Cash Is King No More

Have never had the desire to get a debitcard; not that I don't have good control over how I spend my money, I just don't like them or the risk they pose to your bank account.
 

Your Medicare card has your SS number on it. Wish they would change that.
 

Son, $12,000 on just gas/groceries? Ouch! I'd be in the poor house. That $12,000 covers my gas, groceries and yearly maintenance on my co-op.
 
$12,000 a year on just gas/groceries? Ouch! $12,000 a year for me covers not only my gas and groceries, but the electric and yearly maintenance on my co-op.
 
Then how will you ever get a nice new Yeti?

Bass Pro Shops - Yeti Soft Side Cooler

What do you do - get one of those Styrofoam ones at Wal-Mart for $2.99? That's un-American!!! Come on - man up and put that $299.99 on your Visa ... :eek:nthego:

These things are great. Our Grandson plays fall baseball right now. They play double-headers every Saturday and Sunday. We pack our Yeti with stuff for sandwiches, drinks and goodies. Everything stay cold and fresh. BTW, we didn't buy ours. My wife won it buying a raffle ticket from the local firemen's association.
 
Every time you swipe your card (debit or credit) you expose all your personal information i.e. name, address, SS#, bank information,,,etc, to the world. You assume it is safe and no one will use it for nefarious purposes, but alas the mugger you need to worry about is NOT the stocking capped stalker creeping up behind you but the 18 YO Ukrainian sitting in his basement gathering all the bits and pieces of information he can to sell to other shady characters. It's a big business and no one and I include myself is safe from it.

I just try to remain as much off the grid as much as possible. I figure that if my wallet containing only $50, drivers license, and Medicare card is lost or stolen then it would be a small price to pay rather than draining my savings and entering my home stealing my safe and God forbid doing bodily harm. I read every day about another retail breach and security minded people saying, 'It is a fact of life that we all can't be entirely safe from fraud'. It's the attitude that they want you to accept and roll with the punches for convenience.

When and if I need to use my debit card I've taken the extreme step of scratching the swipe strip making it unreadable and forcing the clerk to enter my card # manually. They tell me to get a new card but they want the sale and enter it anyway. Ya I'll get right on that.


I pay an additional $25.00 per year on my homeowner's policy for up to $100,000.00 of identity theft protection against credit card fraud. My agent told me that by law, an individual is only responsible for the first $50.00 on any card that is used illegally. So, why do I need $100,000.00 worth of protection? I carry maybe 6-8 different credit cards, so the $25.00 makes sense, but if I am only responsible for the first $50.00 on each card, I don't think I need a $100,000.00 of coverage. I think this is done just to make the offer look attractive.

I use credit cards as much as possible to get hotel points. I have free flying being a former airline employee, but my kids don't, so I also collect frequent flyer miles and transfer the miles to their accounts, or I use the airline points to upgrade my free coach ticket. For those of us that do this, we know that we do get some nice rewards. Like on some months, Chase will offer an additional number of points for using the card at gas stations, food stores, departments stores and so on. Points can add up quickly.

It is just what anyone chooses to do. Pay cash, use a debit card, use a credit card or use a combination of cards and cash. It's all good.
 
Gee, I had never heard of the Yeti Coolers, they look very nice.

I use credit cards most of the time, only use the ones that offer benefits and pay them off each month, I have never used the debit option on my cards.
 
$12,000 a year on just gas/groceries? Ouch! $12,000 a year for me covers not only my gas and groceries, but the electric and yearly maintenance on my co-op.

I put $500 twice monthly in an envelope marked 'Discretionary' my wife and I use it throughout the month for, food, gas, dining out, gifts, trips to Costco for bulk items, small household repairs, drugs, clothing and any other normal item that your can't budget long term for. Each deposit we take what is left over and move it to an envelope marked 'Emergency' for larger maintenance or unplanned expenses such as an appliance replacement, yearly auto tags, medical co-pays, property taxes,,,etc. We had enough this summer to replace our front porch for $2,000, replace my 8 YO laptop, new printer, her cell phone - all in cash, not one item was bought with credit. I used the figure of $12,000 to gauge our every day living expenses. I don't know how much she has squirreled away but she always seems to have enough to cover the cost.

I've hopefully bought my last house and I pulled my last credit report/FICO score in Jun, the only thing that was negative was the lack of credit use, I scored an A+ on inquires '0' last one was late 2012, can't even remember what that was. Space rent, utilities (power, phone, internet, Netlfix), auto insurance are my only other expenses. I give my wife $400 and I put $400 a month in my personal sock to spend as we see fit. She gets a much smaller SS check than I but I figure she was there raising my kids, nursing me back to health after surgery and having chicken one day and feathers the next for the 45 years we have been married, I share my income 50/50 with her. She gets my SS and Pension after I pass. It's a team effort.
 
Your Medicare card has your SS number on it. Wish they would change that.
You are not susposed to carry your Medicare card for that reason. If you have an 'Advantage' plan like mine they issue you a card that doesn't show you SS # only the member ID and group ID. Once again - Driver's license, Medicare card and $50.
 
I don't carry my medicare card... Why would you carry it? If you are going to use it THEN bring it with. If you are hospitalized in an emergency, eventually the card can be brought... OR the Hospital has a computer method of plugging in to CMS to see that you have Medicare.. It's not like you need it before they will bring you into ER.
 
