I dislike carrying cash for a number of reasons. First off, I am a germaphobe. To illustrate what that is, the Urban Dictionary uses an example of people who turn faucets on with elbows. Maybe they are just trying to be funny, but I would NEVER touch a dirty faucet with my elbows. Just think of all the people who have touched paper money. Coins are ok because I can dump those in the dishwasher and they come out sanitized. But the folding stuff? Ewwww!
Charge cards, and debit cards, and gift cards are, yes, washable. I love them.
The second reason is that people watching you (as a prospective mark?) cannot tell at a glance how much cash you are carrying if you are not carrying cash. Cards are also easier to carry around.
With some of them you can even punch a hole in the corner and tie a ribbon from it to your belt loop to prevent loss. Try that with a dollar bill! So, my third reason is that if you drop a $20 bill, it can blow away in the wind or float away in the water.
So I am saving my best reason for last, but first, a word from my sponsor, NetSpend:
Recently, NetSpend has teamed up with a number of familiar companies to make it easy for people in need of their services to access them. One example would be their "partner retail locations" such as Safeway and Winn-Dixie. Another is the Virgin Mobile Stash card. As with any financial service, if you choose a prepaid debit card, be sure to read the Terms and Conditions, especially part 7 (Fees and Charges.)
Now, as promised, here is my favorite reason why I prefer to carry plastic instead of cash:
Blame it on my lifelong habit of making a record of any money that I spend or earn. Yes, if I stop somewhere for an ice cream cone, I whip out the smart phone and send my budget folder an email with the date and amount, and where I bought it. Later, I cut and paste that data into a relational database which calculates how much money there is left in that month's budget, and averages it out by the day. Or, as they say on the NetSpend website, "No surprises."
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