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Our Reason For Being
Cash is under threat across our planet.
Card schemes hate cash, as they can only wring profit from their debt-creating plastic products.
Visa and MasterCard have both made clear that cash is their enemy. Since 90% of all purchases on our planet are made using cash, this enemy of the card schemes must be the trusty friend of humanity.
Cash-is-Cool is working tirelessly to defend cash from predatory card schemes.
Win £250!
Have you been in a situation where you have come off worse for paying with plastic? Finally here is a chance to vent AND win cash for doing so! One lucky entrant will win a whopping £250!
Here at Cash-is-Cool we want to hear about any situations you may have been in where you have experienced difficulties or even incurred extra costs when you have used a credit or debit card. Tell us about your experiences and you could be the lucky winner of the fabulous cash prize of £250.
Please fill out the form below and include your hometown and age in the entry. If we like your stories, we will publish them alongside your hometown and age on this page, so do watch this space to see if you’re a winner. Please also let us know how you would spend the cash prize when writing your entry!
Competition closes on the 10th of November, so get writing!
Friday, 7th October 2011
Best entries (106)
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If I run out of food and can't get it delivered till another time I have to order a takeaway. Online they charge a £0.50 charge for paying via card. I don't always have enough cash on me as it's usually a last minute decision and I have no choice. This REALLY annoys me!!!
i hate plastic , the intrest is horrendous
Having to pay £5!!!!!! for each removal of cash from the machine at T in the Park.
Booking for a flight with flybe, cheap flights but they now even charge to pay with a visa debit card.
If i won the cash i would spend it on my husband he has had a rough year, just finished chemo, and just waiting to see if he is in remission
after not using my berclays debit card for over a year and there being sufficient funds in the account I used it at a local store upon entering my pin number I was informed it was incorrect leading to much embarressment due to no cash to pay for my purchase. I then tried it at a cash machine resulting in same message of incorrect pin.I asked barclays for a pin reminder and when it came through, I was a bit suprised to find the pin I had been entering was correct. to this day no explanation has been given as to the error. hometown: Sheffield
Everytime I see something in a shop my eftpos takes a hit.
when i tried to put some money on online bingo put the wrong code in and all my wages for that month when on my balance took 4 days to get it back
I recently broke a front tooth and had to pay the dentist £200 on my credit card for NHS charges to fit a new crown. To win £250 would bring a smile back to my face.
I hate the fact there's a charge to get your own money out in some places, and the bank charges you even if you go 1p over. to be honest aren't we doing the banks a favour when we STILL give them are money to look after, I sometimes wonder wether keeping it under the matress is safer.
About 18 years ago, my wife, who was pregnant at the time, and our four daughters, (6,5,3,2 at the time), did our Christmas shopping at a new superstore and ended up with two trolleys of food. After putting it all through the till and being told it came to £300, I handed over my credit card and had it declined. I couldn't understand why as we'd posted the payment off in good time, (or so we thought). We left saying we would get the cash out and went straight home and have NEVER been back there since! Since then I have always tried to use cash for everything. If I were to win this money would go towards my wife's Christmas present. Milton Keynes-50
a day after having my wallet stolen at a festival in spain, my boyfriend and i were very relieved to still have his debit card with enough money to keep us going. or so we thought. we tried to book into a hostel using but the card was rejected. we knew there definitely enough money in the account so went to a cash machine to withdraw money to pay for the hotel. then for no reason at all, the machine ate the card!!! it was a saturday night and we couldn't get through to the spanish atm hotline ( and probably wouldn't have understood anything anyway!). so we ended up sleeping on the beach for 3 nights, putting some of our stuff in a baggage storage facilty in the train station and carrying the rest with us. my mum had to wire us money to get home. the festival was amazing but we really stank at the end of it!
so i would spend the money on a spa day and lots of nice papmering products and lovely smelling shower gel!
ordered a credit check online put in card details - forgot about it and ended up paying for the next 12 months! it certainly didnt help my credit score- quite the opposite it ruined it as i didnt fund the card as i was out of the country for that time
My Debit card was cloned a couple of years ago, my bank phoned me to tell me they had stopped my card, I was on holiday in Tenerife at the time with my children and was left with no money, had to use family credit cards and cover the cost of interest until I could get my money, which took weeks.
When I was on holiday in Gran Canaria the ATM ate my debit card and I was left with about £10 left in my pocket. Luckily it was the last day of the holiday and the owner of the local restaurant that we vistied most nights of our holiday tried to help by checking the ATM then ringing the bank for us. He then served us up a meal and a few drinks in his restaurant free of charge. It touched our hearts that he was so kind to us. On a separate occasion my debit card was also the subject of fraud, some company in Gibralter charged my card a total of 11 times in the space of an hour and the total that they charged to my card was over £300. Luckily my bank accepted this was fraud and refunded the money to me.
