Mocoondo wrote:

I normally carry about $500 in cash on my person at any given time. You never know when you might need it to get yourself out of a sticky situation.

I rarely pay for anything with cash, however. I exclusively use a credit card, with the primary reason being the consumer protection options available to me. For example, if I need to return something and the merchant is not following their return/exchange policies, I can always dispute the charges. I also like being able to look at my month end statement and see where all the money goes.

I never use a debit card because there is no reason to. If the credit card company is going to float me a "loan" for a month plus, free of interest, I'd be foolish to use my money and not theirs for that time. That way, I keep my money safely in my account accruing interest for that month and use it to pay off my credit card bill in full at the end of each month, thereby accruing no interest on the card.

If somebody steals my credit card number and uses it, no problem there either. Credit card companies have fraud prevention measures that catch this sort of thing before it gets out of hand. A few years ago, I had a credit card number stolen by a waitress at a restaurant I went to. This was on a Saturday night. On Sunday, she made a few token purchases that were outside of my normal spending habits. By Monday morning, I tried using my card at a Walmart and it was coming back declined. I called the CC company and was immediately forwarded on to the fraud prevention people who explained what had happened. They caught it in three transactions totaling less than $100. I was on the hook for none of it.

For me, having those safety measures in place makes it a lot less worrisome to be a consumer.

1995brave wrote:

I try to pay for everything with cash. I have a debt and credit card and only use them on major purchases or in emergancies. I always pay cash at restaruants and fast food places. Most credit card info is stolen from those locations.