Open mouth, insert cash.

[Raveni]

(Self Sighting)

Over the weekend, I needed to get a new monitor for my personal computer. Promised my son he would get my old one, and my father was in town, so they both tagged along to the local LionStraight store.

Picked out the monitor right away, but the registers were having problems and would only take cash, so the cashier sheepishly told me he could only check me out of I had cash. I said "What kind of idiot carries around that much cash these days?"

*Cough, cough* from beside me as my father whips out a few hundred dollar bills. "I was planning on going to the casino later... How much do you need?"

Doh...

[Crossbow]

Open mouth, insert cash, or Open wallet, insert foot?

[Kagato]

Some people DO carry cash for larger purchases like that because some shops offer discounts for cash payment, or you can haggle for a cheaper price (I know there is a few shops here in NZ that if you pay cash, you can get the item for a good 5-10% cheaper than the listed price, which is usually the EFTPOS/Credit Card price)

[Orgaloth]

I do all my transactions with an atm card, but my wife doesn't know how to use them and uses cash for everything (she's Vietnamese and had never seen an atm before moving to Australia). I rarely have cash on me.

[prjkt]

Depending in your relationship with your dad you could have responded with, "oh, that kind of idiot"

My dad and I have all sorts of banter between us

[Gilhelmi]

I personally like cash over plastic. Helps me budget things better.

Of course, I only carry my daily expenses plus a little extra for emergencies. Then, when I am planning on a larger purchase, I will carry more.

Also, I have "trust issues" with the Internet (and anything that goes over the Internet, like CC machines). Too many hackers stealing too much information. I am getting a low-limit CC just for the Internet purchases, $250 max. Still shopping around on that though.

[Raveni]

Ironically, that's one of the reasons my father takes cash out before going on trips. Every time he tries to use a credit card at the casino, the credit card company flags it for fraud, cancels his card, puts a new one in the mail, and THEN calls him to inform him.

"It's suspicious activity, because you don't visit any casinos in your home town."

"That's because casinos are ILLEGAL in my home town."

[wolfie]

Ironically, that's one of the reasons my father takes cash out before going on trips. Every time he tries to use a credit card at the casino, the credit card company flags it for fraud, cancels his card, puts a new one in the mail, and THEN calls him to inform him.

Perhaps your father, before going on a trip to a casino, could call the credit card company and tell them his plans, so they wouldn't flag it as a suspicious transaction? If he regularly goes to the same casino, let them know that it's a regular destination.

[Kagato]

Yeah, that is what I did when I went to the USA for Christmas/New Year, I phoned my bank since I knew it would very likely flag as suspicious activity if I tried to make any transactions and told them "I will be in <location> between these dates, can you please put a note in my account for my account NOT to flag if any transactions come through?"

Thankfully I only had to use my card once while I was there, but I didn't have any issues.

[Sarlon]

My dad had the same problem.....multiple times.

We live in the US, but he travels to germany alot for pleasure. He'd use his credit card at the hotel to check in, settle in, then go out to dinner and use the same card....and have it declined since it had a hold on it for suspicious activity....no matter how many times he tells them where he'll be and for how long.

[Chromatix]

Does he use the same card to buy the plane tickets? If so, that's doubly stupid.

[Amanita]

I'm lucky- my bank is pretty good about traveling, as long as I let them know beforehand. I just call them up and say "I'll be in NYC, from whatever date to whenever, please put a note on my account so it doesn't get flagged when I use my credit and ATM cards".

A friend of mine went somewhere recently and forgot to do this, yeah, he had to make a call and get his card un-frozen.

[gerund]

Too many hackers stealing too much information. I am getting a low-limit CC just for the Internet purchases, $250 max. Still shopping around on that though.

I have a problem with the idea of hackers stealing my shit, but I don't let the fear of that stop me from buying things online. I admit I am in Australia where the problems seem a little less, but I have bought (literally) hundreds of items online with zero problems.

I do use PayPal or a debit card with a small amount of money in the working account. My PayPal account does not have much in it and I only top it up when I buy something.

I just looked - on eBay alone I have bought 115 items and sold 1. On other websites there would be similar numbers. Since I started keeping records on Sept 11th 2011 I have purchased online from 142 different vendors, sometimes multiple items on one order, sometime multiple times from the same vendor. They are all over the world including the UK, the USA, Japan, Korea and even Finland.

The worst problem I have had in all that time is two of those vendors had their email database hacked and I started getting spam on my email. PayPal has not ever caused a problem. My debit card has remained secure.