A SMALLISH CORNER STORE I USE SURCHARGES £10 FOR ALL CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS ON PURCHASES UNDER £10 !! HOME TOWN : HIGH WYCOMBE AGE:67 WOULD USE THE £250 PRIZE ON A DIGITAL TELEVISION, AS DIGITAL SWITCHOVER DAY IS VERY NEAR, AND MY VERY OLD TELEVISION CANNOT PICK UP THE DIGITAL SIGNAL!
I paid £26 using my debit card for a hotel room with a company that shall remain un-named. Having made a slight mistake with the contact details I cancelled the booking and tried again, this time it was £34. Little did I know that the bookings were stated as non refundable in the small print, so I ended up paying for both bookings all because of a typo, a badly designed booking form and a the inability to cancel the payment from my card. Very frustrating and upsetting. No apology from the company (for taking some of the cash in exchange for nothing) or my bank.
Do not take cash out abroad with your credit card , they will hit you up with charges , get cash out at the airport
When my debit card got stuck in the ATM machine
I moved here form America to be with my British husband six years ago and we got into trouble with credit cards and are now going through IVA as a result...If I could give any one of you out there adv ice it would be NEVER USE CREDIT CARDS....CASH IS COOL!
In my experience, the most annoying thing about incurring extra costs using a credit or debit card is when booking cinema tickets and you are charged a "card handling fee" It's bad enough that in oredr to take the children to see a film you have to pay around £40 for 4 tickets, pay inflated prices for popcorn and drinks, even pay for 3D glasses these days, making an average trip to the cinema for a family of 4 cost in the region of almost £60. And then they have the cheek to charge a card handling fee!
Nottingham - 31. I used to have a joint credit card with my bank. I was doing a bit of shopping online when i was unknowingly transfered to a dodgy website. I researched this website and found that they take money off the card more than once. I immediately rang my card company and informed them of this. They said that £5 had been taken off already and i told them i didn't mind paying that but i didn't want any other money taking off. The guy on the other end said he would cancel the card as it had been compromised and send me out a new one. A couple of months later i found £40 had been taken off my card by this website so i rang the card company and explained the situation to be told that they had cancelled my partner's card instead of my own. They said i wouldn't have to pay this as it was their mistake and would again send new cards out. A couple of months later i got a red letter from them with loads of extra charges on saying i hadn't paid them or months. I rung them up again explaining that the full balances were paid off every month in full by standing order and as the card is for the same bank then they should be able to see that the money has been taken out of my account and paid off. The woman at the other end told me that when the last i called the man had cancelled my cards altogether and opened up a new one with a different account number and everything and not told me about it so i told her that i wasnt paying any extra fees for their 2nd mistake. She cancelled all the fees and i paid the full balance off but cancelled the card there and then.
hi my names Steph i'm 24 and i come from southport. i remember i was at a petrol garage and id checked my bank balance before i topped up my car so new i had money in my bank.so i topped it up with £30 and went in to the garage to pay when my card was declined. i felt absolutley mortified i couldn't believe it i knew i had money in my bank. so tried again thought maybe id typed in the wrong pin. it was declined again. i went outside to try and get cash out and the cash machine kindly told me to contact my bank. so there i was at the garage owing them £30 and no way to pay them. Luckily for me the guy who owned the garage remembered i go there a lot so told me to come back and pay by 8 at night because thats when he finishes his shift and if i don't then it would come out of his wages.so i did the walk of shame out of the garage and went back within half an hour with the cash. The bank had cancelled my card due to unusual spending on my account.
I got myself into a bit of a debt situation a few years ago and ended up paying over £1500 in charges to my bank, I put in a claim - like Martin Lewis said to, months of waiting I had a letter saying that the courts had deemed the charges acceptable. I've been trying to clear my debt ever since.
Paying for a charge when you withdraw money from a cash point!
After checking my bank balance i was very pleased at just how much i had left play with after all bills were paid, i decided to go for a 'good' weekly shop.. filling treats into my trolley as well as the normal essentials. feeling rather smug when i got to the checkout thinking 'my family will feast well this week'. As the last of my items went through the total was £97 . Placing my card in the machine i entered my pin.. Horror.. CARD DECLINED!!!! 'this cannot be.. i have just checked my balance' "try again said the very patient cashier".. Card declined again!! i had to leave my shopping and go back for it later with CASH Was clearly an error with my bank but i have never been so embarressd in my life.. i will always carry cash on me now
Never use plastic , the intrest is horrendous
I paid for a meal at a local restaurant which should have come to £35. The waiter accidentally charged my card £350, it took me weeks to get the money back!
when i recieved a phone call from the bank asking if i had enjoyed paris as i had bought champagne there on my debit card...at the exact time i was at the local post office buying a book of stamps...bit of difference..........
