cash only

[Joanna71985]

It's certainly your right to do so, but as stated more and more places are not accepting cash. I know, it's legal tender and all but if they if places don't have the ability to give change they can still tell you that and you will have to have every degree of cash on your person at the time and that would be difficult. I finally used the $20.00 that's been in my wallet for over a year to pay my daughter back for her purchasing the T-giving Turkey. I buy it and she does the hard part of preparing it. It does kind of look like I'm getting out of it easy, but that is OK. I still remember the number of years that my wife and I did the Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and summer cookouts more times that I can count. Now it's my turn to delegate the chore to the next generation.

The downside now is that the next time I go shopping I have to get cash back to replenish my emergency $20.00 portable cash reserve.

Not at Disney. Most places use cash (with the exception of a couple of carts)

 

[greeneyedchick]

I tend to get a GC when I get there but lately there has always been anywhere from $2 to $10 left over when I leave (and no I don't combine them all on to one card and no I don't take them with me the next time I go, I tend to lose them when I get home and am unpacking). I don't like putting small charges on my CC, it makes the statement a pain to go through and I can't remember the last time I used my debit card for anything other than getting cash out of an ATM. I'm thinking for my trip in Dec. I might get a prepaid Visa card at the grocery store and use that instead of Disney GC's and that way if I have anything left over, I can use it at home. An yes, I do still always carry at least $20 cash into the parks and at home. The food booths at the festivals often have issues and will only take cash and if I'm just buying some snack in a store, I'll pay cash. Same thing for charging back to the room, those small charges are still going to show up on my credit card or the hotel bill and I will still have to go through them. I'm a retired bookkeeper so I go through every line of every bank statement, CC bill, phone bill, hotel bill, etc. I've had my CC compromised a couple of times with someone putting small less than $5 charges on it and I've had to cancel it.

You'll have to pay a $5 or more fee to activate the Visa card. Why not just put the cash you were planning to spend on your ATM card and then use that to pay like you would a gift card?

 

[goofyernmost]

I worked in accounting for years and I am the same way. I hate having dozens of little transactions to reconcile on a bank, credit card, or hotel folio statement. But the accountant in me has to balance all of those to the penny. So for small items anywhere I usually pay cash. My one concession at Disney is that I do buy a small gift card to use for mobile orders, rather than have those transactions show up individually on a credit card. I have gotten pretty good at getting the card balance down to less than $1 (last time I had forty three cents left, which I have consolidated with my new gift card for my trip later this month).



I am not anti technology or anti cc. I pay bills online and use credit cards for large expenses at home and while traveling. However, it is not easier for me to spend hours reconciling receipts to statements vs. paying for items with cash. Maybe most people don’t bother and just eyeball their statement balances to see if it’s close to what they expect. As to safer, yes cash can be stolen, but more you use your card, the more opportunities you create for having your card number compromised. That is a big pain in the neck, if you have never dealt with it. Nothing is safe, there are simply different risks. I always use cash to buy gasoline because it’s so common to have skimmers on the pumps. Ask your restaurant server and most of them will prefer a cash tip they can take home today to a cc tip they have to wait a week or two to receive in their paycheck. As to checks, my lawn guy wants to be paid by check each month, as do most of the people who work on my home in various capacities.

I am happy that you feel cashless is so great and that it works well for you. But it’s not right for everyone, for many reasons other than mine. There are a lot of issues that would need to be addressed before society could go completely cashless. I am sure we will get there one day, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime.

We all do things differently and for our own reasons. Back in the early 2000's I started using Quicken to keep track of what I am spending my money on. After it is initially set up it is quite simple to just make sure you have a receipt and you can record the expense and categorize it for each penny spent. I've caught a couple of mistakes doing that. So far this year I have written only 7 checks. Everything else is either directly deposited or paid online. Been doing that for years with no problems and I don't have to worry about being a dollar short when making a purchase or carrying around that much cash all the time or spending time getting cash from an ATM or having to go to the bank to replenish my cash supply.

I know that now that I am retired I have more time to do this, but I found it worthwhile even when I was working full time. I can, with the simple pushing of a button or two be alerted to how my budget is going. I can easily match my credit card charges and breakdown each one based on what life experience that it is connected with. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but it is so helpful to know at a quick glance what has happened and what my net worth is and it only takes a minute to keep it current. Another great thing is that it has made reconciling my checking account, credit card expenses and any other thing that is income or expense right down to Misc. Expense fun to do. And so simple.

That is just how I do it and not trying to sell that idea. Like I said earlier everyone has a different way of doing things this is my way. For example, my daughter and her husband make a very good living. Both use joint credit cards and neither of them ever gets a receipt when they purchase things. And they do that a lot. It makes me shiver about how difficult it is to reconcile when the statement comes around. Or maybe it is simple because they just get the statement make a payment without even caring about what got them to the number. That is when it is more likely to happen that something or someone could be messing with their money and they will not know until it is all gone.

 

[goofyernmost]

Not at Disney. Most places use cash (with the exception of a couple of carts)

That isn't the point. When I started to go to WDW in the early 1980's, even then I didn't bring except for small item expenses like I still do, when necessary. However, back then it was the usual thing to use travelers checks which are or were much less of a target than cash is. Cash requires no way to identify where your money went if it was lifted. Because we couldn't afford to lose any of it, I even divided up our remaining unused Travelers checks between my wife and myself and then split it up in to separate pockets or external vessels (i.e. fanny packs or purses) knowing that no one could pick every pocket at the same time.

Yes, even Disney has crooks wandering about. Maybe the high cost of getting into a park has slowed that process down a little.

 

[loves to dive]

You'll have to pay a $5 or more fee to activate the Visa card. Why not just put the cash you were planning to spend on your ATM card and then use that to pay like you would a gift card?

If you are saying use my debit card instead of a gift card, I never use my debit card anywhere except at a bank's ATM machine. I just don't want my checking account exposed like a cc would be. I also don't want all those little charges on my debit card that I then have to reconcile. As far as the activation fee, since I normally have some money left on the Disney gift card that I end up buying small useless things I don't really need just to get the balance down to as close to 0 when I leave, I'd rather have the $20 or $30 (or in some cases I've had as much as $50) left over on a Visa card I can use just about anywhere. I just had a thought as I typed this. I can get a prepaid Visa or MC through my cc rewards that has no fee to activate and I usually have way more rewards points then I usually put on a Disney gift card, I might just do that.

 

[JackiesHubby]

Let me preface this by saying that I am starting to be on the tail end of the Bummers, 77 years old, and I cannot understand the hanging on to the cash thing. I have $20 in my wallet just in the event that I run into someplace that only takes cash, but those places are getting fewer and fewer. I haven't written a check or paid with cash for anything in over 10 years. It is so much handier and so much easier to keep track of using credit or debit cards. You can go online a see exactly how much you have spent in real time. It is so much easier and safer.

So I am of a mixed opinion about this. I am an avid investor and do participate in coins as well. I understand the whole thing about fiat money, as I also understand some folks' concerns about the possible impact of a crash of digital monetary methods (think precious metal buyers). But let me pose you a real occurrence that has occurred many times over the last 3 years for me. I have hired tradesmen to repave my driveway, paint the inside of my house, replace all my windows and doors, and other things including taking down some very large trees. Each and every one of the different tradesmen has either told me they only accept a check or cash *or* they add 3% to the bill to cover the credit card fee that they have to pay.