I felt really good when I read gHacks about this topic, since it’s something I’ve been doing for years.

There are two basic situations: The first: You’ve decided that for the type of purchase you’re making, it’s better to have a direct connection to the brick and mortar merchant, and the second: You’ve decided that the discount or local availability dictate you shop online.

For the second, this article doesn’t apply. For the first, there are several ways to pay for things. I maintain that for these, there are five good reasons to use cash, and not a card.

1. Most folks don’t keep careful track of their card purchases and digital payments. This tends to cause budget overages. With cash, all you can spend is what you have with you. It’s easier to keep track of cash:

“A Dunn & Bradstreet study found that people spend 12-18% more when using credit cards than when using cash. And McDonald's found that the average transaction rose from $4.50 to $7.00 when customers used plastic instead of cash.” – SeekingAlpha

Worse, the psychology of credit cards make it easy for you to overspend (and credit card companies like that).

2. Fees and commissions – While you probably don’t have to pay these, merchants do. Unfortunately, that’s reflected in the price you pay for the item. With cash? Never, unless you get it from an ATM (never advisable for monetary and security reasons).

3. Control – You give up control when you use a bank to keep and guard your money, but you give up even more when cash isn’t used.

4. Privacy – Cash purchases can’t be tracked (except by the actual, physical receipt). With card purchases, data is stored and anyone can access/purchase that data.

5. Security – While somewhat related to privacy, with a card, your data is stored at least until the payment is confirmed. That makes it vulnerable at least for a period of time. There are also companies which store the data for a longer period to extract data to sell onward. If you don’t believe me, ask Home Depot, Target, etc. Besides those, the person behind you on line can scan the keypad and take an infrared picture of it and easily obtain your PIN. Btw, there’s a way to protect yourself from that (Here: Gizmodo). There are also other ways to steal your data at the register.

So, while I doubt you’ve been convinced, you still got the low down.

Sources:

http://www.ghacks.net/2014/09/19/why-i-pay-in-cash-and-why-you-should-too/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1372%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e1f5l

others linked in the article.