Booking a holiday with friends all excited and ready to pay. Getting out my credit card I am told I will be charged an extra 2.5%! Needless to say I didn't go on the holiday with an additional cost of £15 to pay!
I lost my debit card but needed to take it to prove my identity etc when collecting some concert tickets...the concert was the day after so I couldn't go!!! arghhhh
I was in Egypt with my mum and we had just had an amazing meal, we went to pay with her credit card and the payment wouldn't go through. In the end we had to call the lender who said because we were overseas they had to call my dad (joint cardholder!) and i had a threeway conversation with my dad thinking he was funny by pretending to debate whether to allow to payment! Redfaced, we scurried back to our hotel. I came home to a phonebill costing me an extra £21! For a 5 minute call!
I used my card to pay for our £75 bill in pizza hut (it was a birthday party, we're not just a greedy family lol), well the system went down and somewhere in between my payment was authorised but not completed,,,so they had to attempt to take it again, well there was only around £145 in the bank so of course it declined, I was mortified, we ended up having to run to a cash point, and spend just under £2 getting what cash we could out, then get cash from other adults at the party to pay for it. The money did eventually go back in several days later after nobody taking any responsibility for it. If I was to win the money it would pay for christmas for my family. We had our xmas money saved by June, then our car died and we had to spend the lot trying to pay for repairs, eventually £1k later we gave up and had to buy another car. So this would go some way towards paying for the xmas we had hoped for.
Our son had a DSi bought by his grandma. Lovely thing, great bit of technology. Well one day I checked the bank as I was off to a car boot sale. Went to the cash point about half hour later to get money out, and it declined, why? because my son has somehow managed to spend £45 on games in half an hour without even knowing. Never got the money back as Nintendo said it was my own fault, as did the visa chargeback people. Charming lol. If I was to win £250, it would be used to treat the kids to something nice.
I only recently had my first credit card.............I had a low limit to prevent me overspending but forgot how close I was to my limit one day, and for going over by 97p I clocked up so many charges and late fees and default charges that I ended up owing over £370!! Credit Cards are a mightmare.they get you deeper and deeper into debt in my honest opinion
I was really excited to book cheap flights earlier in the year for a last minute holiday that was well overdue with my family. Having got right to the end of the flight confirmation and entering my credit card details I certainly came off worse ..I got charged around £7 for using my card to make the transaction. This too me is extortionate and really should be stopped. I then thought I would use my debit card instead to avoid the charge .. oh no .. that too incurred a fee. In fact the only way I could have got away fee free was to use an Electron card .. and I've not had one of those for years. Why do we have to stomach these fees?? If I won £250 today, I would certainly use it to buy christmas presents for our two young daughters .
I found out my girlfriend was cheating on me, because she had unwittingly used my credit card to pay for hers and 'his' hotel room one night when she was 'working away'.Not only that, I then had to use the credit card again to pay for her to find somewhere to stay after I'd kicked her out!.Too soft? Yeah I probably am.I'd use the £250 cash to pay for a weekend away with my new 'faithful' gorgeous girlfriend! Every cloud and all that?.
I have had a few problems but most serious was when I went to withdraw my child benefit from a cash machine that was not my bank. I tried to take all the money out and put in all the relevant pin codes etc but then the machine said it couldn't process the request. When I went to another cash machine there was no money left in my account. I contacted my bank who told me I would have to wait up to 6 weeks to get the money as they would have to check with the bank whose cash machine it was. This left me in a very difficult situation with no money at all that weekend and I have 5 children - it was horrible. I did eventually get the money refunded back into my account about 3 weeks later. I never now make large withdrawals out of cash machines. The £250 cash prize will be a great help in buying christmas presents from high street stores instead of on line.
I got a phone call from the Fraud Investigation Team at 3am one morning asking if I had been to Japan ! Of course, I hadn't as they had just woken me from a deep sleep. They then asked where my credit card was, it was in my purse. They then asked me to go and get it. Quite frustrating at this time of the morning I did as they asked. Only then did they tell me that my card had been used in Japan for approximately £3500. The amount was taken off my card and they were starting to charge interest on the amount. Eventually it was sorted out but it did take many phone calls and many months. They said someone must have copied my details while I used my card and an identical card had been made. It's scary to think someone can copy your card and just start spending on it. Hometown Perth Age 40. If I won £250 I would take my husband and children on a shopping spree using cash for every purchase. It's so much nicer to pay for things with real money
The worst nightmare I had was filling my car up with just over £50 of petrol.... went to pay by card and it was declined! No other form of payment and had to phone my dad to travel to 20 miles to pay it for me. I got home and checked the account and it should have been authorised..... the bank couldn't explain why it was refused .......
