J-Man wrote: ↑September 22nd, 2019, 8:41 am
The thing I don't like about this setup is that they are pushing people to use credit/debit cards instead of cash. There have been times where I limit my credit card use and prefer to pay cash.
If you want to limit your credit card use, why not use a debit card? Like it or not, we're moving (slowly, and with a lot of resistance) to a cashless society. It's become the norm in many parts of Europe already.
The cashless move is nice but between retailers not happy with fees and restricting/refusing certain card types, certain completely out of line politicians banning "cashless" stores in their cities, and various other dysfunctional sides fighting over this (like everything I guess), I see a hard fight ahead for the cashless movement. When you look at now vs. 20 years ago things have definitely become more cashless. Tough to say if the trend will continue over the next 20 years or if we have reached the peak of the cashless movement.
I think if faced with the choice between a debit card or cash, I'd just use cash. Debit cards are not safe to be using all over the place due to skimming/card number theft concerns. Not to mention transaction holds that do not clear off for a day or two, or the wait for refunds if you get overcharged, etc. One potential option is to open a separate account to link to a debit card to use all over the place, just keeping it at $300 or whatever, then not using a debit card from the main checking account you get your paycheck into, that you use to pay bills, etc. That way at least your account won't get "cleaned out" in the event of a transaction overcharge or unusually large hold. I rented a car recently and got a $500 hold on my credit card (the cost of the rental was just over $100); I have no clue what the deal was there, but if that had been a debit card and $500 of my checking account was going "on hold" for a few days, that would not have been a good thing. I am used to car rentals doing a hold of rental cost+$200 or something but this was very strange.