I saw this post over at Budgets Sexy and thought it was a good way for us all to share a little bit more. I encourage you to fill out your own responses in the comments below so that we can all get to know each other a little better.
1) How do you spend: cash, debit or credit?
Cash? What’s that? I spend mostly using my rewards credit cards and pay them off in full every month. I do need to use quarters to do laundry so I get a roll of those every so often when I run to Walmart. I have a debit card from ING but have not used the card except for the time when they are running a promotion. I do not have a debit card for the account at the other bank where I get quarters because they charge $12 a month for the debit feature. Wow!!! I think the only reason I have a Chase debit card is because it came with the account but I don’t know the PIN (forgot) and do not keep enough money in there to use it anyway.
I also use checks on Sundays to make my donation to church, instead of dropping cash in the basket. This way I always have a record of what I have given and do not need to have cash just lying around in the house.
2) Do you bank online? How about use a financial aggregator (Mint, Wesabe, Yodlee, etc.)?
I currently use ING for my online banking and I have said over and over how much I love ING. I have used both Quicken online and Mint in the past although I am going mainly with Mint now because Quicken online is about to be shut down. I also use Google documents to create and manage my budget so I can enter receipts from my spending and then Mint makes pretty graphs and sends me alerts.
3) What recurring bills do you have set on autopay?
All of my bills are set up to autopay via my credit cards. I pay my rent via credit card in person because it costs too much to have it on autopay and I am looking for ways to save money not ways to add more fees.
4) How are your finances automated?
I set up all my bills to be paid on credit cards as best as I can and then I use ING to push a payment to the credit cards every week. This way I do not have to worry about the ever changing due dates or minimum payments. I make four payments a month to the two cards that I use and the amounts are always more than the minimum. I have the final payment for the month done by the 23rd of the month so the card is always paid in full by the due date.
This way my card is paid in full and I never pay interest on those two cards. The only bills that I pay manually are rent and church donations because I did not have a satisfactory way to have them automated. There is a way to pay rent via credit card online but it costs $10 a month and I did not want to pay that fee, so I go to the office every month and pay in the office….via credit card.
My church does not take credit cards…so on the last Sunday of every month I write out four checks for the next month and place them in my little church purse. That way I have no excuse for forgetting a check because they are already filled out and in the purse that I use only for church.
5) Do you write checks? If so, how often?
I write four checks every month for church as I mentioned above. Other than that if there is something at school where I need to give money I may also write a check but that is not very often.
I also have two personal loans (at 0%) interest that I am paying back via Electric Check through ING. Those are technically checks according to ING but since the money goes straight to the people’s ING accounts I am not ‘writing’ a check….just setting the recurring amount.
6) Where do you stash your short-term savings?
I have my really short term need-to-grab-and-go money in a local bank that is about ten minutes from where I live. Of course I will have to use a withdrawal slip for that money because they charge a monthly fee for having a debit card so I do not have one. The rest of my short term savings is tucked away in ING and if I need it then I wait three days for it to transfer to a local bank and then I can get it.
So that’s it…my six questions and the corresponding answers. Feel free to answer the questions in the comments below and let us get to know each other better.
Those are very important questions and someone always need to ask them.I think that it is nice to know each other from the financial point of view. Everyone can sometimes learn something from other people.
This is a great idea! It’ll be interesting to see how others are using their money…
1) I mostly spend cash or debit.
2) I do use the online banking method because it is easier to keep track of funds.
3) I only have a phone bill that is set on auto play because it is a small amount so I don’t really want to deal with that every month.
4) I usually pay through my bank account, usually my checking account.
5) I hardly write checks.
6) My short term savings is also in a local bank.
We do mostly debit, but some cash and some credit card. I like the credit card because we earn air miles but we have to be careful not to go too overboard. The credit card is something that can get out of control for most families, so we use cash and debit mostly.
This is so fun seeing these questions spread around!!! Love it 🙂 I think we can really learn from the way we all handle our finances, thx for sharing yours!
1) How do you spend: cash, debit or credit?
Almost all cash, though I have to get that out of an ATM. My credit union does not charge for ATM use or the debit card. I get 200$ twice a month to cover food, most bills, and miscellaneous expenses.
I do have one credit card, through the credit union, that I use for gas (since we have to either use a card at the pump or pay in person inside before pumping around here). I pay that off each monday.
I pay phone, utilities and rent with checks.
2) Do you bank online? How about use a financial aggregator (Mint, Wesabe, Yodlee, etc.)?
I only use the online banking at my credit union and I only use the billpay feature to pay my credit card.
3) What recurring bills do you have set on autopay?
none
4) How are your finances automated?
They aren’t! I actually get a check from work and mail the deposit in to the credit union each 2 weeks. My workplace screws up the autodeposit about 2times a year so I never got it. I also like to look at the check and sign it to make the money seem real to me.
5) Do you write checks? If so, how often?
Only for the bills noted above and the occassional charitable donation. I go thruogh deposit slips faster than checks.
6) Where do you stash your short-term savings?
Short term savings in a savings account. Long term in retirement accounts.
Good questions for financially concept. I used online payment via credit cards for bills.