We were going on a day trip to France via coach and my husband leaving it to the last minute to get cash out, thought he would wait until we got to where we were meeting the coach to use the cash dispenser. It was out of order, so he said dont worry I will just use my card over in France instead. After seeing the additional charges he incurred on that trip, he has never made the mistake again. I would use £250 cash, if I won it, to have a money worry free night out with my husband as we are having such a dreadful year so far!
Using cash is cool and I recommend it especially in this economic crisis. Buying an item by cash makes me feel cautious before departing my hard-earned money. Whereas, with the credit card it is too easy to pay anything not knowing that I'm already in the red, There are times when I miss paying my bill before the deadline. As soon as my money reaches their bank, a tremendous interest has already been added. And another thing is what if I phone the plastic company using their 0845? I am usually kept over 20 minutes before their personnel reply. and if ever they do, I'm being passed on from one department to another as nobody knows the answer to my query. And who pays my phone bill? Is cash - a deal or no deal? A deal, of course! I become more sensible with my spendings and I can buy more Christmas presents from my accumulated savings by using cash.
my main issue with my credit card, is that i set up a direct debit to pay the minimum payment each month. But that minimum payment is not nesseraily enough to stop you going over your agreed limit when they add interest on. So you always have to be careful to pay off more than you think will cover it. this has happened twice to me now with my vanquis credit card and ive been charged each time
I went to the post office to post some parcels(presents for people) and i totally forgot my pin number! I didn't realise i had forgotten it until i went to pay and as the parcels had already been put into the sytem, they had to be paid for! :O) I went home and ended up going back and paying with trusty good-old cash! No pin number needed! Phew!
I had a call from my credit card company trying to verify a purchase which ended up being fraudulent. Same card I use on ......network. They denied [the charge] and issued me a new card," the reader commented. "Might be coincidence, but with the other security gaffes recently, I'm guessing not. Not sure what my opinion of ...... is right now and what my future is with them.
A few months ago my partner returned from our local shops and said she thought something may not have been scanned correctly because the amount she had been charged appeared a lot less than she was expecting. As soon as I looked at the till receipt it became evident that the 2 bottles of wine which would normally cost around £8 each had been put through at £2.99 each, even allowing for any promotion I knew this was a mistake. Before she could un-pack the shopping I was on my way back to the store ready to buy another couple of bottles. There were only 3 left on the shelf so I took took them all, went to the counter and sure enough they scanned at £2.99... wow... what a bargain. The young assistant said "Eight pounds, ninety seven..please" and quick as a flash I placed my debit card in the machine, ready to type in my pin. "Sorry Sir the value must be over ten pounds" I was informed. Grabbing the nearest thing I could see I added 2 very expensive packets of chewing gum to the wine, it was at that moment that the keen eyed duty manager stepped in and queried the price of the wine. After a few mumblings and a visit to the alcohol section she returned and seemed to take great pleasure in telling me that wine had somehow scanned incorrectly, the actual price was £8.49 a bottle. "Oh really" I replied "In that case I'll just take two". I left the shop with my tail firmly between my legs and couldn't help think how different it would have been if I had initially paid in cash
when i had a store card they did not send me the statements ontime therefore making me pay extra charges.
Here in the Highlands most villages only have one cash point and if that is not a RBS one then RBS customers have a problem. Local shops will charge you if you use a debit card for a small transaction so therefore you spend more to go over this threshold, or you use petrol to go to a different village with the appropriate cash point.
Having to pay charges for using a credit card on Ryanair.com and easyjet.com. They charge per flight per person so it can be expensive and very annoying. Once obtained the Visa Electron card as Ryan Air do not charge for using this. However, next time I booked a flight they had changed it to pre-pay mastercard! Annoying to say the least
Me and the girls were were out on the town I flashed my card the man gave a frown We only take cash he grunted at me Tried the cash point but that wasnt free A fiver it charged for getting some money It made me annoyed it was far from funny But carrying cash down my bra at night is far from safe and doesnt look right
I did some online shopping and then went out to the supermarket. I happily wandered the shop picking up loads of bargins and planning the meals for the week ahead. I then get to the till.......my card is no where to be found. Luck for me my friend had come with me, thank goodness, and she offered to pay the total for me. Never been sooooooooo embarrassed
I went to Tesco pay at the pump (bad start already)!! I inserted the plastic and was advised I could get £99.00 worth of fuel. Being a nice guy I only took £70.00.... Well well well it transpires I only had £20.00 in the account as a transaction from a week ago had been debited. I ended up being charged a further £35.00 for unauthorised transaction and £25.00 for being overdrawn!
