I put everything on the card and pay it off when the bill is due.

I played the MS game for a while. But have gotten mostly out of it as a lot of the easy avenues for accumulating miles have dried up. I still have rewards and miles cards and I put everything I can on them. The simple key is to never carry a balance, otherwise the rewards aren't worth it. I haven't carried a balance on a credit card in over 16 years.
I still do the occasional churning for sign-up bonuses, but even that has become less lucrative then it used to be.

Yes.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I use a credit card for nearly everything. The 1,2,3 % cash back type.

How much cash do you walk around with? I usually have a couple hundred but can't imagine what I'd need without a cc.

What's the reason for not using a cc? What kind of emergency are you talking about? I would either write a check or use a cc for any emergency I can think of.

+1

I only use a debit card or cash if I have to (i.e. places that don't take credit cards or local businesses so they don't get "dinged" on the sale). I pay my credit card off each week - long before it is due. I never have balance so high that I can't pay it off immediately.

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Matt

Dave Ramsey is good if you have a spending problem. I did buy term life insurance for one of his sponsors.

The wife and I use the credit card for most purchases and pay it off when the bill is due. Works out pretty well. The last trip we took we had enough to get a $1,000 hotel gift card to use.

If by actively try to build points you mean put everything I can including my utility bills on my credit card then yes, I only pay with debit or cash if I have to. On the other hand if you mean buying crap I don't need then no I don't do that, I have gotten several thousand dollars worth of things I wanted anyway (car rentals and hotels) using my points, I can't conceive of a reason not to use on.

Ben

No Credit Cards here, nor any debt and a pretty decent savings.

With CC rewards, you have to spend money to earn these. Everyone has "living" expense that can be used on a CC, and some have more of these expenses than others. Luckily for me, I live simply and in a nice place, so my expenses are minimal and I still have a high quality of life.

I tend to believe, though, that CC will lead you to spend more on things you don't need, even if you can afford them and not go into debt. I still believe more that CC put people in debt because they can buy things even if they cannot afford them.

I probably don't have a good Credit Score, if I have any at all. I've not had any credit cards/debt in almost twenty years. I have a great rental situation and not in the market for a house or new car, so that doesn't bother me. If I do in the future, I'll probably have to "play" the game for a year or two to built a decent score. But, I'd rather not.

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Chris
*********************
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson,

Do you wear a tin foil hat?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Nope, but I don't wear underwear either.

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Chris
*********************
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson,

Here's a recent thread on this subject...

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Lavender_Room_F4/What_kind_of_credit_card_do_you_use

I just posted this to the other thread:

''
Sweeney
Jul 28, 16 14:16
Post #80 of 83 (32 views)
My wife and I work the cc rewards pretty well. The only thing I pay cash for is the girl that cuts my hair and tips at the airport. We pay the bills every month and have 0 debt. A lot of people like to get cash back, I like free flights and hotels.

Last year we went to San Diego.

Flights; one paid, one on points

3 nights at the Doubletree downtown SD, all Hilton points

4 nights at the Hyatt Mission Bay, all on Hyatt points

3 nights at the Hilton oceanfront in Carlsbad, paid for 1 night

We have used Hilton Honors for years. Now we are switching to Hyatt. It pays out better. I do think that Hilton has better locations but Hyatt locations are not bad. We stayed in the Hyatt Centric this winter for no charge and flew there on Jet Blue, again no charge.

As triathletes the best card to start out with the the Hawaiian Airlines Miles Card. Right of the bat you get either a full companion ticket or a 50% companion ticket just for signing up. Then after you charge enough and pay it off monthly, you earn enough for a free flight and both of you are going to Hawaii for free. Get two Hyatt cards and you are getting two free nights right off the bat. Build up points and your Hawaiian vacation can be almost free.

Like I said, getting cash back is great, but free hotels and flights are much more fun!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Kinda funny you say that. Most of my impulse purchases these days (the things I don't truly need) are on ebay and Amazon, so it wouldn't really matter if I had a credit card, debit card, or paypal linked to my bank account. Despite my occasional impulse buys, I am actually pretty careful with my money and tend to use/wear stuff until it wears out rather than just buying new just because it's new (like the six year old laptop I'm on right now...).

