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I HATE CREDIT CARDS

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Anonymous
Not applicable

I HATE CREDIT CARDS

I really prefer not to use them. I keep what few I have left simply to maintain a FICO score and for car rentals, hotels, and gas. But by and large, I'm done with the points chasing game. I did my own personal spending experiments, and I spend a ton less with an all-cash diet. 

 

Obviously everyone is different, but I implore many of you to do your own personal experiements. I use to charge everything to my credit card every month and then pay off the balance in full for the cash back. But after trying an all-cash budget for a few months, I found myself making fewer impulse purchases.

 

So I implore you to try this out and make your own decision. Give it a shot. You may be as surprised as I was with the results.

Message 1 of 14
13 REPLIES 13
Erusidhion
Frequent Contributor

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS

 

    I'm not really a points chaser either and have a lot of store cards for the simple fact the JC Penney, Lowe's, Home Depot usually send you deals in e-mail or physical mail with 0% financing or coupons for 10-50% off. It's probably worth it to have them if you're planning on buying something in the future that you could take advantage of it with. I've saved tons of money from JC Penney alone on work clothes instead of just buying it without the card/coupons/sales.

 

    For your situation and mostly mine; just use a nice cash back card. Blispay is 2%. Citi DC is 2%. And I think there's a lot of other 1.5% and special 2%-5% depending on quarters out there. I think at some point I'll sit down and figure out all the reward portals/certain % I can save on certain purchases using exact cards but right now I mainly just use cash back.

 

    There's definitely thousands that someone with a higher income and higher spend can save annually though if they keep on top of everything. But time is money as they say and it may or may not be worth your time to track those deals down. Not only that but there's churning credit cards for points as well as churning opening checking/savings/money market accounts for bonuses. There's a lot of free money out there if you're willing to work for it. Free money or money saved you could be funneling into your Vanguard or any retirement vehicle and earning passive income on. 

 

    To be successful in life you have to be willing to put in the work. And I usually gives this example to people that if you had 300k invested with a 7% return annually; that is $10.00 an hour which is around minimum wage or $20,800 annually. There's tons of people out there that survive on minimum wage and live comfortably. Maybe they have to budget for big purchases but having good credit has its advantages in those situations plus life emergencies. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

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Message 2 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS


@Anonymous wrote:

I really prefer not to use them. I keep what few I have left simply to maintain a FICO score and for car rentals, hotels, and gas. But by and large, I'm done with the points chasing game. I did my own personal spending experiments, and I spend a ton less with an all-cash diet. 

 

Obviously everyone is different, but I implore many of you to do your own personal experiements. I use to charge everything to my credit card every month and then pay off the balance in full for the cash back. But after trying an all-cash budget for a few months, I found myself making fewer impulse purchases.

 

So I implore you to try this out and make your own decision. Give it a shot. You may be as surprised as I was with the results.


This was true for me as well. I still use my cards but found that if I log all of my purchases (like you would do in a check register) I'm more conscious and keep the spending in check. (Then I avoid logging into a credit card after a week and asking myself: what on earth did I spend $500 on this week?)

Message 3 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS


@Erusidhion wrote:

 

    I'm not really a points chaser either and have a lot of store cards for the simple fact the JC Penney, Lowe's, Home Depot usually send you deals in e-mail or physical mail with 0% financing or coupons for 10-50% off. It's probably worth it to have them if you're planning on buying something in the future that you could take advantage of it with. I've saved tons of money from JC Penney alone on work clothes instead of just buying it without the card/coupons/sales.

 

    For your situation and mostly mine; just use a nice cash back card. Blispay is 2%. Citi DC is 2%. And I think there's a lot of other 1.5% and special 2%-5% depending on quarters out there. I think at some point I'll sit down and figure out all the reward portals/certain % I can save on certain purchases using exact cards but right now I mainly just use cash back.

 

    There's definitely thousands that someone with a higher income and higher spend can save annually though if they keep on top of everything. But time is money as they say and it may or may not be worth your time to track those deals down. Not only that but there's churning credit cards for points as well as churning opening checking/savings/money market accounts for bonuses. There's a lot of free money out there if you're willing to work for it. Free money or money saved you could be funneling into your Vanguard or any retirement vehicle and earning passive income on. 

 

    To be successful in life you have to be willing to put in the work. And I usually gives this example to people that if you had 300k invested with a 7% return annually; that is $10.00 an hour which is around minimum wage or $20,800 annually. There's tons of people out there that survive on minimum wage and live comfortably. Maybe they have to budget for big purchases but having good credit has its advantages in those situations plus life emergencies. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.


Precisely. I have six checking accounts right now. I'll have $500 in bonuses in a few months that I basically only needed to "work" an hour for.

Message 4 of 14
Gunnar419
Valued Contributor

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS


@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

I really prefer not to use them. I keep what few I have left simply to maintain a FICO score and for car rentals, hotels, and gas. But by and large, I'm done with the points chasing game. I did my own personal spending experiments, and I spend a ton less with an all-cash diet. 

