I can appreciate the advantage of earning points from using a credit card, but I have a hard time believing that when most people go shopping with a credit card that they limit themselves to buy only what they need. Merchants and card lenders depend on shoppers' yielding to temptation to overspend.
I carry my credit card and debit card with me in case of a true emergency. Because I live outside the U.S. a big disincentive for me to use them is that I would get whacked with a 3% currency conversion fee by my card issuer which would more than offset my rewards points. So by carrying cash instead--and not very much due to safety concerns, my shopping is limited to the money that I have on hand.
Points? Cash back? Who needs them? When you don't use plastic, the items that you once thought are must-haves often become non-essentials. And you wind up with a 100% discount by not purchasing them in the first place.
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