I am 50 and have never had a credit card in my life and I've done fine so far. I only buy what I can afford and pay by cash and as a result I've never ended up in debt. So I would say, CASH-IN BY SWIPING CARDS.
Buying a new coat on shop website, site kept telling me card declined which made no sense as money was there, I assumed problem with site so kept imputting details - ended up being charged 5 times for the £90 coat on my statement, shop adamanent they did not recieve any payment so no coat and best part of £500 quid down until after 2 WEEKS the bank accepted that they had not sent the payment and refunded back to my account. In meantime I have £500 hole in my account and only due to understanding landlord that I was not more stressed out!!
getting my credit card stuck in the machine, and not being able to get it back straight away, that happened to me once
i got stung taking cash out with my credit card overseas!!!
My worst experience with a debit card was when my husband and I were on holiday in Spain, on the Costa Del Sol . My husband rang up to book a trip to suprise me. He had decided not to book a trip through the Hotel Refs as he felt that he could do a better job booking a trip similar to the ones that the hotel were offering .I was extremely distressed when he told me what he had done, and I spent hours trying to get through to cancel our debit card at the bank in England. It was such a silly and dangerous thing to do as the details on the card could have been used by a bogus company in Spain to take all our money. Luckily, that didn't happen,but it so easily could have done and because of that we spent most of the rest of the day arguing about it............. Anyway, if was lucky enough to win this money it would make mine and the families Christmas so much nicer and I would be very honored if you printed my story even if I didn't win!!! Thank you............
Liverpool - 34 I have had both a debit card and a crdit card cloned and used without my knowledge. The debit card was cloned back when this was an unusual occurrence and I logged into my account on a Monday morning to find someone had spent £1000 in a jewellery store and sent me overdrawn. I phoned the bank and informed them it wasn't me and luckily I had taken cash out of a machine in a different city to where the purchases were made on the same day at roughly the same time. Even so it meant filing a report with the Police and a lengthy process to get the money credited back to my account. Also there was a great implication that the bank was still dubious that I had not in fact spent the money myself.
My washing machine stopped working in May and i decided to get a payday loan in order to purchase a new one. I borrowed £240 and have not yet been able to pay the company in full so every month i have been giving them £60 which is just the interest. If i won £250 I would pay this money to the company to clear the debt.
being charged extrotionate fees for using cash machines in shops
Cost money to use certain cash machines (e.g. in pubs)
I get fed up of travel companys who put a charge on booking holidays using credit cards. The only way is by debit card or cash, this for me is a saving that only by paying cash can you save money. In this instance cash is king!
Martlesham Heath age 50 One local trader agrees, pay with plastic and you pay the full retail price. Pay with cash and you can get instant discounts of up to 75%. Guess which way I pay now!! I'd spend the cash with this trader, to maximise the win
I ORDERED A NEW COMPUTER FROM DELL,AND PAID BY DEBIT CARD,THEY TOOK THE DEPOSIT TWICE,WHICH CAUSE ME TO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FUNDS FOR TWO OF MY DIRECT DEBITS,AND COST £30 BANK CHARGES PER ITEM,.IT TOOK 3 MONTHS OF TELEPHONING AND E-mailing to sort out
christmas
Last year i was informed that i was 100 pound in debt with my bank.. I Phoned the bank and asked . how could this be ?. I Was told i was given an UNPLANNED OVERDRAFT and because one of my bills Had gone over 3 pound.. i was now 100 pound in debt and furious . I Have Since refused to pay this money. and almost 3 times a week i am receiving calls and letters that are quite threatening... So i did my home work on these banks... And to my amazement I Found that these banks had not only broken my contract. but had also broken my trust.. And when your bank breaks it trust with you..as far as i am concerned The Contract has been broken........ The Information that i had found on these banks was explosive..
Holler cash is cool!! The most nightmarish thing I can recall to do with my credit card was when i got robbed in Ibiza, the mugger cut my bag strap and got away with my money, nightclub tickets, passport, mobile phone, camera and worst of all my credit card- resulting in a very unhappy me having to come home :( Im 31 and I stay in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Sunny Scotland!
