I usually have cash on me for farmers markets and the nail salon.

Oakley, that's what we did. It was either that or write a check each time. When they offered the card with no annual fee we said ok, plus we get cash back.

It may take some people 25 seconds to write out their checks but definitely not the majority.

Speaking of credit cards, I'd love to know why restaurants here in the states don't use those portable credit card swipers allowing the server to handle the transaction at the table as their European counterparts do.

We stopped using a credit card at restaurants. With cash the server gets their tip and there's less chance of something "happening" to the card as it disappears for the transaction.

Mimipadv, there's a thread addressed to you on the cooking forum.

Thanks, got it!

Cards really shouldn't be taken away at this point in time. Servers should have phones to swipe at the table.

Chipped cards are going to end that anyway.

I pay nearly all my bills online through my bank. I never use debit card for online purchases (credit card for that) but the thing I love about the debit card is that you DON'T have to record any of those purchases. I just download all of them electronically into Quicken and I'm done. And my checking account reconciliation balances perfectly to the penny every month. I used to HATE reconciling the old check book because inevitably there was something missing or incorrect that took forever to figure out and I refused to give up until I got it to balance. Now it takes about 30 seconds to get it done with Quicken.

I write a check to my hair dresser (to save her the credit card fee) and my pet sitter and occasionally to someone I know if I owe them $ for something. My checks last forever.

My mom reconciled her bank statement every month ...without a calculator. She did that into her 90s. I think it's one of the things that kept her mind sharp.

Cindy, I reconcile my bank statement every month too. I look forward to it. I do round up to the next dollar and it actually builds a little cushion over time.

Oakley, my husband always told me to keep some cash handy, so I have a little stash ($200-300) just in case. However, that $40 can sit in my wallet for weeks on end.

Another advantage to online bill pay is less paper mess coming into your house. I used to get buried in the mail until I stopped paper billing. And with postage so expensive, why pay to mail a bill?

I prefer to use cash for store purchases, except for large purchases (over $200, say), for multiple reasons. I object to merchants being nickled and dimed by vampire credit card corporations, driving up the costs of goods for everyone. Credit card info can be stolen during a transaction, so reducing exposure on that front appeals to me, having experienced identity theft. Cash is also anonymous. For invoices received in the mail, I write checks. Consumer protection on ATM cards is very weak, so those are only used at the bank ATM -- to get cash.

It will be a cold day in hell before I do online banking. I have zero faith that banks can prevent accounts from being hacked -- it is only a matter of time. Also, as auntjen points out, what do you do when credit or banking computer systems crash and you have no cash or checks (or paper statements from the bank proving that your account, and the cash therein, actually existed)?

NO FEE - AmEx Blue Cash - 3% back @ grocery stores. I pay it off in full every month.

Very different looking card, it is transparent.

Magdalena and Oakley are actually both correct- Amex is traditionally more per swipe- a lot more! But today it's not necessarily the case. VISA actually has over 1800 cards they issue; some are higher rewards, some are business cards, some are affiliates, and every single one has a different fee structure. You can't hope to figure out what you will pay as a business because you don't necessarily know what kind of card it is. And there is a much more prevalent move towards the Sqaure model; one fee for every card- it's more for debits but less for others, no monthly fees, etc.. Switching to square has been great for our small business and we save money.

Some notes about cards that you may not realize for businesses though, especially the small ones. Calling in with a card is very different- it's costs way more to punch in the number than swipe/chip. The liability of not having the card present is higher, therefore more costly. There is a break point; generally less than a 5 or 10 $ transaction and the business has lost money. You may use the card for the rewards, but you do pay for them- I don't know anyone who doesn't include a credit card markup when setting their prices. Most small business owners I know ( including us) don't really feel like your vacation should come out of our paychecks. That's why you see 3 or 5% discounts for cash or check- I don't have to pay the fee, you don't have to pay the fee! Super fancy systems cost a lot of money; restaurants can't let servers use their own phones for transactions- can you even imagine?- but the switch to hand held ordering/paying computers is a massive undertaking and a major expense. I think we're headed in that direction, but don't expect your local greasy spoon to take that on anytime soon.

magdalena is right on another point, as well. I can't afford to not take the cards; I'm in a high enough end business that cash and carry won't fly. And I accept them all, over the phone, on my website, everything. But I'd be stupid to not to take checks- we LOVE checks and we offer a discount for using them. Cards charge me for accepting the cards and you in fees and interest for using them- double dipping, it's simply more expensive all the way around to use them.

>It will be a cold day in hell before I do online banking. I have zero faith that banks can prevent accounts from being hacked -- it is only a matter of time.

I agree that a major hack is inevitable eventually, but if you think that they will not have access to your info just because you didn't bank online, you are kidding yourself. The hackers will want the main database and sooner or later they will get it. Your data is all digital in the bank regardless of how you paid. Checks get digitized too, you know.

