Trying to live a consumer lifestyle today with no credit card is a bit like a toothless dog trying to chew a Buffalo bone.

To put it mildly, it is almost impossible. Today has become a very digitalised world and wherever you go online to buy something, you need a credit or debit card to pay for whatever you want to buy.

Trying to shop online with no credit card leaves consumers as Toothless-Tigers

There are remarkably few shopping sites that offer alternative payment methods and even those that do, have the proviso clearly stated that the item requested could be “out of stock” before your ‘snail mail’ bank payment is received.  When you consider the slowness of our postal services, a person could be three sizes larger by the time the payment for the item was received.

Seeking Accommodation with no credit card Makes Hotel Staff Unaccommodating

If you ever need to book a hotel or motel room for the night unless you produce a credit or debit card, they won’t let you rent a room. When you consider the damage and theft that some people carry out to their furniture and fittings I can understand. The owner of the premises has to have some recourse and way in which to recoup their losses and repair the damage.  Still, having no credit card could be a major inconvenience to some travellers who simply have to travel and cannot reach their destination in one day.

Car Rental definitely a “No-Go” Zone with no credit card

Aussie Dollars No Credit Card

The other surprise about having no credit card I found was that car rental companies will not allow you to hire a vehicle with no credit card produced. On one of my many journeys, I had a purse full of cash for my trips expenses but was unable to hire a vehicle. This aspect of renting a vehicle had never occurred to me. At that time, I was definitely a “cash Kid” only as I hated having to remember to make those dreaded monthly payments.   So in order to protect my ‘character’ as I saw it way-back-then, it was better for my reputation to simply just pay for stuff I needed or wanted with cash. No cash, no goodies but my reputation remained unmarred.

Looking back, this cash-method of managing my finances really was much better.  I always had money for what I needed and I didn’t have my life cluttered up with items I simply don’t use or need.

This concept of a credit score is a more recent tool put in place by Bankers in countries having an inter-linked centralised banking system.  Digitalisation in my opinion has killed our individual independence. Life when I had no credit card was simpler and of a higher quality that it is today.