What's your favorite way to pay?

Before I started university I only ever paid with debit or visa/mastercard, but now I have to have cash for parking and such on campus, so now I tend to carry cash....I thought checks were extinct...I don't have any of those... direct payments only require a little sheet from your bank with info on it, so who needs checks, almost all shops here do not except checks as payment anymore.

We pay by check and sometimes by credit card too.

i use my credit card 99% of the time. I used to use my debit card but it kinda freaks me out to have to type in my pin and just for my checking acct to be accessed by everywhere i shop. I pay off my cc every month though.

I use my debit card, for almost everything and I pay all of my bills online. Almost the only checks I write are for the rent and the dogs' licenses.

I hardly ever use cheques. We use them for our rent, but not much else. I carry some cash for small purchases, parking meters... But mostly I use either credit card or debit card.

Cash or debit. If I don't have the money available I don't buy it!

Debit card. I don't carry much cash with me.

Um, we dont use checks in germany i think our system is a little different.

Someone has to explain to me the difference from Credit card and Debit card.
I had a visa card.. well because ben and i broke up our bank didnt trust me and cut it off so i had 3 months to pay back 2,000 euros

I use online banking to pay off my bills, i think its called Bank wire transfer

I always have cash with me though because i dont like to use my card very much as i lose track and spend too much.

Originally Posted by babyharley

Wow, thats really awesome, what credit card company do you use?

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I have a Mastercard but most companies have some kind of rewards program. BJ's has a great card too. The one I use is the Star Wars Rewards card (has Yoda on the card). You can get a lot of cool Star Wars stuff which was great, but now I'm not quite as obsessed with Star Wars and they offer gift certificates to lots of different places so I got for that now. I'm waiting for 2 $25 gift certificates to JCPenney's and 1 $25 for Chiles in teh mail any day now. I think its about $25 for every $5000 you spend or so. Not bad but there are better ones available too.

The card has to work for me or I won't use it. I hate paying interest on anything.

I try and use my debit card on everything I purchase. I hate carrying cash. I Do have a checkbook just in case. I also have a visa and a mastercard but they are for emergencies only. The visa is from citibank (it has house rewards programs on it) and the mastercard is from Chase (it is from the ASPCA). Every card has it purposes, otherwise no point in having them, right?

I pay all my bills on-line through my bank's web site. Other than that 95% of the time, I use a debit card. 3% I use cash and 2% I use a credit card when it's something I absolutely have to have like a car repair that I don't have the cash for.

I am working on paying down a boat load of debt so this is all a recent thing. I used to use my credit card for 95% of my purchases but I have no control over my spending when I do that.

Where's the option for "someone else's money"?

Seriously, mostly debit. Safer than cash since if it is stolen, any fraudulent charges are covered. And better than credit since I can only use money I actually have!

Originally Posted by fwan

Um, we dont use checks in germany i think our system is a little different.

Someone has to explain to me the difference from Credit card and Debit card.
I had a visa card.. well because ben and i broke up our bank didnt trust me and cut it off so i had 3 months to pay back 2,000 euros

I use online banking to pay off my bills, i think its called Bank wire transfer

I always have cash with me though because i dont like to use my card very much as i lose track and spend too much.

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The German system is a bit different, Fran. Personal checks were phased out with the introduction of the euro. If you use a credit card (like Visa) in Germany, the amount owed is debited from your giro account at the end of the month; if you use a debit card (EC or Maestro card), the amount is debited within 1 - 3 days. If you use online banking, you're paying by credit transfer, for which you have to pay a small fee.
My preferred means of paying regular and trusted suppliers of goods/services is by direct debit mandate, as the creditor has to pay the bank fees. I use cash in most stores, unless I buy a high-priced item. In the latter case, I use a debit or credit card, depending on what the store accepts, and how much of a credit balance we have on the credit card account. I try to maintain a Visa credit balance of €500 to €2,000, because I use the card for "international" shopping, whether online or in person, and hubby uses it for car maintenance/repairs. That way we don't have to pay the credit interest. A credit card is also the cheapest means of obtaining currency from an ATM located in another country.

For those of you who use Debit cards, do you and your SO each have one? When Jerry and I married, I told him only one can have it, (me of course! ) If I was going to be in charge of $$ and bills, then I wanted to control it. He is the type that would take out $50 and forget to tell me................

I use debit/credit pretty much 50/50, generally debit for smaller purchases and credit for larger purchases. Anything less than about $10 I use cash.

I normally use cash but probably cash and eftpos 50/50

When in a shop to buy food, clothes etc., I usually use cash. I pay all my bills online in my bank's web site, like everybody else here.

Checks, wow! It must be over 16 years since I last saw on of those, they are ancient.