Comments on: Credit Cards Are So Last Year

By: Get Cash Back

Get Cash Back — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:43:02 +0000

True very true. More and more people are realising this. The cashback phenomena is here to stay! People are wisening up to this now and opting for a cash back debit card to save money and not be left with paying credit charges at the end of the month and rightly so! Let’s turn the tables around finally on the credit card companies and make them make us money for a change!!

By: Pat Hendrix

Pat Hendrix — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:43:02 +0000

Mande, your meandering posts remind me of the Larry King column in USA Today. Are they meant as parody?

By: FWFIV

FWFIV — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:26:30 +0000

Statesman-
I agree with you. Mande’s central comment “….that it is just as easy to withdraw the cash first…” makes no sense. At the least that means a trip to the bank, driving, traffic, waiting in line, etc. By her tortured reasoning we should not use direct deposit either, since the value of our paychecks is in some way less if we don’t actually see the cash in our hand. Taken to its logical conclusion, her idea would disallow electronic banking, paying bills online etc. Heck even writing a check for your mortgage payment would be suspect in her view, since we don’t actually see the cash leave our hands and go to the bank.
I hope that her idiotic positions are a weak attempt at some kind of Colbert type satire, but I fear that they are an even weaker try for some kind of Coulter-like fame and fortune.

By: Statesman

Statesman — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:13:42 +0000

My wife and I have no credit card debt even though we have one. We use the debit card because it is more convenient than checks. Transactions are recorded in the check register and the checking account is balanced every month. What is your point? I must be missing something?

By: Mande Wilkes

Mande Wilkes — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:42:27 +0000

Pat -

‘Value of labor’? Huh? Are you sure you aren’t a Republican down deep inside? There’s gotta be some such Freudian explanation for you to think that I’m talking up the ‘value of labor.’

Biggie Tea -

You’re right that internet purchases account for some of the increase in cashless transactions. But whatever the reason for increased card use, it’s the use itself that is the point of this post. Besides, it’s disingenuous to suggest that the internet is responsible for all the debit and credit card transactions. While cash isn’t feasible for those particular transactions, it is absolutely feasible for most day-to-day purchases for which people pay with a card.

Palmetto Native -

Ding ding ding! Personal responsibility is indeed the point: The responsibility to recognize things that contribute to poor decision-making. In my view, one of those bad influences is cashlessness.

Joey -

Of course government treasuries have been around for ages. And, as Mike notes, so have wasteful governments. *Not* a coincidence.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:13:01 +0000

Sooooooo, if people just used paper money we’d be alright, and the government is somehow also beguiled into rampant spending by paperless transactions? Bizarre.

Government transactions were more-or-less paperless long before retail transactions were, and goofy, rampant government spending substantially pre-dates all of us. As Yoda would say, “A strange little post this was.”

By: Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:20:31 +0000

I would second Pat, but I’m most confused about about the government stuff at the end. Treasuries have been around since at least the Exchequer (in fact, many centuries before they figured out the whole witch thing). Just wow.

By: Palmetto_Native

Palmetto_Native — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:16:02 +0000

Im confused myself over the purpose of this article. It sounds for all the world like trying to vainly justify something….problem is, I cant for the life of me figure out what it is.

To somehow equate the act of physically touching cash as being more fiscally responsible than to electronically touch it is a real stretch.

Furthermore..whatever happened to the conservative mantra of “personal responsibility”? Thats the ideology that says that credit card practices and payday lending (among others) are OK because in the free enterprise system, an individual is responsible for his own actions.

Why do you even feel the need to weigh in on this?

By: Biggie Tea

Biggie Tea — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:50:32 +0000

I don’t agree with this at all. The rise in the use of debit cards is mainly due to the incresing number of things that you either can’t buy using cash or for which it is just easier to use plastic. 15 or 20 years ago, nobody bought anything online, pay at the pump gas stations were a rarity, and fast food places didn’t take plastic.

By: Pat Hendrix

Pat Hendrix — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:27:06 +0000

I’m scrathching my head. Of all the lame and pointless posts by Mande, this might take the cake. Maybe we should back to a barter system. Then we can really appreciate the value of labor.