I put $500 twice monthly in an envelope marked 'Discretionary' my wife and I use it throughout the month for, food, gas, dining out, gifts, trips to Costco for bulk items, small household repairs, drugs, clothing and any other normal item that your can't budget long term for. Each deposit we take what is left over and move it to an envelope marked 'Emergency' for larger maintenance or unplanned expenses such as an appliance replacement, yearly auto tags, medical co-pays, property taxes,,,etc. We had enough this summer to replace our front porch for $2,000, replace my 8 YO laptop, new printer, her cell phone - all in cash, not one item was bought with credit. I used the figure of $12,000 to gauge our every day living expenses. I don't know how much she has squirreled away but she always seems to have enough to cover the cost.

I've hopefully bought my last house and I pulled my last credit report/FICO score in Jun, the only thing that was negative was the lack of credit use, I scored an A+ on inquires '0' last one was late 2012, can't even remember what that was. Space rent, utilities (power, phone, internet, Netlfix), auto insurance are my only other expenses. I give my wife $400 and I put $400 a month in my personal sock to spend as we see fit. She gets a much smaller SS check than I but I figure she was there raising my kids, nursing me back to health after surgery and having chicken one day and feathers the next for the 45 years we have been married, I share my income 50/50 with her. She gets my SS and Pension after I pass. It's a team effort.

I never heard of an 'A+' credit rating. Normally, I always thought your score was numbers. Like I know mine is 820. And, I am not saying what you're doing isn't good for you. I believe if a person likes what he is doing and it works, then good for you. But, just as an example, let's say that you had a Hampton American Express card and you received 3 points for every dollar spent. You would have had 36,000 points for your $12,000.00 That would have been enough for at least two nights at a Hilton hotel. Or, if you had used a Discover card and got 5% back, you would be $600.00 to the good. Not a bad deal. Just think what else you could do with $600.00 in your pocket at his moment.

Just sayin'.
 
We've probably beat this to death. Carry your cards, use them, enjoy the rewards and I'll carry cash and only spend what I have on me, no more too impulsive. I will continue to carry my medical ID, driver's license and $50 unless traveling then I'll have my debit card with me. Happy trails to you.
 
Wife and I carry our SS card that shows our SS number. SS says a person is suppose to carry the card and we OBEY all things told us to do. Well, not all things, but........

One thing for sure, if someone wants to find out things about someone else, there are ways to do it.
 
Sorry, I was referring to earlier in my banking experiences. I used to use the debit card for all purchases years ago. I never gave my card to a waiter/waitress to process but would swipe it until I read a security publication about the amount of personal data recorded on the strip. I also decided after an incident with my AMEX card being used to purchase $1300 worth of ski equipment from a Colo address to be delivered in Neb during June, there's not a hill high enough in Neb to ski from. The only reason I found out about it was the equipment was bought from an online source in N.E. and they sent me a thank you note and reciept for the purchase, I did get full reimbursement from AMEX and then cancelled my card.

After that I opened three bank accounts 1 - deposits and ATM full cash withdrawal , 2 - savings, and 3 - all online purchases and monthly bills. Deposit cash from #1 into #2 and if I buy something online I deposit enough to cover it and the monthly bills using the debit card number from #3, I maintain a zero balance. All local purchases are made in cash. I ask for a 3% discount and have walked at times if they refuse, it's surprising how many times I reached the door and had the clerk call me back.

See why I don't want to add another accounting headache to my routine.

That's makes sense - splitting up your accounts that way is the smart way to do it, and keeping that zero balance is what I do as well.
 
I pay for everything electronically and write maybe one check a year. I don't carry more than a couple dollars cash. Works for me.

As to the safety of paper checks -- someone who handled one of my sister's checks recreated the checks somehow (bank says they see it fairly frequently -- by somebody in a store or who handles your checks for whatever reason -- or who even just has your bank account number and your name and address -- not by theft of your checkbook) and wrote a bunch of checks on her account.. We caught it, of course, and the bank gave her her money back because the signatures were clearly forgeries, but cleared anyway (!??!). SO, paper checks aren't completely safe, either. The thieves evidently had a bank account opened in a false name, wrote checks to that name, deposited checks and took back cash. Evidently nobody really looks at the signature on a check unless it is for a huge amount.

Funny thing is, the bank didn't even look for them very hard. They said it took too many resources!
 
I will NOT use a debit card... They are worthless... might as well carry cash. A Credit card makes more sense if you can pay off the balance every month. You get cash back and other rewards with credit cards that you don't get with debit cards. I pay everything with a credit card and write a check to pay it off every month... Discover gives me cash back.

Out here the writing is on the wall for cheques. Apparently the average no of cheques per person in only 8 per year. They will soon become a thing of the past as banks stop issuing them.
 
I can remember when my OH had to have his wage paid straight into a Bank account ,up until then he had been paid in cash on a friday.We started paying for the weekly shopping by Cheque,writing it out at the till ,we did this for years.Then a shop owner suggested we paid by Card. So we left the cheque book behind ,and we have been spending by card since.
we do have cash occasionally thats for the small things in life .
 
I use my debit card only to get cash at the bank ATM. I use a credit card for most purchases. I write checks for some local businesses that won't take cards. I always carry some cash too. I recently bought something from Home Depot, right after they were hacked. I paid cash.
 


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