Interesting thread. I've been following and Aviastar--your explanation is helpful.

My husband travels for work so his credit card use is different from mine.

I only used a debit card and cash/check until a few years ago because I liked the transparency of my account reflecting (within a few days, anyway) what I've spent. Then when people started talking about all these "points" and cash back, I put 2+2 together and figured that somehow, someway I was paying for that so I may as well take advantage of it. I now have a cash-back card through my bank and I'm surprised how quickly the money adds up.

Aviastar you wrote about small business owners "don't really feel like your vacation should come out of our paychecks." Yes I get that. But it could be perceived that customers don't feel like paying for your swiping system that should be part of doing business when many merchants make it difficult to pay otherwise. I get attitude from some merchants even when I'm counting out bills and change to pay with cash. Nevermind checks, straight cash is not as efficient in terms of their time as simply swiping my card is. As a business owner you may prefer cash but the hourly worker employed to take my money would rather just swipe my card...

Also I have a card with a chip now and it's really only a few seconds longer than swiping.

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1914560_1914558_1914544,00.html

"All money, it turns out, could stand to be laundered: the stuff is filthy. Studies show that a solid majority of U.S. bills are contaminated by cocaine. Drug traffickers often use coke-sullied hands to move cash, and many users roll bills into sniffing straws; the brushes and rollers in ATMs may distribute the nose candy through the rest of the money supply. Also found on bills: fecal matter. A 2002 report in the Southern Medical Journal showed found pathogens — including staphylococcus — on 94% of dollar bills tested. Paper money can reportedly carry more germs than a household toilet. And bills are a hospitable environment for gross microbes: viruses and bacteria can live on most surfaces for about 48 hours, but paper money can reportedly transport a live flu virus for up to 17 days. It's enough to make you switch to credit."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/

I agree that a major hack is inevitable eventually, but if you think that they will not have access to your info just because you didn't bank online, you are kidding yourself. The hackers will want the main database and sooner or later they will get it. Your data is all digital in the bank regardless of how you paid. Checks get digitized too, you know.

I know and, in fact, our personal info has already been compromised by a major hack, since my husband is a government employee affected by this year's incursion into the Office of Personnel Management files. I am actually not as worried about that sort of thing, considering it a foregone conclusion in this day and age. What concerns me more is to have my financial records in something more permanent and substantial than a digital file, which can be gone like a whiff of smoke or a change in technology. As many archivists have concluded, you can't beat paper.

mdln, you should see the mass of teeming microbes that can be collected from computer keyboards! A fun exercise we do in the bio lab I teach at the community college is to have teams collect samples for agar culture from bathrooms, telephones, doorknobs, etc. Computer keyboards almost invariably win the prize for the most. If someone wants to "launder" something, there's a good place to start.

Somehow we have not all dropped dead from using cash in generations past, so I'm thinking the microfauna and "chemicals" on money are probably not significant health factors. (Of course, being a field biologist, I'm no microbophobe.)

@catspa, yes did that in my undergrad microbiology class. Found toilet seat and cats paws grew less than telephone mouthpiece and soap dispenser in public restroom.

Am not a germophobe, and find the proliferation of antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers "interesting," as daily I treat patients with MRSA.

Wow, daily encounters with MRSA, mdln. I knew it was becoming common (daughter works in biotech, one project involving a new MRSA treatment), but "daily" is worrisome-common. We have been building stronger bugs with promiscuous use of antibacterials, for sure.

Getting back to cash, living in earthquake country, one does think about what might happen in the event of "the big one". Should it occur, even cash may be worthless, in practical terms, but has a better chance of being immediately useful than a credit card when all systems are down.

Everyone should have gold coins buried in the backyard. And live on a creek.

Should it occur, even cash may be worthless, in practical terms, but has a better chance of being immediately useful than a credit card when all systems are down.

That was a lesson learned by many after Hurricanes Katrina & Rita. Plastic was worthless in those first few days. If you didn't have cash you were out of luck.

Wow! I had no idea so few people used checks! To be honest though, I had written very few in the several or so years prior to buying the house and starting the renovation - in fact, I almost had forgotten how to write a check the first few times, as I changed to online banking years ago for regular bills. But I've maintained a commercial book-style check book (with several checks on a page with carbon copies of every page) and have gone through a ton of checks over the last year and a half, and that book is invaluable to me as a record of my expenses, especially for tradesmen, when a CC can't be used.

I write checks fairly often, at the produce stand, the barbers (Dad), a bill that I don't want to set up an online account, some odd ball thing, as I rarely have cash. In my world, they are still useful.

Not only don't I use checks very often, I would like to stop completely. The reason is that checks have the routing and account numbers for your account printed on them and -- these days -- that is not completely safe. I use checks only when absolutely necessary.

