I make an estimate of the money I'll use in a month. I then withdraw that money and split it up as my budget demands. Separate envelopes for groceries, transport, etc. Should I spend all cash in one envelope [but still need more to get through the month] I'll try to cut down costs on something else so I don't have to withdraw any more cash from the bank.
It may be different in other countries, but there are much better protections for credit cards than debit in the US. Also, if scammer has access to a debit card, they can drain a bank account. Erroneous charges to a CC can be disputed easily. Personally, we have only one credit card for online purchases and travel. It gets paid off 100% of the time each month. No debt and no interest payment, with a little better consumer protection is worth the bother. I wouldn't ever carry a balance on a CC though. The rates, even the better ones, are nuts.
If one travels, rents a car or makes a hotel reservation how do you travel without a credit card? Or purchase something online? That said, I too pay it off every month.
Well, whenever I see that money flows quickly, I take a glance back in the past to see where the gushing possibly comes from, and try to limit the amount I spend to a minuscule one. If those spendings are essential, well, that can't be truly changed, but if I could cut some unnecessary products, then I would certainly do it. I personally own a credit card for which I only pay around $2 a month and it's affordable considering most of my shopping is done online, and I don't find anything bad with it. Now it also depends on where you live, sure.
My wife and I both have credit cards and we pay for everything on our credit cards. However, we pay off the credit card balance in full every month (on the day before the due date). This way we do not pay any interest to the credit card company and we benefit in two ways: 1. our cash sits in the bank longer generating a moderate amount of interest, 2. we get cash back points through the credit card's loyalty scheme (effective to a 1% return on all of our transactions). So, we don't pay any interest and at the end of the year the credit card company pays us money! All for doing our regular shopping. Note though, it goes without saying that we still need to constrain our spending and keep to our budget.
Yes the extra protection offered by most credit cards is a good point. Personally I've never had any sorts of issues with this though, if I'm traveling in some less than honest countries (which I do quite often) then I'd rather go and withdraw money from a bank/ATM than pay with my card.
I never got used to pay everything with my card, I prefer to pay debit than credit. More, I have my credit card at 100%, meaning that I don't pay any interests, I don't have the need for that fortunately.
You're right, it's nearly impossible to live without one now. Even a debit card has some serious restrictions that keep you from purchasing certain goods, and some hotels won't let you make reservations with one - since if they charged you for damages or goods consumed and there's no money in the account, they'd lose out at least temporarily. There are a lot of places that still take cash, but traveling with large sums of cash is dangerous lately, even before you consider the news articles this month showing police siezing peoples' life savings with absolutely no indication of criminal activity, claiming the money was intended for drug markets.
I very rarely use credit. I did sone dumb things in my younger years which set me back a bit financially. I've become much more disciplined in terms of my spending. I know how to resist splurging on items. Its just a part of growing up, I think. I put much more of an emphasis on saving and investing. If I dont have it, I dont spend it, put simply.
Having been to what I think is 26 different countries now, I must say that the Netherlands is THE ONLY country so far where I have ran into issues using my debit card. It's quite funny, things work fine in Africa and Eastern Europe etc but try the Netherlands and you are screwed. Even there most places take the debit card just fine but I've ran into a few restaurants where it didn't work and the ticket machines at the train station accept credit only. Apart from that... well debit doesn't work in airplanes since their machine can't connect to the banks and verify that the account has money. Everywhere else, it's been completely fine.
