What's bugging you? [2019]

[nodakfan17]

It's just poor marketing. Instead of adding a fee, it should be a discount for cash. It's all about how you present it.

Exactly. I sympathize with the business owner, but as a consumer, I’d rather have the option to receive a discount than pay a surcharge. It’s just a mental accounting thing.

[owbc]

Without the cash discount it essentially costs more to pay cash. If I use my credit card, I get most of that 3% back through airline miles/rewards. If I pay cash I get nothing. I would rather pay cash but the system forces me to use the credit card.

[Patrick425]

Other than in these situations (which I don't see that often), I have a hard time understanding why everyone does not use credit cards almost exclusively. My wife and I put everything on the credit card and we fly at least one place for free every year (domestic flight), sometimes 2. You could also choose cash back or other rewards. Why would you not take advantage of that?

 

I basically use the credit card like its a debit card and pay it off every day, so I never pay interest and always know what my cash situation is. At some point several years ago, when I realized I could make a payment towards my credit card on a daily basis, it was a no brainier to switch from using an debit card that had little or no rewards. Takes me about 2 minutes every day to go in and make the payment towards my cc.

[Outlander]

Most people are not like you making payments during the month and having a good idea how much your monthly spend is on the card. For many I think paying cash is the way to go to stay out of credit card debt. If you can budget though the rewards on credit cards are real nice.

[wallus]

Other than in these situations (which I don't see that often), I have a hard time understanding why everyone does not use credit cards almost exclusively.

 

Many studies have shown that you will spend more if you use a credit/debit card versus cash.

[nodakfan17]

I pay cash for just about any purchase under $50 (except gas). It’s a budgeting mechanism for me. It’s painful to part with the physical cash. I still like getting points on larger credit card purchases. Minimizing the amount of times I swipe my cards also helps reduce my chances of being a victim of identity theft.

[folly412]

My wife and I went to a restaurant yesterday that added a 3% surcharge for payment by credit or debit card. The waitress was kind enough to disclose this when she handed us the bill and we paid in cash to avoid what would have been about a $0.75 charge. I realize it costs 2-3% for retailers to process electronic transactions, but I thought that was built in to the cost everywhere. It struck me as odd. My wife says we can’t go there anymore.

 

Restaurants are also a bonus rewards category on like every credit card out there. I occasionally juggle based on category, but for restaurants they're pretty much all getting it, to the point where making up the 3% isn't even difficult to match or exceed.

 

Only real deterrent I've seen are utilities companies, where they charge a hard fee of like $4.95 to pay online with credit and there's no bonus incentive so doing the bank draw is the best. Which still beats cash - pretty sure the same $21 has been in my wallet for over five years now.

[GAME05]

I keep trying to pay off my credit card. I put big payments in every month, and then the month ends and it seems like it's right back where it was. Nothing really sticks out as far as stupid spending apart from small things on Amazon I'll get now and again, and probably too much spent on groceries at Wal-Mart, though that's odd because I only buy cheap stuff and mostly make everything from scratch.

 

Will be nice to finally get it taken care of, and then finish off paying for the truck. I'm really looking forward to the next personal hobby of managing investments.

[Patrick425]

Most people are not like you making payments during the month and having a good idea how much your monthly spend is on the card. For many I think paying cash is the way to go to stay out of credit card debt. If you can budget though the rewards on credit cards are real nice.

 

Many studies have shown that you will spend more if you use a credit/debit card versus cash.

 

Ok, not sure if you understood my post. If you log in every day and pay off what you spent the day before it's basically just like using cash or a debit card. Should really be the same discipline. Since many people spend a lot of time looking at their phone anyways, really does not take that much effort to login in to their credit card and make a payment on a daily basis. Don't have to change your spending habits at all to also receive free flights, gift cards, etc. To me that's the same or worse than people who don't contribute to a 401(k) plan where the employer matches because they "can't afford it". Your employer is saying, "Hey, here is some money" and you are responding with "No thanks" (not to mention the tax deferral benefits).

 

I definitely applaud the wanting to stay away from credit card debt mentality. However, really hard for me to understand turning down rewards because you can't exercise a small amount of self discipline.

[nodakfan17]

Patrick - your point is well-taken, but I think what others have tried to convey is that it’s mentally more difficult to part with a physical dollar than a digital dollar. I’m disciplined enoiugh to stay within budget even when charging everything to a credit card, but I find I often come in under budget when I force myself to use cash for smaller purchases.

[SeaBass]

Patrick - your point is well-taken, but I think what others have tried to convey is that it’s mentally more difficult to part with a physical dollar than a digital dollar. I’m disciplined enoiugh to stay within budget even when charging everything to a credit card, but I find I often come in under budget when I force myself to use cash for smaller purchases.

This is absolutely true. A few years ago the vending machines at my company were updated so that you could use an app on your phone to make purchases instead of having to use cash. My spending definitely went up.

