I agree about participating in the debt economy to some extent being at least, not a bad thing. We actually use our credit cards regularly, but pay them off entirely each month. This has resulted in a terrific credit rating (the last time I had occaison to review it with my own eyes), despite the fact that the credit cards don't like it much.

Now I think I'll actually read the article you linked to.

Oh bollocks! Subscription only on that article.

Subscription only on that article.

Hence the cryptic "Subscription Only" note on the link. However, I'll email it to you.

And we use our credit cards the same way as you...as a cash substitute.

Yeah, we're a credit card as cash substitute family too.

My aunt and uncle got hit by the no credit rating thing "back in the day" when they tried to buy their first house. They ended up having to pull out a $5K loan and pay it back over 6 months before they could qualify for their m0rtgage. Just silly.

I agree with all y'all. I rarely use cash or even rarer, checks, for anything anymore (except to pay the credit card bill when it comes...no, wait, then I use online bill paying). If you can be disciplined about what you put on the card and then about paying it off in full every month, you also benefit from the 30 day "float" time. The hard part is the discipline.

I don't use cash much any more either. By the same token, I always have my credit card paid in time too!

We pay all our bills in squirrels. Oh, look, a $100 bill!

"..If you can be disciplined about what you put on the card and then about paying it off in full every month, you also benefit from the 30 day "float" time."

I love the perspective auditors have. :)

We use our credit cards constantly but never, ever, allow the balance to carry over, paying the full balance each month. By doing so, we've found that we have a bit better tracking on where the money goes since we pull down the info into Quicken. Our main card is a Citi Dividends that we get cashback on. Once we've maxed on the cashback dividends cap for the year, we switch over to another, card that gives similar "rewards."

We also try to get in on "x months, no payments, no interest" deals when we have to make large purchases. In this way, we figure we're getting an interest-free loan from the retailer. Only hitch is that we have to be disciplined enough to have the payoff amount on-hand when the first statement arrives. But we've used this method on several major appliances for ourselves and our moms.

The other cool thing we've gotten into at work is contributing to an unreimbursed medical coverage plan. They take out a portion of the total you chose to set aside each paycheck over the course of the year. So, while I had some major dental work done right after the first of the year and was out over $800, I received a check back from the carrier even before the credit card bill was due. Net result, I got a shiny new crown (that I would've just as much prefered NOT to need) but I'll be paying for it a little at a time all year long. We both used this same technique on some new eyeglasses last year.

Gwynne's right about the float, but it goes further than that. By using the credit card company's money instead of my own, mine earns interest until it goes to pay my bill. It's not a lot, but considering that we ran more than $20,000 through our cards last year (paying $0 in interest), a simplistic computation of interest earned on those funds is around $300, enough to pay our coffee-and-dessert fix at Starbucks for, um, a month.

Rob, those health care reimbursement plans are great. We participate in one via MLB's job. I just wish we were better at predicting our medical outlays for the upcoming year.

$300, enough to pay our coffee-and-dessert fix at Starbucks for, um, a month.

I wish I had your discipline.

Have you been spying on me? I recently pulled into Sonic and ordered up hugely (Jack was just out of basketball and H U N G R Y), only to discover I had a grand total of $5.00 in my purse. I had to use my Visa card at Sonic. And there were Tots in my order...chili cheese tots...yum!

Eric, we've been overly conservative at predicting our expected upcoming medical expenses on our health care reimbursement plans each year. We were initially intimidated by the "use it all or lose it" aspect, but we've yet to make it past Summer before all of the monies set aside were spent. But every year we get a little more aggressive and it always works out well.

I'm all about using the credit card company's money instead of my own so that my dollars earn the interest. For this very same reason, we're fine with being a little conservative on tax withholdings and owing at the end of the year. Sure, it's tough to cough up that wad of cash each April, but it's been sitting in the bank drawing interest for us instead of Uncle Sam.

Giving credit where it is totally due, my wife is truly the financial master, whereas I'm but a floundering student. Dede's conservative, but very focused and worked wonders at wiping out a large chunk of debt (hangs head in shame) that I brought into our marriage.

Julie, there's no shame in using your Visa card at Sonic, especially when chili cheese tots are on the order! ;-)

Rob, we're still not very aggressive at including things like OTC medications. But we've also missed out on some really big ticket items, like the LASIK my wife had last October. We just didn't expect at the beginning of 2006 that she'd really have that done, even though we'd been talking about it for a year at that point.