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So, I've continued on in my idealistic pursuit of trying to live life using only cash, while avoiding using debit cards and, when possible, communicating any of my personal banking information to vendors. Of course, I have had to make various compromises and least-evil choices, since one cannot use cash to make online purchases, which these days is difficult (impossible?) to avoid entirely, and some of my bills must be paid to out-of-state companies.
Recently I switched to a new bank. A great feature of the bank is they allow you one free cashiers check per day. Cashiers checks are nice because they don't give away your own personal bank account number or another other personal info, other than which bank you use, and your name. Also, the money is immediately taken out of your account, so you don't end up with payments happening at random times, like you do with a personal check. But you can still put a stop payment on a cashiers check if you need to. Also, companies that don't trust personal checks are usually happy with a cashier's check, and other banks won't require a clearing time, if you are trying to deposit into somebody else's account. So I use cashier's checks for bills that must be mailed out, or if I need to move a huge amount of money across town (like, $1000) to pay a local bill.
Amazon got rid of paycode, and I was bummed about that. Amazon, of course, never asked if I wanted them to do that, or gave me an opportunity to give feedback on the change. Amazon gift cards are still easy to buy pretty much anywhere, fortunately, though the cards have purchase restrictions that sometimes make it not possible to get the exact amount that you need.
I am still using a NetSpend pre-paid debit card on rare occasions, like for a purchase a month or so ago at searspartsdirect.com. These are nice because they are totally separate from your regular bank account, but the downside is there is a $3 fee for reloading and a $2 fee per transaction.
My Suburban was recently totalled in a vehicle collision, but fortunately I had rental car coverage on my insurance. When I went to pick up the vehicle, I was dismayed to discover (1) they require a $50 deposit, even if insurance is paying for everything else; (2) they only allow the deposit to be made through a debit or credit card; and (3) they will not accept pre-paid debit cards. Fortunately, I still had my debit card active from my previous bank, but I had to get them to drive me home and back so that I could pick it up. I understand why they want your debit card on file, but I don't see why they can't have some other alternative, like giving them a large refundable cash deposit, say $500 or something.
Something I was pondering the other day was what exactly I would do if I was going on a long trip out of state, where my bank does not have branch. Since I can never afford to travel, it is not a pressing question, but more of an interesting one. Carrying a few thousand dollars around in busy airports is maybe a bad idea. I've read that, a few decades ago, traveler's checks were popular and could be cashed at any bank. I'm not sure if something similar could be done with a cashiers check made out to myself. I believe USPS still does money orders, so I suppose I could just make out a few money orders to myself and cash them after arrival.
I believe that Facebook is evil and have never had an account with Facebook, and I never want to have one. Actually, I did have an account once for about an hour, about a decade or so ago, when my boss wanted me to update some company facebook page. I just deleted the account afterwords.
A difficulty I'm having now is that I need to buy another old, used vehicle, and apparently all the good deals are on Facebook Market, or so relatives are telling me. A few years ago I would have searched Craigslist for this, but I'm told that Craigslist has lost most of their customers to Facebook Market. So it is a bit of a conundrum.
My wife quit using facebook a few years ago — IIRC, it was making her feel very depressed and empty on the inside — but she was thinking she might get an account again just to be able to check Facebook Market. I've gotten contradictory reports on whether or not it is possible to view Facebook Market listings without an account. Currently I can't see anything on www.facebook.com/marketplace because I've blocked their JavaScript.
Enjoy this complementary article about Facebook election interference:
39 Times Facebook Interfered in US Elections Since 2008
This work © 2024 by Christopher Howard is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.