Totally forgot about that until I read your post!
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The reason I'm absolutely sure it was Thursday is because the neighborhood bank was also open late, and to this day, all these years later still is.
 
mrstime said:
Our son has my bank card, he shops for us. He does so much for us and never takes a penny. Today I wanted to write a check, my handwriting is the pits (people used to tell me I had a beautiful handwriting) I couldn't write legibly and had to get DH to write it for me!
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It's nice to hear a nice story about a nice son. I bet he will never be on the 6 o'clock news where "other kind" of folks are talked about. Thanks for your input. It shows not everyone is sick, crazy or after money.
 
Pepper said:
The reason I'm absolutely sure it was Thursday is because the neighborhood bank was also open late, and to this day, all these years later still is.
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I believe you. My comment was that it could have been a different weekday in other areas. I definitely recall stores having evening hours one night a week though.
 
mrstime said:
Our son has my bank card, he shops for us. He does so much for us and never takes a penny. Today I wanted to write a check, my handwriting is the pits (people used to tell me I had a beautiful handwriting) I couldn't write legibly and had to get DH to write it for me!
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Same here. My handwriting and signature are getting pretty "scratchy. I have to write slower and be more deliberate to make it legible.
 

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