 

Part of that is the new machines are not physically labeled with the prices of the items anymore. You have to tap the code of the item in before inserting your money and the machine will display how much it is. So you get used to the item you usually buy, say a can of soda, being a certain price, but the vending company can change the price via computer and you have no idea if the price changed unless you tap the code in first to check the price every single time. Which nearly every human being will fail to do if they're in the habit of buying the same item every day. A can of soda has raised in price from .65 to .80 in maybe around two years. The bottled sodas even more, plus they keep shrinking the bottle, 20 oz bottles are now 16.9 oz but the price sure didn't go down. Pretty good scam yet I still buy from them so I'm the sucker.

[Outlander]

Most people are not like you making payments during the month and having a good idea how much your monthly spend is on the card. For many I think paying cash is the way to go to stay out of credit card debt. If you can budget though the rewards on credit cards are real nice.

 

Many studies have shown that you will spend more if you use a credit/debit card versus cash.

 

Ok, not sure if you understood my post. If you log in every day and pay off what you spent the day before it's basically just like using cash or a debit card. Should really be the same discipline.

No, definitely understood as noted in my first sentence. It is just that the majority won't do that logging in every day making payments. It works for you but leads to debt for many.

[jerichoholicninja]

Most people are not like you making payments during the month and having a good idea how much your monthly spend is on the card. For many I think paying cash is the way to go to stay out of credit card debt. If you can budget though the rewards on credit cards are real nice.

 

Many studies have shown that you will spend more if you use a credit/debit card versus cash.

 

Ok, not sure if you understood my post. If you log in every day and pay off what you spent the day before it's basically just like using cash or a debit card. Should really be the same discipline.

No, definitely understood as noted in my first sentence. It is just that the majority won't do that logging in every day making payments. It works for you but leads to debt for many.

 

Why do you have to do it every day? Can't you just pay your whole bill at the end of the month. Seems like way too much work.

[Patrick425]

Why do you have to do it every day? Can't you just pay your whole bill at the end of the month. Seems like way too much work.

 

Well, again, that is really what I'm trying to explain with my previous posts. People that don't like to use credit cards usually feel that way because they are worried that they will not have self control and when the time of the month comes to pay the bill they don't have it (they spent more than the took in). So, they use cash or a debit card so that they always know how much money they really have and are not surprised with a sudden credit card bill. If you use a credit card and pay it every day, it's the same thing as using cash and or a debit card and you will not be "surprised" every month with a credit card bill you can't pay....AND..you get rewards! Like free airfare!! Probably could do the same thing paying it every other day or every 3rd day.

 

As far as it being "too much work". Again, I'll repeat what I stated in a previous post. Seems like a large portion of the population spends a good chunk of their time staring at there phones each day anyways (many time while they are driving ). Is it really that much work to click on your bank app and make a payment? It's probably less "key strokes" than the average text. Takes less than 2 minutes. Could have done it 3 or 4 times in the same time it took me to type out this reply.

[jerichoholicninja]

Why do you have to do it every day? Can't you just pay your whole bill at the end of the month. Seems like way too much work.

 

Well, again, that is really what I'm trying to explain with my previous posts. People that don't like to use credit cards usually feel that way because they are worried that they will not have self control and when the time of the month comes to pay the bill they don't have it (they spent more than the took in). So, they use cash or a debit card so that they always know how much money they really have and are not surprised with a sudden credit card bill. If you use a credit card and pay it every day, it's the same thing as using cash and or a debit card and you will not be "surprised" every month with a credit card bill you can't pay....AND..you get rewards! Like free airfare!! Probably could do the same thing paying it every other day or every 3rd day.

 

As far as it being "too much work". Again, I'll repeat what I stated in a previous post. Seems like a large portion of the population spends a good chunk of their time staring at there phones each day anyways (many time while they are driving ). Is it really that much work to click on your bank app and make a payment? It's probably less "key strokes" than the average text. Takes less than 2 minutes. Could have done it 3 or 4 times in the same time it took me to type out this reply.

 

Too much work isn't probably the correct term but more like a lot of unnecessary work. If you're living paycheck to paycheck I guess it would make sense to pay the bill often to make sure you have enough.

[GAME05]

I'm getting really tired of the auto-play videos on the CBSSports website, which are on every single page/article you click on. They take a few seconds to load, which means you're halfway through reading the article and then you have to scroll all the way back up to stop the audio.

[nate82]

I'm getting really tired of the auto-play videos on the CBSSports website, which are on every single page/article you click on. They take a few seconds to load, which means you're halfway through reading the article and then you have to scroll all the way back up to stop the audio.

 

I have found their app to be more annoying.

[NeedMoreFans]

We are on a family road trip and stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park today. We went on a cave tour and there is a part where we sit down, the ranger turns off all of the lights, and lights a candle to show us what early explorers of this part of the cave experienced. A woman sitting a few seats down from me was on her phone playing a game the entire time, sort of ruining the experience for those sitting around her. This was followed up with a demonstration of total darkness, in which the woman merely flipped her phone upside down without covering it. Thankfully the ranger said something. But, really? Playing a game on a cave tour? It was super interesting and we were only seated there for a few minutes. Are you addicted to it so much that you can't put it down?

