Does anyone live without using credit cards?

[hinodis]

We are done with credit cards!! They are all paid off and I cut every single one of them up into tiny little pieces. I hate the credit card companies and I am not interested in using them and then paying them off at the end of the month. Dave Ramsey lives without them. We are planning a trip soon and we are not using credit cards. I plan on paying cash for my rooms. We did get a travel money credit card from AAA to use. Has anyone used their debit card for a hotel or car rental?

 

[quentina]

We have been "free" for a few years. We use our Debit for hotels, car rental etc.....no issues.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

We are not free of CC debt (yet, working on it.) We however have not used a CC in at least 5 years. We have never rented a car, but we use our bank card for everything including hotels with no problems. They basically are the same in the retailers eyes.

 

[Planogirl]

We will keep a few credit cards. I plan to keep one Visa and one gas card and maybe Best Buy. But that's it. I also don't plan to carry a balance.

 

[TheRatPack]

We used our debit card for everything at one time in our life. Until....we used it to pay for hotel ressies and trip tickets...etc and when we got to Florida no room for us It was going to take them 3-4 business days to get the money credited back and this was on a Friday, they couldn't just give us cash back so we could find other hotel reservations and we had enough for gas back home, food and such....and maybe enough to get 1 or 2 nights at another hotel but not a whole week as we'd originally planned. Add to that we were traveling with our little dogs so we had to find a hotel that was pet friendly, on a weekend, last minute and it was getting late! It was soooooo upsetting. Thankfully we bank with a chain that has branches in Florida and so we hurried to one of those branches and explained our situation and they were nice enough to rush the credit back through, my mom also lived a town or so over so she was able to call around to a lot of hotels while we dealt with the bank and found us one.

Now we always have some sort of backup that's not tied to our regular money, and keep enough cash hidden to get us back home if something were to go wrong. Oh and we did also have a savings account....but it was through ING and there are no branches, and no debit features so pretty much useless in this situation.

 

[hinodis]

When using a debit card at a hotel how much of a "hold" do they put on the card? I know they do something for incidentals. Do I need to have a certain amount available in the account to cover a hold?

 

[summerrluvv]

When using a debit card at a hotel how much of a "hold" do they put on the card? I know they do something for incidentals. Do I need to have a certain amount available in the account to cover a hold?

If you are staying at a WDW hotel, they authorize $1. Most other hotel chains it varies. Sometimes it's $50, sometimes $150.

 

[susieQzee]

I've lived without credit cards for 10 years. If I don't have enough cash for what I want to purchase, then I save for it, if I want it that badly. Debit cards make it easy because the money comes right out of the bank account without so much as a service fee. It makes no sense to me to pay up to 25% more (or higher, with today's percentage rates) for something just for the chance to pay for it over time. My ex-husband had a terrible credit habit (more of an addiction), and luckily he took it with him. Good riddance to both, I say!

Congratulations on your new financial freedom!

 

[Shreggor]

When using a debit card at a hotel how much of a "hold" do they put on the card? I know they do something for incidentals. Do I need to have a certain amount available in the account to cover a hold?

It's usually between $200-$500.

Personally, I see no reason to ever use a debit card to pay for a hotel. You are just asking for trouble. Use a cc, and then pay it off with your checking account linked to your debit when you get back.

CC is not a bad thing when used properly.

 

[*Seanaci*]

Dh and I are HOPEFULLY about a year away from being debt free. We'll have one CC (through our credit union) that we'll keep because we've got a killer low rate on it (like less than 12%).

For our trips (hotels, car rentals, plane fare) we've used the CC (mentioned above) or the debit card from our credit union.

 

[balletmom97]

Whoo-hoo! I am doing the happy dance for you!

We haven't used credit cards in a long time (they have been paid off for about six years, but we had stopped using them before that).

As long as you have extra funds in your account, you can use your visa/mc branded debit card for hotels and most cars. Just like with a cc, they will "authorize" a certain amount and it will tie that money up until it expires (about 48 hours, I believe) or an actual charge is processed.

Most places are happy to take your cash.

When renting a car, I suggest you call ahead to the local office and verify their policy.

One tip for using cash/debit only-- open a second account in a separate bank and put a little money in it. It is nice to have back up if your primary account doesn't want to work, for whatever reason.

