Our family gave up credit cards in 2007. Honestly I don’t miss them one bit. I realize that we might have given up gift cards, airline miles or even cash back, but I feel we have more than made up for it in our savings.
Over the past year I’ve noticed that many more companies are offering debit card rewards. I still use a debit card for many things and it is nice to see banks acknowledging that many people don’t want to use credit cards. Our debit card from USAA offers cash back as well as zero liability if the card is stolen.
Does your debit card offer rewards? If not you might want to think about finding another card. With so many options available you should be taking advantage of the rewards.
We love our USAA rewards debit card!! Since we make all of our purchases on it (including paying bills online) we get quite a bit in cashback rewards.
Also, I don’t know if you know about it, but one of their rewards programs gives more cashback if you choose the “credit” option at checkout, rather than using it as debit with a pin.
We have three different debit cards that we use for different things. Over the past week, we’ve received notice from all three that as of this coming summer, they are discontinuing their debit card rewards programs due to some federal regulations changing (the same regulations that may also result in debit cards being restricted to $50 or $100 a purchase). Just something to think about – it seems that this could be happening to a lot of people. I don’t think that a credit card is the way to go, but it could be that you won’t get much out of using a debit card.
Laura,
We use our USAA Credit Card for all our purchases, including paying as many bills as possible w/it. I know some people would not agree but we get 2 points for every dollar spent and always pay our balance as we go. So for us, it’s definitely a win/win situation. I use the “extra” money from the points to purchase gifts at Christmas. You can also earn extra points by shopping through USAA’s site. In addition to the points you would normally earn. You can still use coupon codes as well.
My debit card does offer rewards. Today I checked my total and find that I am more than halfway to a $50 gift card to a restaurant I enjoy. Nice bonus for using the card exactly as I always do.