Having paid for a holiday in 2010 on a credit card I assumed we would be covered under Section 75. However as we had booked the flight, hotel and taxi to Lisbon separately, when the flight was cancelled by Easyjet, we eventually got the money back for the flight but the hotel and taxi were not considered consequential loss as they had not been booked as a package. Therefore, we lost our money. Next time, we will book a flight and then take cash for the hotel and the taxi instead of booking it in advance!
I hate it when you only have a tenner in the bank and you visit a local shop to take your money out of a cash machine and the want to charge you £1.75 to get your own money out that infuriates me how cheeky is that?
I get really frustrated when trying to book a holiday and pay with my debit card - (which, lets face it is just like saying here's my bank account, take the money) and being told the travel agent charges a small fee for paying by debit card and a whopping fee for paying with a credit card. I really, really, really want to go and book a horribly expensive holiday and pay using all copper coins ;-) But what I actually end up doing is paying the fee.
Cash is definetly best! Even places where you do not think that there will be any incurred charges! Abroad, most people openly add further surcharges and taxes no matter what card you use (Debit or Credit) seems to make no difference. The biggest one now though is when you only want a loaf of bread or a bag of sugar and you do not have the cash - then the polite shopkeeper informs you that you have to spend a 'MINIMUM' amount for them to accept your card. So your £1.20 loaf of bread ends up 400 PERCENT more than what you planned to spend! If I were lucky enough to win this cash I would love to spend it in one of the shops that have a larger than normal 'minimum spend' but buy an item at a time! But, in reality I would not have the patience for that either so as boring as it may sound I would have to use it so that I could for once give my family a fantastic Christmas Feast and some pressies on the tree :-) From Tracey - Romney Marsh - Age 21 (twice) (plus 3 more little years)
yes will every year I shop around for cheaper car insurance but if you do not let them know in time they renew your insurance from last years details. you must stop you credit card or debit card details in time they took my details and I had already renewed with some one else so I had to keep ringing the firm to get the money back it took a long time if i had paid in cash they could not of done this
I do my grocery shop online and whenever I shop with asda, I always have problems using my debit card. I place my order and asda automatically charges my card. Then the following day they charge my card again, as the price often differs from day to day. I am then unable to use my own money because my bank holds the first charge for 5-7 days. This is sooo frustrating and from the constant complaints and days of waiting to use my own money, I feel I need to treat myself with money untainted by my bank and asda.
My hometime is Bedford and im 25 years of age.If i won i would invest the money in buying xmas presents for my friends and family.
I have sometimes used my plastic to pay for things online - however sometimes when I've cancelled transactions, they've still taken the money out and then I get charged - so it ends up costing me double or even triple what it would have originally! Grr
I'd buy my husband a lovely birthday present.
i have to pay more when i book iom ferry with card which is annoying
Born and bred in Belfast.On a one hour fuel stop in Bahrain on route to The Maldives,Saw a Breitling watch advertised as only 1695 $. in the Mall at Bahrain airport.Bought it rather quickly as flight call was made to rejoin aircraft straight away.and was pleased I got one so cheaply.When Credit card bill came in it turned out price was in Bahrain dollars and Not US dollars.Ended up paying over 3 grand for the watch....Took years to pay it off
I wish I didn't have to rely on credit cards, but life catches you unaware at times. We recently had a stay at a hotel which we had managed to get a really cheap deal on. Unfortunately I was unprepared for the prices in their restaurant. I don't drive and am a wheelchair user, so I couldn't just pop to a local restaurant and ended up eating at the hotel for 3 days, with 3 people at almost £100 a night. I just put it on the room tab at the end of the meal, but had to deal with it when checking out. I really resented having to pay by credit card, meaning I was going to get charged interest for just eating!
I've been struggling for money recently and with my debit card it's reaally hard to keep track of what I'm spending. I recently went slightly overdrawn after buying groceries shortly before I got some money in and didn't know it had even happened until £60 vanished from my account the next month. I'd love to have £250 to spend on Christmas presents for my family, but in reality, it's probably going to have to go on rent.
Being male, I left my Christmas shopping until my payday on 23rd December (also my Mums Birthday). I went to Sainsburys on my lunch break and spent the whole of it looking for presents and waiting in the Queue only to be then told that my card had declined. I checked it in the cashpoint and the machine swallowed it. It turns out my card had expired and they never sent me a new one. I could not get any money out till after Boxing day and had a very few frosty days from the other half and my family. Christmas presents are 95% done so far, you learn from your mistakes.
When renting a hire car in portugal had to give over the credit card we used to book the car and because their wasn't £1500 cleared funds on the card we got charged extra insurance plus all the fees for using a credit card :0(
The worst experiences I have had have been where I have used a debit card and for no good reason it has not worked in the shops machine. Immediately you worry that something has happened to your account- has some fraud occurred and your account has been emptied. I don't need that stress and prefer to use cash if at all possible! Keep up the good work.
I went to do my shopping at Tesco and paid with my card. The man told me to take my card out so I did. He then told me off for taking it out too early and made me put all my info back in. Obviously I was charged twice and had to drive all the way back to get a refund!!
I hate that when you leave a tip in a restaurant on a credit or debit card the waiting staff may not receive all or any of the tip. I always tip in cash!
I have been charged £10 to withdraw money fusing my debit card! I was at a music festival and wasn't told about the charge. It was late at night , I had run out of real money and I was stuck on the campsite - it appeared to be a regular Visa machine so I assumed it would be free to withdraw the £20 I wanted. It wasn't until I got home and checked my balance that I realised I had incurred an extra £10 service charge for using a third party withdrawal machine. I was doubly annoyed because I am careful to the point of paranoia over my card details - I won't even tell my husband my PIN number and it's a joint account! This episode has certainly made me appreciate the value of money a lot more - and by "value of money", I mean a handful of tenners, not a piece of plastic that can be so easily abused with virtually no comeback! If I win, I will put the money towards next year's festival - but this time I will make sure I buy a money belt and keep enough money on me for a late night bacon sandwich!
Ive learnt my lesson to never have a credit card again. in 2001 i got a barclay card , id just gone 18, and was a doing a apprenticeship,. i used the card every now and again and always paid it, but in 2002 i had a accident at work and have to stop the course. i became depressed and found shopping helped me, i got into a bit of debt but couldnt pay it off so every month the intrest went up and up, it got to about £800. i made a payment plan with them and in 2003. i got told id paid it all off, in this time id never recieved a barclay card statement. 2004 i got a call saying i owed £1500 , my mum phoned for me and they said no i had a late payment charge of £45 which my dad paid for me. then 2006 i went to my current barclays account and found £600 had gone missing, i enquired and they said barclay card had took it for outstanding charges. since then all ive had is harrasment from several debt collecting compaines, one in particular who have been very nasty and intimadting. the others have passed it on as they said something didnt sound right. they always seem to phone and demand when something goes wrong and it really gets me down, wish i had some way to prove it. ive written to barclays and theysent meover 48 letters ,which they sent out to me over these years saying i owed them money and that they were going to take money from my account, but i have never seem them until then. im now a cash only person, its made me ill with all these threats, if i did owe something why tell me id paid it off, why not tell me sooner , before all intrest stacked up. please think carefully before getting one , its made me ill and depressed all this batteling .
Cash is the best way forward, so many extra charges can be incurred by using debit cards. The absolute bain of my life is booking a really low cost flight in order to save money, yet your hit with about £20 per person surcharge for using a card!! Such a rip-off! And then once your on holiday, if you wish to use your debit card to get foreign money you get penalised with rubbish exchange rates and bank charges to change the money! Therefore, cash is also the best for actually being on holiday!
I paid for some goods using my credit card. A month later when my statement hit the mat it seemed a bit heavier than usual. When I opened it I was shocked to see that a strange company I had never heard of had taken 20p every minute since my original transaction! My balance was into thousands! I contacted he credit card company and they said they don't check amounts below a certain amount so had not picked up on the fraudulent transactions! It took weeks to sort out and it was a real worry for me. Now I use cash and have binned the cards.
My husband and i were staying overnight at a holiday inn in san francisco and had paid for the stay with an amex card - the man behind the counter did seem decidedlysneaky looking and did not seem to like us british tourists - anyway when we got home from our holiday and when we got the bill through, it had $220 added to it for 10 porn films that we had apparently managed to watch in the space of 15 hours - wow that would have been going some! did manage to get refund but was not impressed!
I will spend the money on treating the kids at Christmas. They deserve it as they have never moaned when I have not had much to give.
I was ordering a cinema surround system over the telephone using my debit card but just before the payment, I was advised that I would be charged an administration fee. On hearing this, I then decided I might as well use my credit card because I would have better cover should something go wrong with the purchase. When I gave my credit card details, the 3 digit number on the back is by co-incidence exactly the same as my debit card. The sales person refused to accept it saying that having the same number was ‘fishy’ as this never happens and hung up. He done me a favour because when I went online, I found the item to be 10% cheaper with the same company and they accepted by debit card without any fees! Belfast, Age 47.