Congratulations on changing your family tree.

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

CC free here too! Congratulations to being debt free!

 

[bookgirl]

I have no CC debt but I use my Discover Rewards to book my travel or order online. I don't like using my debit card for those things (not only because of holds on available funds but because my CC has insurance on it). It never has a balance as I save cash for all that stuff, I just like the convienece of CC for booking then paying it off.

However there are some people who if they have a CC will run up debt or may get tempted to use them or they are Dave Ramsey followers and he doesn't like them at all, so I totally get that some people don't like them. I just choose to keep one active.


I've actually got a few of them I just don't use any of them. I may go ahead and close them so that I don't have to mess with the new annual fee nonsense, but I will always have at least one.

 

[Samar]

I personally don't have one but DH does. He pays it off every month (small limit) and we used that to rent a car recently while ours was being fixed in an accident. Enterprise would NOT put the hold on the Visa/Debit card, only on the credit card but they allowed us to pay with the Visa/Debit card

 

[Jodi3530]

we have been credit card free since 2001. Well we do use them for our advantage. Like we wanted a computer so we saved up to buy one and when we had enough cash to buy it we went to best buy and they had 0 interest on a card for 18 months well our checking account gets 3.5% on the money in it so we left the cash and used the 0% card so we can collect interest on the computer money. And the interest gets put towards disney plus we pay a small amount every month to the 0% card so we end up with extra in the account on the pay off day. OF course this only works if you can leave that money alone so you have it on pay off day but we do so it works great.

 

[DISdreamin']

Enterprise would NOT put the hold on the Visa/Debit card, only on the credit card but they allowed us to pay with the Visa/Debit card

This is a big issue when traveling - many of the big chains either don't do debit cards or want to put a huge hold on it, from what I have seen and read. I definitely still use credit cards for travel, and I won't get rid of all of them for that reason. I won't use a debit card tied to my bank account since, if someone gets ahold of it, they could potentially wreak havoc with my automatic payments! What I do is charge, and then before the statement posts I pay it off. IMO this works pretty much like a debit card that way, except with less risk with my bank account being tapped without my knowledge or consent.

 

[Colleen27]

DH & I haven't used credit cards at all in our married life and we've never had a problem. There was a time when we looked into opening one just in case, but neither of us has much of a credit history (nothing negative, just no record) and I wasn't willing to pay an annual fee for the convenience of having a card so we never did get one.

The only thing that I could see really being an issue with using a debit card is renting a car, because they will hold a few hundred dollars' security deposit that can take some time to release. They're more than happy to take cash as a payment, but I think it took about 10 days for the deposit authorization to be released.

 

[WDmommyof4]

I have never once had a credit card nor will I ever. I think they do far more harm in people's lives than good and I for one have no problem living without them.

 

[DISdreamin']

I have never once had a credit card nor will I ever. I think they do far more harm in people's lives than good and I for one have no problem living without them.

Honestly, I believe credit cards are quite like guns. In the hands of someone responsible, they are useful tools - in the hands of someone irresponsible, they are dangerous weapons/an accident waiting to happen! You really need a trigger lock on them at times, too.

In all seriousness, personally I don't believe credit cards are inherently evil. They are a convenience, that's all. If, all of a sudden, you took mine away, I'd survive. No biggie. Sure, some things I do would become more of a hassle (like renting cars or reserving hotel rooms) but that's all. I don't need them to survive, although I am sure there are others out there in dire situations who sadly do need them in that way until things turn around for them.

 

[FozzieFan]

Living in NJ and as a person who enjoys going to Atlantic City, I know the at least a few of the Hotel/Casinos down there WILL NOT accept a debit card at check in for incidental charges. I believe you can choose to put cash on hold for your room (I think it is something like $300 a night) if you don't have a credit card, but they absolutely will not take a debit anymore because of the issues with holds.

Also from working in a bank, holds can stay on your account for a LONG time. I've seen hotel holds sitting on accounts for a week, the hotel wants to allow themselves a chance to asses damage and charges after checkout at their leisure, not yours.

Please do yourself a favor and never charge a hotel room or rental car with a debit card unless you have MORE money then you will need for your entire vacation including emergencies available in some other way.