What's in your wallet?

[houseelf]

I left my debit card in the ATM last night and the bank didn't find it when it checked this morning. :GAH: Of course, I had to cancel the damn thing because I know that it is where I left it and yet it didn't show up. It will take 7 business days to issue a new one. Meanwhile, I'm leaving town for three days tomorrow with only cash (GASP!) and one credit card. In this house, we only have one debit card and one credit card. Sure, the debit card has savings, overdraft, and blah, blah, blah attached to it, but essentially, we float this family through two accounts. Mostly, this stems from the lean days of residency when I didn't want to be tempted with too many credit sources. I had to put in all sorts of guard rails to build in success because I'm not all that disciplined naturally. Quite simply, I didn't trust myself. This is going to be a PITA for many reasons, including some reoccurring charges that come out of this accoutn that will now bounce under a new set of numbers. I guess it is a good time to review what is being charged out of this account.

I read an article awhile back stating that incorrect credit card denials are on the rise, mostly because of security blocks and network freezes. In truth, I have been denied multiple times in the last few year for stupid reasons (transposed number, the Asian offices being down, the magnetic strip failing to be read, etc). This always stops my heart and I quickly get on my phone to ascertain whether I truly am NSF due to some sort of fraud or if it is just something weird. After reassuring myself that yes, my life savings hasn't been wiped out, I have to stop myself from compulsively shouting "THERE IS MONEY IN THERE! I PROMISE! LOOOOOOK!" because I'm totally comfortable in my own skin. Right.

Anyhoo, I'm going to open up a second cc just to ensure access to funds and I'm thinking about an airline one because there is a significant amount of travel in this house. What is your game plan on this?

[spotty_dog]

I would say that for us, the simplicity of a single line of credit outweighs the annoyance factor of having that credit line go down from time to time. It's also nice to have all our purchases count toward the same rewards -- we have started putting everything from the garbage bill to the groceries on the card, and we're about to have enough miles for our second trip to Hawaii in as many years. I carry a debit card from our bank, a credit card, usually $10-40 in cash, sometimes a single check. We almost never use the debit card, because we carry a fairly low balance in the bank account and because debit card purchases aren't covered by the consumer protections that a credit card carries.

[SoonerTexan]

Google which ones have sweet rewards. You can usually find a better offers on some of the cards than they advertise on their main website or send to you via links to specific promotions in forums and articles. Of course be careful that it is a legit site, but I got $500 worth of rewards points on the Chase Sapphire we got for residency interview expenses this way.

I like Chase cards simply because the rewards are flexible and they show up when we log into our bank account, making it easy to track and pay everything all at once

[medpedspouse]

At our bank, besides the savings, we have two checking accounts with debit cards. I first did this for travel. I have our main account "the primary" and the other I call "reserve". Anyway, when I travel, I always use the reserve in which I carry a lower balance. This way, if that card is stolen, it will not yield much. I also have the primary account as back-up. Likewise, if something were to happen to my primary card, I could transfer money to the reserve account and use that card. We also do this with credit cards. I have just had too many times where my card has gotten compromised and I cannot access funds. I always want a back-up -especially when I am out of the country.

Now as far as travel reward ccards, I use the SW Air one and love it because I can make reservations for my mom/friends. The points are not tied to the card holder. I also use SW a lot. However, where we lived before, I used the AA card because SW was not an option.

[spotty_dog]

Our travel rewards card works for almost any airline, plus it gives us a credit back for baggage fees when we fly. Sweet.

[ides]

We both have two credit cards and one debit. We each have one rewards card and the other is regular/keeping for long credit history reasons.

[Phoebe]

Debit/credit card and a rewards credit card.

[SuzySunshine]

We have a Costco AmEx that we use as our main card, A Southwest Visa and our debit card - those are our 3 main accounts. We also have several other credit cards that are open but we don't carry. I also have several department store credit cards that I don't carry, it has gotten to where stores can look up your number so I only have them do that if I get some advantage, like an extra % off, for using it. We've thought about closing 2-3 of our cards but everyone tells me not to because it hurts your credit, I suspect the companies will close them as we continue to not use them but we don't carry them so they're not really a security issue.