 

Obviously everyone is different, but I implore many of you to do your own personal experiements. I use to charge everything to my credit card every month and then pay off the balance in full for the cash back. But after trying an all-cash budget for a few months, I found myself making fewer impulse purchases.

 

So I implore you to try this out and make your own decision. Give it a shot. You may be as surprised as I was with the results.


This was true for me as well. I still use my cards but found that if I log all of my purchases (like you would do in a check register) I'm more conscious and keep the spending in check. (Then I avoid logging into a credit card after a week and asking myself: what on earth did I spend $500 on this week?)


Same here. If I were a big spender I'd probably be more into the points chase on credit cards. I'm a small spender and for me it makes more sense to mostly pay cash and log purchases daily to keep track.

 

I use credit cards for three things: online shopping, 5% cashback, and once every few years 0% BTs. With online shopping, I usually try to PIF each purchase as I make it. With 5% cashback, I still use ccs only for big things. I used to put all my grocery purchases on Sallie Mae, but since that beautiful card died, it's too much hassle to keep track of which card has 5% on groceries this quarter and how much those small purchases will earn me. For groceries and gas I went back to paying with cash or a debit card.

 

I don't hate credit cards, but they are a convenience only, not a source of benefits or a fun thing to play with. Even with my modest spending I'm surprised at how quickly a few cc purchases can add up to one large monthly payment if I don't keep track from day to day.

Message 5 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS

Many thanks to Visions and Gunnar for making their case.  It's obviously not going to be a common perspective here -- in fact "app-ing" and CC spending will be the rule on the Forums.  But precisely because their perpective is uncommon is why we here need to hear it.

 

Also because, ummmh, they are right.  All kinds of studies have been done that show how credit cards induce almost everyone to spend more on crap we don't actually need.  Stuff we would not buy if we actually had to pull cash out of our wallet and watch it painfully vanish.  The swipe obscures that.

 

Kudos to them as well for not following the Dave Ramsey path of cutting up their cards.  They have kept 3-4 cards, know how to keep them active, use them for stuff that cannot cause them to overspend (e.g. gas).  They will end up spending low, saving a lot, and having a great credit score.  That sounds pretty smart to me.

Message 6 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS

I was fed up with credit cards for a little while myself after my 2014 BK, but I got over it. It still takes work to maintain discipline over what I spend but keeping my spending spread out over my cards, exerting effort to keep my overall utilization as much under 30% as possible, having a plan for what spend I'm going to put on my cards each month (aside from emergencies) and always making payments as far over maximum as I can afford, all are having their effect in keeping my total used credit low, my available credit high and my credit scores improving slowly over time. I have 4 cards now, one of them secured that I hope to get graduated and combined with my unsecured and another a store card; I expect to get a couple, possibly three, more by the end of this year depending, but I really don't see myself ever having several dozen cards like some members like to show off in their signatures.

 

I do wonder if some folks here really realize, with their six-figure incomes enabling them to put four-figure spends on their favorite cards and PIF every month without fail, have five-figure CL's on multiple cards, and to apply for just about anything they want if their scores are high enough, just how much of an outlier they are from the great mass of the population.

Message 7 of 14
iced
Valued Contributor

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS

I used to do cash only but I didn't spend any more or less really. For me, spending more with credit isn't a problem because I figured out a few years back that credit wasn't the enemy, consumerism is. When I stopped feeling like I needed the latest gadget or associated my material belongings with self-worth, life got a lot more affordable.

Message 8 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS


@iced wrote:

I used to do cash only but I didn't spend any more or less really. For me, spending more with credit isn't a problem because I figured out a few years back that credit wasn't the enemy, consumerism is. When I stopped feeling like I needed the latest gadget or associated my material belongings with self-worth, life got a lot more affordable.


I'm good on holding back my spend on material items, but have to really watch my food/entertainment spend living in NYC.

Message 9 of 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: I HATE CREDIT CARDS


@Anonymous wrote:

@iced wrote:

I used to do cash only but I didn't spend any more or less really. For me, spending more with credit isn't a problem because I figured out a few years back that credit wasn't the enemy, consumerism is. When I stopped feeling like I needed the latest gadget or associated my material belongings with self-worth, life got a lot more affordable.


I'm good on holding back my spend on material items, but have to really watch my food/entertainment spend living in NYC.


Yes!  This is a danger area for us all.  Groceries are one thing, but it is restaurant bills that add up.  The CC makes it painless.  It's like having a massive novacaine shot.  I just bought lunch for myself and a friend and it would have been far more painful if I had had to watch all that cash leave my wallet.  Especially if I had a clear rule like: I put $100 in my wallet each week and that's it.  So hmmmm... do I really want to see almost all of that money go out of my wallet?

Message 10 of 14
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