I'm curious though...for the people who don't use credit cards (or who do for that matter) how much influence was your parents' use of credit cards while growing up? My parents charged almost everything and paid the bill off when it was due (and still do) so that always seemed normal to me and that's probably why I do the same thing now. They once even charged a semester of my college tuition on their GM Mastercard so they could get a big discount on a new Buick...

My parents were always cash/debit people.... I introduced them to using a card for the rewards.

Since they're "self employed" farmers, they rack up points stupid fast.

I was given my own credit card at 15. 15 years later and I explicitly remember my mom handing me the card and telling me "you WILL pay this off every month". I got it to start building credit. I was able to slowly build credit andI I got my first car loan at 21 and bought my first house at 26 (both at very good interest rates).

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blog

"Do any of you actively try to build cash back or airline miles? "



Hell yes, 2% cash back on all purchases is awesome, unless I can get 5% (which I do quarterly on one credit card for select purchases). What's better is when you can charge work expenses and make 2% off those as well. I calculated my effective hotel rewards (Hilton) in excess of 15% of spend, almost all of which was work related. One card paid me almost $1,100 to open the account. So, if you know how to manage your money, it pays handsomely.

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There are three kinds of people, those who can count, and those who can't.

I have two credit cards. One for business, one for personal.

I use them exclusively. I get around $1500 worth of restriction free travel on the business card, and $800 a year on the personal card. I don't carry a balance, or if I do, the interest I pay is minimal.

Totally worth it, as long as you don't over extend yourself.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I can't stand that cash still exists. We put everything possible on our CC (we get money put towards our mortgage). This includes the $2 impulse purchases at the convenience store. We just bought a car, had the money in checking, and wanted to put the car on the card. The dealership didn't want the cc fees so they forced us to do a certified check. We were grumpy.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

+1

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DISH is how we do it.

I did the Dave Ramsey thing for years (cash or debit card only) until my wife finally convinced me to use points. We use credit cards for all our purchases and pay them off every two weeks on pay day. We use Chase rewards which is 1% for everything and 5% for items that change quarterly such as grocery stores, gas, wholesale clubs, etc. Paying for daycare alone I get $100 back a year that I otherwise wouldn't get. We don't touch our points until December each year and typically have $900-$1,200 for Christmas gifts. We recently also got the Target debit card which is good for 5% off all purchases including gift cards. We expect to save $300 for an upcoming Disney vacation simply by buying gift cards to pay for it.

Dave Ramsey is great for people who are in really bad financial situations and need basic financial education. I do enjoy listening to him. Though he does get old and his callers get repetitive.

I'm in the same boat as a lot of other people. Use my chase freedom for points, once I accumulate enough points, I purchase something I normally wouldn't buy for myself. Something I want but don't really need. Same with my wife.

Only times I pay cash are if I'm going to a small business, I know every penny counts with a mom & pop shop and the credit card fees hurt them.

We have gone to the extreme of the points game. I have been getting CCs for the signup bonuses for about a year now to help finance our honeymoon and wedding. Between the two of us we have signed up for 6 cards this year and are planning on signing up for about 6 more. During this time our credit scores have actually gone up, mine by 30 points to 770 and hers by 20 points to 810. This isn't for everyone but we are a tight budget because we are also saving for the wedding but our regular spend and the wedding spend makes meeting the minimum spend requirements for the cards very easy. We spend between 1.5k - 2k a month on cards. The only thing we don't put on cards is rent and some utilities. We save about 45% of our income by maxing out our Roth IRAs, HSA, 401ks, and are saving for the wedding and house downpayment on top of that. We have a 6 month emergency fund. We are both in good high paying in demand fields so we aren't worried about losing our jobs because we get contacted by head hunters a few times a month about other opportunities.

So far this year we have gotten about 350k points and we had another 300k in points already from business travel and normal spend, which about $10,000 in free travel if you value a point at 1.5 cents. This is on the low end because if you know what you are doing you can easily getting 2.5 cents per point or more. Doing this will allow us to help our friends come to our wedding that can't afford the plane ticket and make our honeymoon almost free. Most of my family and friends think we are crazy but we haven't paid a cent in interest and haven't over spent on them either because we track our spending. Doing what we are doing isn't for everyone because you have to pay your CC off in full every month and keep good records on when the what you need to spend on what cards etc, but it is great if you put just a little bit of effort.