credit union getting greedy

[MossRoad]

I didn't know that either, but since I've probably never done it more than 2 or 3 time in a year, I guess it doesn't matter.:laughing: And I've still never used an ATM for anything except to get cash, and since I can do that at Walmart, Sam's Club, Kroger's, etc. with my Discover Card and pay no fees at all, I haven't used an ATM in a long time for anything.

A good example of this is yesterday I went and bought paint for the living room. It was about $200.00. We keep about $500 in checking (which the debit card pulls from). I paid for the paint with the debit card, then drove to the ATM a few blocks away and transferred $200 from the savings to checking to keep the balance around $500. I also recieved $2 in points with that transaction. May not seem like much, but over a year, it adds up. We've paid school tuition with it, paid for parts of vacations with it, etc...

I veiw ATMs as a very convenient robot teller that is open 24/7. No lines to wait in. Don't have to walk from the parking lot into the branch. Don't have to look at those tongue piercings, green hair or tattoos, either. :clown:

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

Carry cash.
Lose cash (drop, robbed, house burned down, whatever)
Cash gone forever. Can't be replaced.

Carry plastic card.
Lose card (drop, robbed, house burned down, whatever)
Plastic card is replaced.
No cash lost.
Use it as debit card it is exactly the same as a check. You don't spend it if you don't have it.
Use it as a credit card and pay it off at the end of the month with no interest charge.

Plastic is an insurance policy against lost cash and keeping cash in a bank or credit union is a lost smarter than keeping it at home.

keep cash in bank ,bank sends all info to infernal revenue pay taxes on everything , use plastic all purchases recorded , use plastic bank credit card company tracks all your spending habits for what reason ?

 

[JDgreen227]

Mossroad, you make excellent points there about using plastic rather than cash. I mentioned in an earlier post that I withdraw $400-500 in cash at a time...at least $100-200 is spent within 2 hours of the withdrawal, and once I get down to about $50 in cash I head back to the ATM. For purchases over $140-150 I do use plastic as I hate to carry around large amounts of cash and have not had a checking account for a LONG time. Problem I have with checking accounts is that local banks require you to keep at least $1500-2500 in an account to get free checking...and since I would only write two or three checks a month at most a checking account serves little purpose to me,

 

[smstonypoint]

Carry plastic card.
Lose card (drop, robbed, house burned down, whatever)
Plastic card is replaced.
No cash lost.
Use it as debit card it is exactly the same as a check. You don't spend it if you don't have it.
Use it as a credit card and pay it off at the end of the month with no interest charge.

Another potential benefit -- extended warranties on selected purchases: 2012 Credit Card Extended Warranty Study

Steve

 

[300UGUY]

We use credit cards for everything, pay them off every month. Trying to get on online pay for everything I can.

 

[MossRoad]

Bird, since I have my pension and 457K plan withdrawals electronically deposited to my credit union accounts near the end of the month, I just drive thru and take $400-500 out of the ATM once a month, that's my spending cash and the CU is right next door to my regular grocery stop. I have never used a credit card for cash withdrawals, EVER since there is usually a fee for those. Interesting that you can use a Discover card for that purpose and not pay a fee. Is there any limit on the amount you can withdraw? (assumes you don't mind sharing that info, thanks)

I know you asked Bird this, but here's my take.

We have a Master Card that acts like a credit card, but is tied to our checking account like a debit card. For all intents an purposes, it is a plastic check book. We can't write a plastic check against it if we don't have the funds in our checking account. There are no fees for paper checks and there are no fees for plastic checks. If you can manage a checking account, you can manage a card like this. That same card is also our ATM card. We can do most of our banking with it at ATMs.

Let's say you go to the grocery store to get some donuts before church and check out and pay with this card. O.K.
Let's also say you think you might want to go somewhere later in the day that doesn't take a credit card... like the church collection basket. So you ask the grocery store clerk for $20 in cash. She gives it to you. It doesn't cost you anything. The only limit on the amount you can take in cash is a store policy on cash advances OR the amount in your checking account.

 

[MossRoad]

keep cash in bank ,bank sends all info to infernal revenue pay taxes on everything , use plastic all purchases recorded , use plastic bank credit card company tracks all your spending habits for what reason ?

Ahh... you're a tax dodger. Now I get it.

 

[TCJatko]

Anybody ever consider that legislation such as Dodd-Frank and Obamacare and other federal meddling adds to the costs of doing business? This is one reason banks and credit unions are feeling the pinch and passing these additional costs on to the customer. As to using plastic, I do it all the time. I'm basically parsimonious (cheap), so I don't spend money on things I don't need. I found that in olden days (before ATM fees) I'd get a pocketfull of cash from the ATM and it was gone before I knew it. Pay off the card every month and you're golden.

 

[MossRoad]

Mossroad, you make excellent points there about using plastic rather than cash. I mentioned in an earlier post that I withdraw $400-500 in cash at a time...at least $100-200 is spent within 2 hours of the withdrawal, and once I get down to about $50 in cash I head back to the ATM. For purchases over $140-150 I do use plastic as I hate to carry around large amounts of cash and have not had a checking account for a LONG time. Problem I have with checking accounts is that local banks require you to keep at least $1500-2500 in an account to get free checking...and since I would only write two or three checks a month at most a checking account serves little purpose to me,

I understand. You're willing to carry a few hundred dollars in cash for a short period of time. Sometimes I do that as well. I used to get $200 for spending money, lunch, small purchases, etc... every several weeks. Now that I use the debit card most of the time, I find I only make trips to the ATM every 6-7 weeks and I don't withdraw as much cash. We get cash back on every purchase. It is not a large amount. But it ads up to hundreds at the end of each year. We also use gift cards that we purchase through our local Catholic church/school program called SCRIP. Stores sell the gift cards to the church and we buy them from the church. The stores give varying amounts of return on those gift cards. Some give 5%. Some give 20%! We split the percentage with the church. For example, a local pizza place gives 20%. The church gets 10 and we get 10. At the end of the year, we can apply that towards our kids' tuition at Catholic school. If you don't have kids in Catholic school, you can designate the savings go to another kid in that school, so grandparents can accumulate savings for kids, too. Great program and it ads up to several hundred dollars per year as well.

Our credit union does require a minimum in our accounts to get free services. We keep a year's worth of expenses in there in case we get into financial crisis (job loss, health catastrophe, insurance deductibles, etc...) so that's not a problem. We just ignore that amount and pretend we don't have it. We never let the account drop below our personal "magic number".

 

[MossRoad]

parsimonious (cheap)

I learned a new word today. Thanks!

Parsimonius
parsimonius
parsimonius.

I like it! :thumbsup: