People have speculated that we’d become a cashless society years ago, but this clearly hasn’t happened. While I try to use a credit card for most purchases, sometimes I use cash. For me, they are effectively interchangeable as I pay off my credit card every month and use a credit card with no annual fee. There are a few advantages to credit for me: 1) cash back, 2) easier to keep track of expenses, 3) consumer protection in case there is a problem with the charge. I use cash for purchasing gas to get the cash discount and for the very few places that don’t take credit.
Here’s a case where I should have used credit:
The day after Christmas, I went to pick up my wife and son at the airport and parked at the lot at the airport. When I went to pay the $2 fee, all I had was $20 bills and credit cards. For some reason, I decided to put in a $20 bill and expected to get $18 in $1 coins back (at least that’s what I hoped). Well, the machine took my money, validated my parking ticket, and didn’t give me my change or a receipt. We hit the button to contact someone and after talking to someone in the box, a supervisor for Lindbergh Parking, Inc. came out about 15 minutes later. The supervisor opened up the machine, but didn’t have the key to the money box. We followed him back to the office, my wife filled out some paperwork and we were told to call in the morning. When we got home, there was a message saying that they’d mail us a check. A phone call or two the following week yielded nothing. Last week I wrote a letter to them, but still don’t have my $18. So what do I do next? It is their word against mine. If they reconciled the machine, they would have seen that it was $18 off (unless someone stole $18). It shouldn’t be that hard to get my money.
Anyway, if you don’t want to leave a paper trail, use cash, but for me, credit is far more convenient. I’m not sure why I still pay some things in cash, but I do.
Some people may ask why I don’t use a debit card? Well, consumer protection. With a debit card, money comes out of my bank account and if there is a problem, I have to fight to get it back; with a credit card, I dispute the charge and I don’t pay it. Having had my wife’s debit card stolen and dealing with this, I don’t use debit cards. I asked my bank to send me ATM cards which are different as they only accept PIN based transactions (such as at Costco) and not credit card transactions providing another layer of protection. For secondary accounts, a debit card may not be a bad idea, but for my primary bank account, I won’t use a debit card.