What we have decided to do is to go to a cash basis to the fullest extent possible. The only reason we borrow money to buy things is that we don’t have enough to buy things with the cash we have. It didn’t used to be that way back in the day, and we were better for it. I guess before I was born about the only thing anyone actually borrowed for was their house. Then cars, then appliances, then credit cards for everyday life.
One part of our “shrugging” is to pay off all of the debt we can and getting out of the credit game as much as possible. We have a mortgage on our house, and can’t pay it off right away, so we have to keep that. But we are only using Debit cards and cash now, have cut out most of our non-essential purchases, and only have a credit card because I travel on business and it’s tough to do without an actual credit card. For instance, I CAN rent a car with a debit card, but they run a credit check on you if you don’t use an actual credit card.
We are also doing an addition on the house, but will save our cash and will pay for it as we go once we get enough to get started. Paying cash for everything will probably get it done for less as well.
Bottom line is that we hope to get to a point where we really don’t care what our FICO score is, and we’re well on our way to that.
I’ve learned my lesson too, whodathunkit, but just a warning from my own experience. Debit cards are NOT safe; if they are compromised, the money comes right out of your checking account, and your bank has no responsibility toward you. My credit union suggested I report my loss of $2000 to someone who got my debit card number from ebay to the local police department. Yeah, right! Fortunately, ebay made it good (and turned the perp over to the authorities in UK). But it was back to the credit card for me, which I treat as a checking account and keep paid up, so no interest or outstanding balances.
K