[poky]

Two banks (because one is local to where we used to live and we needed a way to deposit checks more easily), so two checking accounts (only one of which is actually used), multiple savings accounts at both banks (one is interest-bearing and has the bulk of non-invested savings (emergency fund) in it). Three main credit cards, all through chase, all give us miles (two different airlines), one other card through some other bank that we almost never use, presumably it's for emergencies if we run out of credit on the others? Honestly not sure why we still have it). One of the "main" cards is the primary card, the one we pull out when we're at a store buying stuff (or on amazon or most other online one-time purchases). Any bills that can be paid by cc are paid through one of the other "main" ones, mostly to slowly build miles up on that other airline, and the third one...I don't remember if there's anything regular that comes out of it or not. There might be. All are paid off in full every single month. Only exceptions have been when I've been too busy/distracted/sick/whatever to log in and set up the transfers; hasn't happened recently, though, now that I have more of a system down for that.

The whole mess is tracked through mint, which makes it easy. All the numbers and login info is in keepass.

We're flying to Europe in business class using miles from one of the cards next year, and we went (also using miles for business class) about 8 years ago, too (and we still have miles left over; we're probably 1/3 of the way to the next free business class international round trip for both of us, so we probably spend enough on that card to make similar trips every 5-6 years).

We're both savers, though. Having money and credit accessible has never been a problem.

[Thirteen]

One debit card, and one CC. The CC is in my name and I carry it -- it's a miles card that also offers % and cash back options, no annual fee.

We have a few CCs between us, but don't use them anymore.


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[samssugarmomma]

We have several accounts between two banks. We have our main account for our monthly bills then second accounts for:
- our taxes and professional expenses - dh is an independent contractor so we make quarterly payments to the irs and we save monthly for upcoming board expenses, journals, acls, etc. it doesn't hurt as much setting 125 aside every month but it would hurt in 10 years to come up w 4k. I had him write down every thing we have to pay for and how often and calculated how much it was on a monthly basis
- house expenses / savings (new ac, new furnace, the washer dies, mulching, etc. I think it was recommended to set aside 3% of the value of the house for yearly maintenance
- planned expenses that don't happen every month (car insurance, kid activities that are billed quarterly, accountant, our alarm company)
- vacation fund
- emergency fund


We also have a crap load of cc debt from funding the last 10 yrs. of training so we have 3 cc with balances and 2 gas cards. The gas cards are paid off every month.


I like to compartmentalize the money so that we don't overspend on accident. That's how my brain works.

[Alacrity]

Two credit cards. One is mine one is hers. Everything goes on hers, but we have mine as a backup. Every once in a while we switch, I have found it good practice to stop using a credit card for 3 months and see what shows up on it. I have had some services put a minor monthly charge I'm not aware of.

[bokelley]

We have a crap ton of cc but don't carry balances on any of them.

We use or AMEX SPG, discover and banana card for everyday purchases, we pay them of at the end of each month.

We have 2 checking accounts and 4 savings accounts. 1 local checking and ING. 1 savings for rainy day fund, 1 for vacation, 1 for fun stuff and 1 for retirement.

[MAPPLEBUM]

Wow this has been so interesting to read! Is it common for the spouses to take over financial responsibilities because DH is too busy? From the time my husband and I started getting serious he said I was going to be the person to take care of finances. It has been a daunting task because I am TERRIBLE with money and numbers. Just in the last few months I've relinquished him of all final responsibilities because really it gets too confusing if he makes a loan or insurance payment and I don't factor into budget. I feel like I'm finally starting to get literate enough to actually start putting money away each month too.

So with that said we both use my Citibank credit card for 99% of purchases (and of course pay off each month). It has a great points system which we just used to stay at the Palmer House Hilton last weekend. Besides that I have an additional credit card I don't even carry and he has two that are pretty inactive. I have Wells Fargo checking which I drain on a regular basis and retirement savings with Vanguard. He has a couple accounts with Schwab and savings with Vanguard. Not all that interested in combining all accounts, I sort of prefer there to be separation even if we're using both accounts to pay off credit card each month.

[DrBandMe]

SO has his own credit card and banking account for the time being. Once we are married we will be combining finances and at that time we will have two credit cards and just the one account. Through residency I don't anticipate needing more than that but I'm not opposed to more savings accounts once we get through the next step. I have some CC debt left from my ex but that will be paid off only a few months after SO and I marry next May. I will always keep that separate and out of my own earnings as I don't feel it is even remotely part of DrBtobe's responsibility to pay debt from my first marriage.