Cash is cool - pin numbers on debit/credit cards are Lucifer's handiwork. I am having to remember at least three four digit numbers on various cards, in addition to another few four digit numbers for various door codes for our office buildings. One day, I forgot the pin number on my card because it was too similar to our front door code and I had to make do with baked beans on toast for a couple of days until I got my new card. Cash will always be King in my book and cards will be King Nothing! Hometown:- Tunbridge Wells Age:- 33
I find most people are so used to credit card companies adding charges for using your card, but I find it unacceptable when shops have a 'minimum spend' before you can use a debit card without being charged. I visited a local independant shop (you know the type we are told we should support more) to buy some bits to make my daughter's birthday cake. I didn't have any cash on me but as I was spending around £8 I didn't see it being a problem, however when I went to pay I was told I'd be charged £1 for paying by card if I spent less than £10. There weren't even any signs up warning about this 10% minimum penalty for using a card. And dont get me started on card fraud!! I'm 34 and live in Notts. If I won I would put it towards a trip to Lapland with the kids next year :-)
i booked a flight online but there was a problem with the booking and it close to a week to get the refund back on my card
During a motorbike trip from Santander (Spain), across the Pyrenees and through the entire length of France I brought plastic to pay for the toll roads thinking it would be more convenient and cheaper - WRONG. I collected £70 worth of additional charges on top of the toll cost! Outrageous - plastic went into the bin on my return. I would use £250 cash for my next trip - fuel and tolls without plastic!
Had booked and paid for cinema tickets on line. Arrived at the cinema and realised I had left my card at home, had to rebuy my tickets with cash, didn't have enough cash to buy popcorn to appease the kids. Totally stressed out before we even got in the queue!
I haven't had any trouble spending too much on my debit card but once i went to a cash machine to get some money out. I put my card in as you do and typed my pin and and got the cash out. Then i was like NOO my card has been chewed up. Anyways i cancelled my card until wait for it...i was looking through my purse a couple of days later to find MY DEBIT CARD! It wasn't chewed up at all. What i did was i must of been having a good chat with my friend and must of took the card out of the machine and without thinking put it back in my purse. OH THE SHAME!!! Needless to say i go the mick taken out of me and i wasn't impressed that i couldn't get any money out of my account for a few days!!!
Forgot to mention in my entry my Hometown (With the 1 x cash machine) is Needham Market and i am 29 years old. If I did happen to win the prize I am 30 in February and have planned a once in a life time Las Vegas trip to ease the pain, the money would go one updating my desprately poor wardbrode for the trip as it currently is mainly Ipswich town shirts (which I will still be proud to wear :D)
I am a 17 year old boy and i live in Scunthorpe i would like to buy an xbox or a ps3 but never got the money
I orded from amazon and clicked the free delivery option. The next week it took £50 out of my bank account and said it was for the delivery price for the 3 books i had orded the week before.
Being from Suffolk and living in the coutryside i can safely say I truley appreciate that cash is cool. One blissful night out in my local town I forgot to pack some cash. Is not always easy to have cash on you where I live i must add, there is only 1 cash machine in the village and that is 1 more than most of the local villages! Anyways.... I forgot to "cash up" and was packing my "trustworthy" debit card. First stop Stowupland Crown, who, didnt take a card. Meant skipping paying the first round but on the flip side looking like a tool. Secondly, the Riverside bar, who as luck would have it did take card, at a £2.00 additional charge. Couldnt skip the round again so took the hit, twice... 3rd place, Queens Head who, when my round came about delighted in telling me happily they did take card but due to the levies charged by card companies have a £20.00 minmum spend. A round and shots it was then! Good idea at the time and all that. Decided to round off the night in the local nightclub jokers, who did not take card.... so begrudgingly began the 1.5miles each way walk of shame to the cash machine. Should have just bit the bullet and got the cash first, lesson learned job done. After checking by bank balance on the net the next morning I soon realised there was a 2nd valuable lesson to be learned, I had spent twice what I had budgeted! Packing a card in Towns and Cities may just about pass ,however with cash you can keep track of spending during heavy nights..! a very useful thing! cash has and will always be king in the countryside. Never head out on a countryside night out (or any) without a cheeky £50.00 in the wallet or prepare to spend double that!
I have experienced extra costs when being overdrawn in my overdraft, paying in a corner shop on debit card which charges extra, paying to get cash out and when I refund something that I've paid for on card, it takes ages for the money to come back in. Cash all the way!
when i put my debit card in a cash machine i tried to take out £150 but when i did it processed the money but didnt give any money out . i went in to complain but they said it wasnt there problem and sent me away!
Hi Cash is VERY cool! I'm currently living in Oxford studying Business Marketing. I'm twenty. I can assure you one thing, I will have a lot to tell you if I win this great prize. I'm planning to create a new marketing product and obviously this amount of cash will greatly help me to realise it! Bye-Bye Team CASH ££