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Thursday, November 12, 2009
972 - Cash
Here's a quickie note from AARP. Use cash instead of credit. OK.... WAIT.... Don't they tell you that if you use cash you should track all your transactions so you know where your money is going? The thing that the credit card does already? And if you lose your credit card you lose $50. Not so with cash. And it wouldn't surprise me if soon there is a fee for using cash.
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11 comments:
Well, the first sentence says "Chances are..." and for most people it's true. Remember that the definition of "people" includes the idiot young who think their incomes will always rise tomorrow to take care of their expenditures today. They also believe they are immortal, etcetera. I have never yet met a young person who has taken my advice, "Don't get old."
Of course, AARP gives advice to Old Folks, so doh! there goes my argument :)
I usually only use cash....and its true that its harder to spend cash than credit.
Bad news is that since moving here, I've been shopping online a lot and there is only one option there! Well...one convenient one anyway...
I try to use either cash or my debit card. Both require me to keep an eye on the available balance, since the debit card pulls directly from my checking account. Of course, my preferred option is Monopoly money, but not too many people take it any more.
vw: propo - in favor of nice backsides.
Nobody carries cash anymore. Except to a strip club. ;-)
Jay: Contrary to the credit and debit card commercials, cash is often far more convenient, and in some cases (power failure in rural area for example) a life saver. Not everyone lives on Coruscant, some people live on or travel to Tatooine. Don't get me wrong, I use credit cards more often... but almost never the debit card, no buffer between fraud/theft and my entire bank balance. Ever wonder why debit cards are harder to use at gas pumps? (they are, at least on Tatooine) Because they are heavily targetted by criminals, at least as far as I can tell from the notices on the pumps.
BC - I'm not getting older, I'm getting ...... something. Let me get back to you.
A - And with your new high speed internet you can spend even faster.
B - I never thought of monopoly money. I'm going to try that.
J - HEY! Don't go telling everybody!
BC - That's why I never got a debit card. It's like carring ALL your cash with you.
Two more things -
A friends son just had a $1000 disappear from his bank account.
And a local TV station did a report on debit card theft going on from what appears to be someone working at a local store.
This is why the casinos give you a card to work with instead of having coins drop anymore. If you had to feed coins in, you'd be less likely to spend as much.
I agree with the approach in principle, particularly if you can't control your spending, but it's even better to use a credit card that gives you cash back on purchases (I like AmEx Blue--no annual fee and decent cash return) and pay the balance in full every month. They make no money on me, directly (Don't feel bad for them, they still make money from the vendor I'm purchasing from). I make lots of money on them.
Mike: I stopped using my debit card when I figured out how to use my Canadian credit card in USA gas pumps: Enter the "zip code" xxx00 where xxx are the 3 digits from my stupid Canadian postal code. I had bank people tell me "that can't work" but apparently the Old People's Network knows differently. Plus now I have a USA credit card, woohoo! The possibilities for fiscal irresponsibility are limitless!
lacochran: Oh, yeaahhh! I've used my maxed-out TD GM Visa points on three different new car purchases! Back when I thought I had money, before it was Government Motors, though :)
Here's another money follow up.
http://failblog.org/2009/11/12/atm-security-fail/
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