How did this country survive before we had ATM's, debit cards and credit cards?

[NNN0LHI]

I hear these things may not work if we don't give the corporatist goons their 700 Billion dollar extortion payment.

How did we make it before we had those things? And is being able to use those things worth a 700 Billion dollar extortion payment?

Don

[SmileyRose]

1. Ba Ba Ba BILLION not million.

pay up or die seems to be Bush's mantra.

[madmax]

2. 4 letters

CASH ;)

[BlooInBloo]

3. Credit cards have been around longer than I have. But I asked my mom once about debit cards....

She told me that they would go to the bank on Friday, and withdraw all that they thought they would need for the weekend.

I looked at her in utter uncomprehending astonishment.

:rofl:

[NNN0LHI]

10. They had been around quite a while but how long have they had the wide acceptance like today?

I would say that started in the past couple decades.

Don

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. When I went to Japan in 1977, I had never seen an ATM or used an one

I recall reporting back to the folks at home about this strange invention the Japanese had come up with.

I don't think I had a debit card till the 1990s.

I remember department store credit cards from my childhood, but my parents called them charge plates.

MasterCard (formerly MasterCharge)and Visa (BankAmericard) came about in the 1960s or 170s.

[Stellabella]

42. I remember when banks first came up with ATMs.

People didn't like having to deal with a machine instead of a person. Banks claimed that it would reduce costs because they didn't have to pay a person.

Now look - you have to pay fees at ATMs. Bankers are liars. All of them.

[AllieB]

14. My parents had bank books where they kept track of their accounts.

My parents would do the same-take out money for the weekend. I can't remember NOT having ATMs. Also, banks were only open 8 or 9 AM until 3 PM (hence the term 'banker's hours') when they were young.

[BlooInBloo]

16. What's a "bank book"?

[AllieB]

20. Little leather books-also called 'passbooks'-where they kept track of

withdrawals and deposits. This is before online banking. ;-)

[BlooInBloo]

22. That's soooo weird!

:rofl:

[carlyhippy]

47. OMG it's been so many years since I balanced a checkbook by hand

I dont remember how, have been doing it on the computer for years.

[dflprincess]

19. And most stores let you pay for your purchase with a check

Some, in particular grocery stores, would let you write a check for over the amount of your purchase so you'd have some cash.

I worked at a grocery store when I was in high school and college and, considering the number of checks we took in, we really didn't have that many bad ones. Most often, if a check bounced, the customer made good on it very quickly.

[SheilaT]

35. Grocery stores still

let you write a check for over the amount of purchase.

[NNN0LHI]

21. Hell I can remember when no one could even purchase a car without a substantial down payment

Maybe we need to return to those days?

Don

[SmileyRose]

39. Cash is MUCH more expensive on businesses than plastic.

Oh sure, I crab about the cut Visa and AMX takes on every credit card sale - checks are slightly cheaper for us because of the size of our deposits - but hard currency would cost us way too much to bother with it at all. The high cost of hard currency is why banks pushed us toward plastic to begin with.

[NNN0LHI]

40. Is it the transportation costs for cash that makes it expensive?

Or something else?

Don

[SmileyRose]

44. I think a variety of things

Just the fact the bank has to buy the hard currency to have available is not real cheap. I am really not sure of EVERYTHING banking has to pay for to provide hard currency. I do know they pay about 2% above the face value of the cash just to get it. Add in the transport, the cost of human labor to maintain ATM's and teller windows. I had the president of a credit union tell me about 8 years ago it takes about 5% to provide hard currency. This is why so many banks are pushing FREE online banking. they do have to invest in and maintain the servers and software to do these transactions, but it run around 0.7% of the value of all the money that flows via electronic transfer. As for credit transactions. The 2-3% they charge the merchant less than 1% goes for the equipment and personnel to on a variety of fronts to make it all work. The other 1-2% they charge the merchants is profit - which helps lower the rate paid by cardholders and makes it possible for banks to float people who pay all the money every month until the due date on the bill.

[NNN0LHI]

49. Thank you very much for that explanation

I learn something new at DU every day.

Don

[malaise]

48. And she saved more money than you do

What do you pay every time you use a debit card?

What does it cost if you use an ATM not connected to your bank?

We only use our debit card for shopping - supermarket, gas or anything else and I rarely go shopping. Quite often I buy gas with cash.
On pay day I withdraw cash from the ATM for all my cash requirements for the month.

You'd be surprised how much you save when you don't use that ATM machine more than once a month.
We pay all our bills using checks.
A few years ago I started taking advice from DUers about cutting costs. Before you use the ATM think about what they're charging you for every withdrawal.

