Just a tip on how to more safely use credit cards:

[Kilgore]

8. It's principal, and I had to pay merchant fees once which thought me a lesson.

That 2% comes from somewhere. Not that long ago I owned a smallish business that accepted credit cards. It cost us in the range of 2 - 4% each time our customers used a card.

Of course we did not absorb those costs, we just raised our prices to cover it. So in reality, our customers paid those fees for us. Every so often someone would ask for a cash discount which we gladly gave when asked.

Since I am not in the business of making banks rich, We pay cash and always ask for a cash discount. Usually the smaller the store, the easier it is to get it.