I've heard this statistic a lot, but I haven't seen any recent evidence it is true. I used to work for a bank, and our Credit Card holders would (mostly) pay off their balance every month.
We called them Transactors vs Revolvers. 85% of our CC were Transactors, and some of them would pay down multiple times a month
From NerdWallet [^0]:
> A NerdWallet survey conducted by The Harris Poll in conjunction with our annual study in 2023 found that 43% of American adults who use credit cards (and 38% of all American adults) said they have revolving debt. The CFPB, meanwhile, found that at the end of 2022, payments on 48% of general purpose credit card accounts were for less than the full balance, meaning some debt was being revolved
Additionally,
> In 2022, credit card issuers “charged off” $37 billion in balances, meaning they determined that those balances weren’t going to be paid.
Total credit card debt in 2024 was ~$626.8 billion with a peak of $42 billion in 2019.
That was from my own cursory research. Here's how GPT-5 did when I asked it about this topic: https://chatgpt.com/share/68b9b95f-0b14-8012-be34-48cb3bd10d.... Taking a cursory look at the sources provided shows that its analysis is mostly correct.
[^0]: https://archive.ph/0AzYa
This may be generational, but I’m exactly the other way. Cash in my mind is “spent” when it leaves my bank account. Using it afterwards is less like spending money than, say, casino chips.
When I want to be unrestrained in spending, when say on vacation or treating a friend, I’ll take out cash and then spend a mix of cash and card. The card transactions feel real; the cash lets us splurge.
Wozniak famously went further and would order sheets of them uncut (costs more), then pay a shop to perforate them for him so he could peel them off for people (making it look really fake).
He had a funny story about doing this at a casino for a slot machine and getting interrogated by the secret service iirc where he handed the guy a fake ID where he had an eye patch and it said he was a laser operator or something. He played dumb about the bills to look more suspicious instead of explaining the truth.
Hard to tell if it was just a tall tale, but given that it was Woz it was probably mostly real.
The real reason is that they want you to use cards, not cash and as far as I can tell, it's working. However, I find this kind of policy hurts people, particularly children, elderly people and disadvantaged.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.de/wirtschaft/aldi-spart-rueckge...
It’s crazy that Canada, being so similar to the US, got rid of the 1 and 2 like 30 years ago.
Splitting a tab is a simple matter of asking for separate checks and at the bar, separate tabs.
First, cash makes me really think about what I'm buying. It doesn't poke you the same way when you tap a card... which is obviously one of the main reasons they want you do use cards. When I use cash, I am reminded of when I didn't have a lot, which keeps me from spending without thought.
Next, its a hallmark of the middle class to spend money that you don't have. Myself and some other people pay their cards off every month but that isn't the norm. Many people keep a balance... I do not want to be one of those people. When you use cash, its stupidly easy to know if you have the money or not.
Its also easier to do social activities when you have cash. Need to split a tab, here's the money. I'll buy the next round, heres the cash.
Also, it may just be me but keeping a decent stack of bills is like a little pat on the back for the hard work. Its a reminder that hard work pays off, which I can see when I buy a coffee, or some bread or something.
Reasons why I don't like cash: family members tend to treat my wallet like an ATM.
Lastly, if you want to make some people feel good (e.g. servers, bartenders, etc) tip them with $2 bills