Credit may not be your thing but you’re effectively losing out on a good bit of money by not having one.

I don’t have an exact number in front of me, but I imagine that we receive at least $8k back annually in rewards from our various cards.

The only thing that doesn’t go on a card is the electric bill because they didn’t allow it until recently. But I believe they now do so my wife will change it soon.

In addition to the free money, it’s also safer. I would never use a debit card.

This kind of thinking is a fugazi. Most people (yes even you, who pays off the card every month) are bad with money. Credit cards reduce the friction between any given transaction. This will cause you to spend more money than you would have otherwise. Generally by much more than the 2% rewards your card offers. If you are actually receiving 8k back then you’re spending like $400k per year.

Nobody got wealthy by using credit cards. The “free money” is a cheap psychological trick. I don’t have the hubris to think I’m better at resisting unnecessary spending than the marketing department at Visa who wants every extra dollar in my wallet.

What many people find, after falling into the “but I fully pay my card each month” trap, is that turning off the card after this point is difficult with their current income, because they have effectively pushed their real wages a full month into the future. Depending how heavily you’re into credit it can take several months to build up a cushion to avoid dipping into emergency funds to cut the cards for good.

The card is issued by my bank and is covered under the same consumer protection laws as your CC. Several companies have learned this the hard way.