[jerichoholicninja]

I've got a lot of things to complain about right now:

 

First off, that ending of that Brewer game. I mean, really? These guys are major leaguers, right?

 

Second of all, a couple of my wife's friends were coming to visit. They were planning on spending the night so for the last few days we've been cleaning the house and making room in our spare bed room for them to sleep, borrowing air mattresses from people, etc. The night before they're supposed to stay with us my wife tells me they decided to stay in a hotel instead. I was a little upset from all the work we've just did cleaning but my wife tells me it's ok because they'll still be coming to the house to visit so we needed to clean anyway. We went out to dinner with them tonight after they checked into their hotel and after dinner they went back. Did not and will not be coming to the house. So all that work was for nothing. Sure, we did need to clean at some point but there were certainly other things I would have gotten done instead of cleaning for no one to show up.

 

And thirdly, a couple months ago a woman drove on our yard and hit the power pole. Not our "real" yard but the grass between the sidewalk and street. She put a couple of ruts in it, not really a big deal to me. The cops told me I could file a claim with her insurance and they might give me some money to fix it. I didn't think it was worth the hassle and wasn't going to bother with it. About two weeks after the accident her insurance company calls me and tells me to send them some pictures of the damage and they'll see if it qualifies for a payment. Sure, sounds easy no problem, I do it. The guy calls me back and said this looks easy, he can do it himself and they won't need a claims specialist or something or other to handle it. Cool. I forget about it until about a month later or so and email him asking about the status of the claim. No response. About another month later a different guy calls me and leaves a voicemail saying to call them back. I do. No response. I really don't care about the claim. Honestly, it's about a $10 bag of grass seed to fix it. The amount of time and effort the insurance company has put in to this is probably 100 times more than they will actually pay out, if they pay anything to me. And I really wouldn't even care if they didn't pay me anything.

[jerichoholicninja]

And thirdly, a couple months ago a woman drove on our yard and hit the power pole. Not our "real" yard but the grass between the sidewalk and street. She put a couple of ruts in it, not really a big deal to me. The cops told me I could file a claim with her insurance and they might give me some money to fix it. I didn't think it was worth the hassle and wasn't going to bother with it. About two weeks after the accident her insurance company calls me and tells me to send them some pictures of the damage and they'll see if it qualifies for a payment. Sure, sounds easy no problem, I do it. The guy calls me back and said this looks easy, he can do it himself and they won't need a claims specialist or something or other to handle it. Cool. I forget about it until about a month later or so and email him asking about the status of the claim. No response. About another month later a different guy calls me and leaves a voicemail saying to call them back. I do. No response. I really don't care about the claim. Honestly, it's about a $10 bag of grass seed to fix it. The amount of time and effort the insurance company has put in to this is probably 100 times more than they will actually pay out, if they pay anything to me. And I really wouldn't even care if they didn't pay me anything.

 

I can cross this one off the "What's Bugging Me List" and add it to the "What's Not Bugging Me List". They finally got back to me this morning and said they will give me $100 for the damage. That's way more than it's actually going to cost to fix it.

[owbc]

Fireworks. I just want to go to bed.

[homer]

We use Car2Go in Chicago and yesterday got in two cars that reeked of weed. I have nothing against smoking weed although I don't do it but can you at least be considerate of people that are going to use the car after you? I guess that's too much to ask.

[HiAndTight]

Other than in these situations (which I don't see that often), I have a hard time understanding why everyone does not use credit cards almost exclusively.

 

Many studies have shown that you will spend more if you use a credit/debit card versus cash.

 

 

It's just common sense. Sure, if you can stick to it and pay it off every day or even every week you're good. But most can't.

 

Plus, I become WAY more generous when I'm using a CC. I tell the kids working for me to throw there stuff up there, "I got it," and I know I sure as hell wouldn't do that if I went back to using cash.

 

I use to put 200 dollars in my wallet each week(and then, of course, the secret but not secret emergency 100 folded up) and I'd try to make it through the week on that.

 

But there are just so many perks to the right credit cards that you're wasting money....as long as you pay them off right away. Suffice to say, I'd no longer get by if my CC limit was 200 dollars.

[nodakfan17]

Larry Sanders is playing Big3 basketball this season. He’s probably the only guy in the league who still gets an NBA paycheck, as well.

[pitchleague]

Just booked a place in Phoenix via Airbnb for this weekend's series with the Dbacks. We chose the location based on the "general area" blob that the Airbnb site shows the property to be within. It is within walking distance of the ballpark and other attractions that we are interested in.

 

So, I book the place.

 

The confirmation message shows a map of downtown Phoenix and the precise location of the property. Every thing is looking good.

 

Then I get the information from the actual property manager. This includes the ACTUAL address, including videos, etc. of the property and how to check in, yada, yada, yada.

 

Of course, the actual address isn't anywhere close to a walking distance. In fact, it's on the OTHER side of the interstate. Very frustrated that everything looks great when you book and then you find out that it's not even resembling the correct location. Ugh.