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This is the exact reason I keep my Amex. I have yet to have a bad customer service experience with them, and I've asked for some pretty ridiculous stuff in ret

• manigandham 10y ago
  > it's just a stupid way to pay for stuff Why? Credit cards are faster, safer, easier and simpler than using cash - and come from with benefits and service. How is cash really better outside of anonymity and quick transactions these days?
  • wantoncl 10y ago
    Sorry this is so long, I didn't have time to write a shorter version. > Why? Credit cards are faster No. There's no electronic lookup to verify cash is valid. No swipe, no chip with cash. > safer Nope. Thanks to Target and Home Depot breaches, plus some other hacks, I've had to replace cards 4 times in the last 18 months (3 in 6 months). Those last 3 all had chips too, so much for being safer or more secure. To say nothing of skimmers or card cloning. Fortunately they don't use RFID in credit cards or else it would be double. I will note that I was never on the hook for fraudulent charges, so protection is a definite advantage to credit. Amex has also been secure for me throughout my history with them. > easier and simpler Open wallet. Hand cash over. Get change, if any. This is the same effort as taking out a card, swiping/inserting it, and putting it back in my wallet. The only advantage to credit is online purchasing, which excludes cash transactions by its very nature. > and come from with benefits and service Very true. Except for purchase protection however, these always require a membership fee, and not all services offered are useful. I've seen high-end card services that "book your travel, hotel, everything" for you, but are still subject to blackout dates. So what am I paying $450/year for if you can't overcome that? (Takes me 15-30 minutes online to figure out) Also a lot of travel services are pegged to a single airline or hotel chain, e.g. Chase Sapphire and United Airlines. (that's working out well recently) >How is cash really better outside of anonymity and quick transactions these days? You said credit was "faster" and then later said cash is better from "quick" transactions? Typo? Regarding anonymity, that's crucial. Credit card breaches risk revealing all kinds of other personal information, and can be used for credit history gaming, loan applications, identity theft, etc. There is no convenience in having your credit score wrecked by some hacker just because you bought a greeting card at Target, and then only because their HVAC vendor was lazy/stupid. Even if that didn't happen, every company is sharing purchase and customer information. Once they link it to Facebook, they can find out what all your friends are buying as well, and then target ads or sell info to spammers. Cash prevents that, at least for now.
    • hn_throwaway_99 10y ago
      >> Why? Credit cards are faster >No. There's no electronic lookup to verify cash is valid. No swipe, no chip with cash. This goes against every experience I've had waiting behind someone with cash at the grocery store. A credit card is just a single swipe (not even a signature for low dollar amount purchases at many places), while it always takes longer for someone to pay with cash and the cashier to make change.
      • falcolas 10y ago
        Making the assumption that the entire transaction flows perfectly, you're generally correct. But if your chip is dirty, or there's a network interruption, or... a 30 second transaction turns into several minutes of repeating the same actions, waiting for the skinner box to spit out some food. Cash is only really slow because people have lost their familiarity with how to give change. I find that to be somewhat unfortunate, frankly.
        • usaphp 10y ago
          > But if your chip is dirty, or there's a network interruption, or... a 30 second transaction turns into several minutes of repeating the same actions, waiting for the skinner box to spit out some food. How many times did you have these type of issues? I've never had an issue with a "dirty chip" or a network interruption. These types of issues are very very rare. I could tell you - your cash can get damaged while you carry them - that will make some merchants refuse to accept it, Also try going and paying with a $100 bill - a lot of places don't even accept them. > Cash is only really slow because people have lost their familiarity with how to give change. I find that to be somewhat unfortunate, frankly. Seriously? Did you forget how long did it take before to calculate a proper amount of change in the first place??? Nowadays cashiers have a screen that tells them right away how much change to give back, that already drastically reduced the transaction time, but it's nowhere near the transaction time of a credit card, nevermind nfc payments.
          • phil21 10y ago
  • wolfgke 10y ago
    > Why? Credit cards are faster, safer, easier and simpler than using cash But less anonymous.