Nor do I use a debit card. Again: not safe. It's just the world we live in today. If a bad guy has the debit card number and pin code they can clean out the account. If they get a check and the pin they can transfer money out as well.

Credit cards are improving as they are getting chips. Those cannot be cloned. I have very few and use certain cards for certain purchases so it's easier to keep track of things at the end of the year. I don't use cards without points or some type of rewards program. If you do, you're losing money!! That way, I can use points to buy something I need, or get cash back. Two accounts let me apply the cash balance to my bill. Another accumulates points and credits the principal on my mortgage.

When possible, i pay bills with through my bank. They have a bill payer service (most banks have these now) that puts the payment through electronically in 1-3 days or sends out a check for me -- one without any account numbers on it. That is the safest way I've found to pay anything, quick to do, and easy to keep track as I can print out the payment and staple it to the bill. It also lets me set automatic monthly payments for things like the mortgage and other fixed monthly expenses. All the activity shows up in my bank dashboard. I only do it from my desktop computer and I don't ever save the password.

I would never pay with a check at any retail store or a grocery store. I would only use a credit card -- again it's a question of lowering the risk and not losing money.

I've also set up alerts so I get a text message or an email when a charge is made on one of my cards that wasn't swiped.

Not saying my system is perfect but with personal information being hacked from insurance companies it pays to be extra cautious, I think. And knock wood, no issues.

As for a disaster someone referenced above. DH worked overseas for many years in war zones. He always carried a crazy amount of cash. In any time of disaster or crisis cash can save your life. One thing on my preparedness list for these extreme weather events is to get a substantial amount of cash and keep it in a waterproof bag with emergency supplies.

I never use my debit card online, and we don't do ATM's. Tons of places take debit cards, I can't even think of a place that doesn't. Oh wait! We have encountered a few antique shops who will charge you a small percentage to use one, or places that require a minimum amount, usually $10. I had my wallet stolen years ago, so I rarely carry alot of cash. We do keep cash on hand (at home) in case of emergency. We generally pay cash at a restaurant, but occasionally use a credit card, but we always do tip in cash. Our debit card is insured, covered, whatever the term - and you are only liable for $50. A debit card is taken from a checking account, but I do as Gibby does. You don't have to keep a check register and with on-line banking everything is there to see.

Another thing I use a good bit is Paypal. My credit union told me this is one of the safest ways to send money, make payments, etc. especially online. Some stores are now taking paypal.

Tina, my brother only uses credit cards at restaurants because he wants a record in case he ever gets food poisoning. Isn't it funny the issues we have?

Does it still violate the credit card/merchant agreement when a business charges extra to use a credit or debit card? I know it used to. I stopped patronizing a certain small shop because the owner added a percentage to my credit card to cover her cost of the transaction.

I don't mind paying the cost of transaction in most cases. I just did a shower remodel and I paid two contractors with a credit card. The plumber and tiler charged a fee but it was so much easier to call in my credit card and in addition have a bit of protection...although my contractors were amazing. I just considered it a part of the cost of my job.

I never ever have used a debit card. I don't think I understand why I would need to. I always use my credit card. It doesn't cost me anything and I don't have to keep track of anything as it immediately shows up in my account.

With regard to others using checks in line in front of me, it doesn't bother me at all. When I was younger that is how most people paid and I am not in that much of a hurry. (Although I rarely see anyone use a check.)

>Does it still violate the credit card/merchant agreement when a business charges extra to use a credit or debit card?

No, that was changed. Maybe towards the end of last year or early this year--can't remember just when.

The only checks I write are for things like plants at a fundraiser, donations to small local charities, some contractor bills (plumber, electrician), gifts to my kids and other young relatives, local taxes, that's about it. When I am doing my taxes it is easier to flip through the check register to find deductible items, at least it is for me.

And doesn't Costco not take credit cards? I thought you had to pay with debit card, check or cash. Haven't been there in a while.

Costco only takes American Express, checks, cash, and debit cards from Visa and Master Card. The AmEx partnership will end March 2016.

Looks like Visa will replace AmEx.

Visa new Costco credit card

For those of you writing checks to pay property tax to avoid the hefty convenience fee charged by county governments, you should be able to avoid the fee by having your on-line bill pay send a check to the government entity.

Your bank may actually end up sending a check if the county's bookkeeping system is not set up to receive money electronically, and in that case it takes several days for it to get there. But you are not writing the check. Or having to mail it.

Thought about this tread while shopping, when the customer in line in front of me claimed the cashier did not give him the correct amount of change.

She then had to get the manager who pulled her drawer to count the money . Fortunately there was another registed she could use while her drawer $$ was being counted.

