Retailers claim credit card swipe fees are driving inflation

[Marthe48]

14. Another reason to use cash

As hard as it is to break with a convenience, we'd be better off with less debt. We've mostly used our credit union for banking over the years. The fees are generally lower. So far, it is convenient to go in the lobby to get cash. I have a debit card and I think using it is free. I'll have to check.

Credit card debt is another garden path. It used to be hard to get credit and credit cards, then the card companies opened the gates. Stores followed. We never carried a lot of credit card debt, but for awhile, I got an ego boost over having a stack of cards, even if they were all 0 balance. We let them expire when we learned the interest rates and security risks were higher. I cancelled a card by phone, and the rep I was talking to did her utmost to try to keep me active. She said that if I cancelled a card, my credit score would go down. At that time, I didn't know what a credit score was and I cancelled in spite of her dire warnings. I've friends who paid cash for everything, and then decided to get a loan for a car. They had trouble because they had no credit history. I'm old enough to remember that it was a point of pride to pay cash for everything. I don't like how the corporations have made credit so easy to get, so pervasive to use, and then charge more for the privilege of using their product. I will probably live to see fees on cash transactions. Maybe I already have. On my high school trip in 1970, I wanted change a dollar to use a vending machine at the Statue of Liberty and was charged 10 cents. I felt rooked.