Could You Live Without a Credit Card?

While the use of credit has been around for hundreds of years, the actual credit card has evolved in the last 50 years to make access to credit much easier.  You can use your credit card to pay for almost anything, including toll road charges, funding your IRA (obviously not recommended), and to pay for college.

Most people use a credit card on a daily basis, including myself.  For responsible credit card users, the rewards can really add up if used properly.  In fact, my wife and I will be going on a trip this fall and will use the credit card reward points accumulated this summer to pay for two nights at a downtown Chicago hotel.  The points will save us close to $400!

While the rewards are nice, I really don’t need a credit card to function.  Sure, it makes life easier for traveling, but you actually don’t need a credit card to travel.  The downside is that you do need a good amount of cash in your bank because hotels, airlines, car rental places and other vendors will often charge your debit card a large sum in case they need to cover any ‘accidentals.’  With a credit card, they would just charge it to the card, but a debit card or cash requires your authorization, so they cover their bases by taking out more than what’s required.

How Easy Would It Be To Stop Using Credit Cards?

We have few bills that automatically charge to our credit cards, so we could stop pretty easily.  Besides using my card for traveling, we don’t really use it that often.  I think I could live without a credit card, but I wouldn’t want to because of the convenience factor.

What about you?  Could you live without a credit card?  Would you want to live without a credit card?  If you don’t use one at all, share with us in the comments!

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