Ask the Readers: Debit, Credit or Cash?

by Jason Unger

How do you spend money?

I’ve argued that, when it comes to your spending, you should exclusively use a debit card since it’s essentially the same as cash, it’s convenient, and it’s easily trackable using online banking and other online tools.

But there’s a decent argument for responsibly using a credit card to get rewards and cashback, if you can pay off the balance every month. Louis explains:

But if you can be responsible and pay your credit card in FULL every month, you can usually get pretty good rewards with a credit card and not accrue interest fees.

My biggest worry with using a credit card to make all of my purchases is that I’ll forget to pay the bill or procrastinate and end up carrying a balance.

Then, there’s the argument to only use cash for purchases. When you’re paying with the cash in your wallet, you’re less likely to overspend (like with a credit card) and can effectively use the envelope system.

So, I want to know: do you spend using debit, credit or cash?

Answer the poll below and then let me know why in a comment.

[poll id=”10″]

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