My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have given themselves Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover for their 15th anniversary. I have to be honest...I read bits and pieces that many of you write about him, but am not really that Ramsey-literate. However, they were telling me that one of his big things is cutting up all of your credit cards. That makes me nervous, not even having one in case of an emergency where you need it.

Do you all follow that rule stringently, or do you keep a card, just in case?

I follow some of his advice. I do keep a credit card just in case of an emergency when I will be out of town. Also, I still keep my 401 (b). Started kind of late for retiremnt so I don't want to give that up. I just budget around my 401. He does give excellent advice on getting your debt down, EF, and three to six months savings.

Although I don't follow everything he says, we do follow that rule.

We have no cc and haven't for years. We've rented a motorhome, hotel rooms and a car all w/o a cc. If pay everything with cash. It does take a little persuasion at times, however if you can walk in with cash in your hand, you'd be surprised at how quickly they change their minds.

The only thing with renting a hotel room - you have to guarantee you'll be there before 6 p.m.

Yes, we still have one credit card.

DH charges his gas for work on that card and that's the only way I can keep track of what he's spending. If I gave him cash, he would use it for other things.

And even though Dave says debit cards are just as safe as credit cards, I've read too many articles very recently about how people have problems with them and identity theft.

We follow him. We don't have a single credit card and have never had trouble renting a car, getting a hotel, etc.

Dave recommends (and uses) a Visa debit card for those purchases that just have to have a credit card and says he's never run into any difficulty. Other than that, cash is king with him.

I follow him and will admit I've got two cc's. Ones a Shell/Texaco with a $300 limit, $0 balance. The other is a Capital One, $200 limit, $0 balance. I do not depend on them, just haven't gotten around to canceling them. Or it could be that they are a bit of security, I suppose. :)

I do have a debit card and have never had a problem using it. I've cut wayyyy down using it as I like the all cash method. But for online purchases and such I will hold on to it. I like them as you know it's coming directly out of your checking account. And if you don't have the money in there, you don't buy it. Not so with cc's.

We have gotten rid of all of our credit cards. You could wait to cut up your credit cards until after you have established your emergency fund if that is what worries you. Dave's idea is that the EF will catch your emergencies and you won't have to pay interest for them. :o)

We still have 1 credit card, even though we have been following his program for a year now. It is a LLBean visa card and I have it to order things from them. I get free shipping and monogramming. I order from them several times a year. I always pay it off in full.

We also use it for big things, like right now we are finishing our basement. Everything goes on the card and we pay it off, out of our savings set aside for the basement, each month. So I earn LL Bean dollars on it. I just bought a pair of pjs for $3.37, because I had saved up $30 in gc from them.

So it does pay me. But I have to be careful what I use it for. We have paid it in full now for 7 years.

Jennifer

I suppose if a person doesn't have good control over spending- then the cc is going to be a problem. Some people are reluctant to get rid of the cc because their credit is bad- and fear they may not get another one. Other reasons might be that the EF is not sufficient to cover an emergency- just yet. Another reason might be that they don't have the stockpile and fear that they won't have enough to eat in time of need. I have not read Dave Ramsey- (but I am going to Barnes and Noble today and will take my notebook to take notes from the book) so I don't know if he mentions the stockpile and reducing the grocery bill stuff- shopping for and from the pantry, etc. That will help alot of people understand that the cc isn't needed- you have the food you need in your own home.
Although, I have always been able to pay my cc bill in full (because we make a decent salary)- my problem was in buying frivolously without care to what I was saving. I have come to that realization that I don't need cc to get buy. Cash is accepted at all merchants! Huh! weird concept in today's plastic world.

I've just finished reading Total Money Makeover and loved it! I also am not cutting up my credit card. We have one and I'm keeping it.

As far as an emergency that why Dave advises having an emergency fund.

I've been following a lot of Dave Ramsey's advice, and it's been of great help to me. We do have two credit cards - one for shopping online and some other automatic payments, the other one for gas. This is a matter of convenience, and it works for us!