I rarely use literal cash, but “collect” it from the couple of customers that pay me that way. It’s good to have on hand, as my husband does not like to use plastic. Other than that, we rarely see money. We do direct deposit and I pay everything by debit card or check.

We actually went creditless in 2001, after having excellent credit but getting it ruined by ID theft and medical expenses. Having lived both ways, we prefer cash. I not only don’t care to borrow money for any purpose or pay interest, but don’t want to fix the credit reports, either. Thus far we’ve had no need for good credit reports, and our banking relationships are excellent. This is relevant, because the only thing that really matters to us is ChexSystems, and we’ve never had a problem in that area.

Maybe it’s a false sense, but I have a sense of security that our identities will not be stolen again. The credit bureaus don’t really do anything as far as work, and I don’t even expect that the reports will “cure” themselves over time.