Didn't stay to see the resolution, however I wouldn't be surprised if it was part of a scam. I noticed how chatty the customer was with the cashier during the cash transaction (only because I was in a hurry and waiting).

I have also seen cashiers struggle figuring out how much change to give when the cost is $9.06 and you hand them a $20 bill and 10 cents.

Lisa that is hilarious!! Re Costco - I don't shop there, but I can't think of another store that only accepts ONE credit card!

I have also seen cashiers struggle figuring out how much change to give
when the cost is $9.06 and you hand them a $20 bill and 10 cents.

Sad, isn't it! And even when they figure it out they rarely count back your change.

Many local, small businesses here don't take credit or debit cards or discourage their use due to the high fees. I only use a check when necessary.

I work for a company that does business all across Canada. I live and work in the US. Our company only (some exceptions) takes credit cards. NOT debits even if they have VISA or MC on them. I am always surprised how few of our customers have actual credit cards. They often have to find a friend or family member who has one to complete their purchase. In one province (I won't mention) the company has had to keep local offices open so people (many are small businesses) can pay in cash as most seem to not have credit, debit cards or like to use checks. They live by cash only!

Whether we are talking the US or Canada I think this is VERY regional. I remember a friend moving here several years ago from Colorado. There she wrote checks at every store. Here, even back then, was odd to see. She didn't understand why it was so different here.

@graywings -- My bank advises not to use their bank checks to pay taxes. Very specific.

For federal, our accountant does e-filing and the taxes are paid via an ACH payment electronically. It's the only way they will accept it. I try to avoid ACH payments at all costs but in this case no choice. Local taxes are all paid by check -- they have no electronic capability.

Expect if varies a lot.

So does no one 'stockpile' a small amount of cash in their home safe or under a mattress *should* all banks have a breakdown of sorts, leaving no way to get cash or use debit/credit cards? How would the necessities of life be purchased if the problem were to continue for several days? I thought it strange when a friend surprised me by telling me she kept several thousand dollars in cash in her home. I was 'floored' when oldest DD's new boyfriend confided he kept close to $20k in his home safe since he truly believes there will be a major hack in the not-to-distant future, and is insuring himself some monetary security. I've chosen to follow my friend and DD's boyfriend and usually have between $4-$5 k in my home safe, which in my mind would cover the essentials for a number of days. The downside of the 'money hoard' is the possibility of those who haven't made the choice to keep a few bucks handy, *should* the worst of fears become a reality, and turn to their neighbors/ friends/family to help them, which could become a worse case scenario and violence takes over. As a woman living alone, this thought makes me shudder, and i'm not sure if the thought has occured to my friend, who also lives alone. Am I being too much of a pessimist?

I live alone and tend to "stockpile" @7k in he house for anything that might crop up. To draw down a bit on my checking account, I give myself a monthly allowance too - for groceries, gas, Rx copays, things I might shop for. True that money isn't working for me, but a bit of a cash position isn't altogether a bad thing.

Pattycakes, I would consider a few things. I do believe a major hack is going to happen, but it's not going to happen to all banks at once, at least not from the criminal sector. There are few organizations that would even want to do that; even most of our enemies know that if the US economy went down completely, it would take most of the world with it. Consider China for instance--given the huge amount of money they've invested here, it would be totally against their own interests to do something like that.

The groups that are so far out that they don't care generally would be more likely to go after an easier target, like the electric grid, which would be just as disruptive to daily life without also endangering their own economy, and far, far easier to attack.

But to have some cash on hand is never a bad idea, as long as you recognize that it's also at risk from fires, thieves, etc. and don't keep more than you could afford to lose.

We don't stockpile cash, but SO has started stockpiling food, water, and ammo. It's disconcerting, to say the least.

Did anyone mention Apple Pay? Is anyone using that on a regular basis? I try to always use my Discover (chipped) and pay it off each month. They just activated Apple Pay, so I'm curious to give it a try.

I rarely use checks. I think I only use it to pay for the property tax, because there's a fee to use a debit or credit card. I can't even remember the last time I used a check in the grocery store. All bills are paid via bill pay thru our bank. Very convenient.

You guys opened my eyes with this check vs. cc talk. I'm going to start charging groceries, then deduct the amount from my check register to go towards the card. That way I'll get more miles...and not spend what looks like extra money on junk.

Two Christmases ago I looked up cc miles. I thought they were only for airfare. It was like winning the lottery! lol.

I've been telling my dh to look up his miles, and I explained them to him. He has used the same card for 20 years, and charges everything. He said I can look it up if I want. Oh, you bet I will!

@duluth, consider keeping it in a fire-safe box. While it was not 7K, I lost cash in a house fire. Otherwise you may want check how much cash is covered by your insurance and increase that coverage.

Thanks, mdln. I have the safe my Grandfather had under his tavern bar.