Cash or credit card?

[fryjack2]

We throw everything on our card that we can. Its a 2% back card ( 1% on all purchases and 1% back when you pay the bill).  We pay it off in full every month and never carry a balance.  We don't use it for airline miles or anything other than cash back because we don't credit card churn and have no desire to.  This is just easy for us. 

My question is probably an obvious one. 

For situations where a 3% fee is charged when using your credit card, its better to pay cash right? We have a house project coming up and would love to throw it on the card for the 2% back, but if we get charged 3% fee, its doesn't seem worth it. 

So, if the project is 15k and we get charged 3%, we would pay $15450 to have it on the card and get $309 in CC cash back.  We would pay $141 to use our card when we could just write a check and pay 0 dollars extra. 

Am I missing something that would make it better to use our card? 

[wildrice]

Nope, I always pay cash in such circumstances.

[keweenawlove]

Cash in the case. The only case I'd still do credit is when I get the equivalent is 4.5% back for travel/dining on the CSR.

[tripleshot]

Is it something you’d possibly want the credit card protection for? If not, use cash. If so, determine if the extra cost is worth the protection.

[lemoncupcake]

Apr 17, 2021 11:38:53 GMT -5 keweenawlove said:

Cash in the case. The only case I'd still do credit is when I get the equivalent is 4.5% back for travel/dining on the CSR.

The other time I would is if I wanted to do a 0% interest card and pay it off over a longer time period. But otherwise definitely just cash/check to avoid the fees.

[goldengirlz]

Your math is correct. 🙂 Cash wins.

[winecat]

Apr 17, 2021 11:45:04 GMT -5 tripleshot said:

Is it something you’d possibly want the credit card protection for? If not, use cash. If so, determine if the extra cost is worth the protection.

I can't remember if I saw it here or in a FB group but someone was able to get their money back from a contractor that tried to screw them.  I might have a bit of PTSD about shitty contractors but it would be worth the $140 for that protection. 

[gt7301b]

I still use the credit card if I am giving a deposit for contractors. It is typically worth the difference in the cash back and fee so I am protected if the contractor doesn't show, basically insurance.

[mich1]

We have had a lo5 of work done on the house the last year or so......residing, painting, structural and deck work.....probably about $70k in total. Every contractor we have had has charged up to a 5% surcharge for using a credit card. This surpasses the 3% we would get on the card, so cash it is.

[winecat]

I'm looking for a company to help clean up/dig out my crawl space. I found one company that gives a 10% discount for cash. Below this note, they say "Cash is not a check, it is cash." This seems nuts. I'm guessing most of their jobs are in the 5 figure range.

[ohgillian]

Apr 20, 2021 0:16:55 GMT -5 winecat said:

I'm looking for a company to help clean up/dig out my crawl space. I found one company that gives a 10% discount for cash. Below this note, they say "Cash is not a check, it is cash." This seems nuts. I'm guessing most of their jobs are in the 5 figure range.

I assume it's off the books work -- not reported and no taxes paid on it. I'm surprised they'd be so open about that.

[winecat]

ohgillian- I agree. I was surprised to see if on their website for many reasons, but tax evasion was the big one.