Cash or ATM?

[inneedofhelp]

What do you think is better for overall money management success? Using your ATM and tracking your purchases? Or using cash, and tracking your purchases?

[kork13]

I prefer the credit card route. You get rewards, ready (and persistent) access to spending records, and it's FAR easier than carrying about hundreds of dollars in cash. The proviso, obviously, is the need to be responsible with credit card usage.

Cash OTOH gets no return for use, and records (generally paper) are lost much easier, and it's pretty easy to lose cash/coins as compared to a card -- and if you do lose the card, you can freeze the card and have a new one re-issued. No such luck with cash.

[Cassandra]

I prefer using a credit card mostly for the reasons Kork13 listed.

Plus, with me, I tend not to think much about what I am spending when I use cash. Once it is gone, it is gone and I don't think about it. With a credit card, though, I can see the grand total and every penny I have spent.

[markusk]

I use my credit card exclusively. As mentioned previously, I like the cash back aspect from my credit card purchases.

Some pundits (here on this forum?) state the cost of most products have credit card processing fees already included in the price, so folks who only use cash are actually getting charged more for their purchases.

[disneysteve]

Credit is safer and easier.
Credit gives me a record of my spending.
Credit earns me hundreds of dollars in rewards each year.
Credit gets me bonus features like rental car insurance and protection when transactions go wrong.

I see no reason to use cash.

[maat55]

I use both. I use credit for specific uses such as: groceries, some utilities, gas and business expenses.

I use cash for luxuries like: eating out and most consumption wants.

[GREENBACK]

Credit for all the reasons already stated. For those considering it though, the word responsibilty can't be stated enough.

[MonkeyMama]

Credit 100%.

I do not like using cash, at all, for reasons all covered.

[Broken Arrow]

I am almost exclusively credit or debit, for the same reasons others have stated above.

That said, I do like the fact that there are ATMs within easy reach from me. Once in a long while, there are still occasions where I'll find myself carrying and using cash.

[Jazzmint98]

I always use a CC for the reasons previously mentioned. It is just easier for me, plus you earn many rewards in the course of a year.

[Snodog]

We use credit.

They say you spend more using credit but either those studies are biased or we are unique. I treat spending the same whether I use cash or credit.

[disneysteve]

We use credit.

They say you spend more using credit but either those studies are biased or we are unique. I treat spending the same whether I use cash or credit.

I've debated that study for years. I don't know how they did it or who they interviewed but I know for us, it simply isn't true. I could see how it might be true for folks living on the edge. Give them $50 and send them to the grocery store and they can only spend $50. Give them a credit card and they could spend 10 times as much if they wanted to. As for me, if I went to the store with $50 cash and found some good deals or remembered stuff I needed and had forgotten about, I'd hit the ATM by the service desk and take out as much money as needed to cover what I was going to purchase. I wouldn't put stuff back and limit myself to the $50 in my pocket. So much easier, safer and better all around to use credit in the first place and not have to worry about whether or not I've got enough cash on me.

[Style31]

Credit for all the reasons already stated. For those considering it though, the word responsibilty can't be stated enough.

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

[Radiance]

I feel can trust myself with debit card because I have an online envelop budget behind it. Plus i check my bank transactions once every other day to ensure I "recognize" every expense.

[Caoineag]

For allowance we are pure cash. Doesn't matter how its spent but once its gone, we stop. We will go back to mostly credit once the debt is gone but in the meantime, doing only cash allows us to keep ourselves on a smaller budget than is natural. It also simplifies things in that if I don't perfectly keep track, it doesn't matter.