[snuze]

Sounds awful. With the rewards of credit cards these days, you're basically throwing away money. Fidelity offers an AmEx card with 2% cashback on all purchases, and there are plenty of other options to choose from. If it's self control you're after, does cash really make a difference? I think modern personal finance tools as Mint do a better job with budgeting. Personally, I have used plastic ever since I was old enough to have a debit card, and I've never looked back.

[ISL]

Pay in cash, and the retailer gets the resources, not a third party. Long-term, this should be good for you both.

Rewards points are a sign of inefficiency.

[snuze]

When reward points are being offered, you are being inefficient with your money if you do not take advantage of them when everyone else does. I agree that they shouldn't exist in the first place, but that is out of my control.

[w1ntermute]

> Pay in cash, and the retailer gets the resources?

Huh? The retailer is paid the same amount (sans the transaction fee) either way. The cashback incentive is to get people in debt.

[crdoconnor]

The cashback incentives are usually roughly equal to the transaction fees.

[seanmcdirmid]

Cashbacks incentives don't exist in China anyways, I believe. Its mostly a crazy American thing.

[eru]

Singapore also has the cashback and bonus points on credit cards.

[Spooky23]

I used to think this way.

I've found that I spend 5-8% less on average on food, meals, etc. I'm not a spendthrift by any means, I budget and pay my bills just fine and don't have money problems.

I had a wallet stolen while travelling and lost access to my cards (except AMEX, who had it FedEx'd to my hotel by 8AM the next morning) for about a week. So I ended up using cash for about a week and I was shocked that it actually had a measurable impact.

Try it for a week -- you'll be surprised.