[CountAllVotes]

4. would be great to be rid of these leeches!

We used checks and cash and something called "lay away". Money orders and cashier's checks worked quite well too.

That was it and it worked just fine I always thought.

[Mika]

5. We actually had decent jobs. Worked hard and saved, and then bought what we could afford.

At least, that's the way I remember it.



-

[madaboutharry]

6. People wrote checks or paid cash.

There use to be a thing called "layaway" where you could make payments on something, like a dress, until you paid it off and then you took it home from the store.

There wasn't such a thing as "consumer debt." People had a different attitude about owning "stuff."

[depakid]

7. Banks cleared checks and payments with one another

through less efficient means- but which means still required confidence and trust.

[Not the Only One]

8. Local businesses offered individual lines of credit.

The Little House on the Prairie portrayal of Olsen's Mercantile is accurate. Or else, they'd pay cash.

[DS1]

9. Carried cash. Paid for stuff when you had enough to buy it outright.

Ya know. What I've been doing my whole life. The not buying shit I can't afford part, anyway.

[sixmile]

11. Anybody remember Savings Passbooks?

I can remember booklets with numbers of stolen or invalid credit cards being used by retailers to approve credit card tarnsactions before hypercom systems. And I'm not even that old.

[DJ13]

12. We had to carry a pig to the market

(Cows were too heavy!)

[navarth]

13. did the drive-thru bank window a lot. had a bunch of withdrawal and deposit slips in the map pocket

used to fill them out for future use while waiting for the transaction to go through.

there were MORE JOBS in banks because of it

[Lars39]

15. Busted ass getting to the bank before it closed on Friday.

Or got gouged a bit cashing the check at the grocery.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. My grandfather had a grocery store

People put things on their mark, and it was written down in a little book we kept behind the counter.

On Friday - payday - people came in and paid their accounts.

[Contrary1]

18. Want a chuckle?

I remember my dad storming into Sears, and canceling his charge card, because they
assessed him a .25 late fee on a balance that was less than $10.

That was in the very early 60's, and he never used a credit card again.

[Burma Jones]

23. We waited in a lot of lines

Had a lot less time to buy things......

Credit Cards and Mortgages used to be a lot harder to get......

[NNN0LHI]

26. I have bought two homes in my life

$500.00 non-refundable application fee just to have the bank consider my loan application. Had to have 20% down upfront (My own money, not borrowed) or the bank would just laugh at me.

Don

[OwnedByFerrets]

24. The only thing you bought on credit was your home....

everything else was bought when you saved enough money to pay cash. It was system that worked great....easy credit has been the downfall of this country....as well as the raygun doctrine.

[flvegan]

25. You signed a withdrawal slip at the bank, and the teller gave you money you'd saved.

And they you paid cash, or you wrote a check.

[dana_b]

27. Christmas accounts!!

opening a Christmas account in the summer, saving until December and then taking out the money to buy gifts. No credit! haha!

[napi21]

I forgot about them. Remember, they had plans where you deposited

.50 or $1.00 a week! $52.00 to spend on Christmas was a lot!

[DCKit]

28. K&R for the historical responses. n/t

[napi21]

29. There was no such thing as MC & VISA when I was growing up,

and even for a number of years after I got my first job. There were Department Store credit cards, but you had to pay them in full at the end of each month. There was lay-a-way plans at a lot of the stores, and the rest was paid with cash! There was no such thing as direct deposit, so you got your paycheck and cashed it. If you COULD, you would put a bit in your savings account at the bank. IT EVEN PAID INTEREST! Not a lot...5% or maybe 6%, but you had that passbook to look at and watch your savings grow. I know I put most of my paycheck in my checking account, paid the bills that were due before the next payday, and took the rest as cash to shop at the store...mostly for groceries. I bought a monthly bus pass so I was always sure I could get to & from work even the times all I had was 10 cents in my wallet and payday was 2 days away.

It's been a very ong time since people had to live strictly on their income alone.

[OmahaBlueDog]

34. I remember when my Mom and Dad got a Visa card -- that was a big deal

I also remember when it was really tough to get a Sears card, and that was a useful card to have, because you could get almost everything there in the days when there weren't Best Buys and Targets everywhere.

[napi21]

38. My parents never did get a MC or VISA, and yes I remember Sears

being a big deal! Mom & I would get on the streetcar and ride to "Northside" and go to Sears & Boggs & Buhl. We would only do that right before school to buy school clothes, but Dad would go and but all his Craftsman tools there.

You're right, there were no Best Buys, Targets, Kmarts, or Dollar Stores. We had a Murphy's 5&10 in our town but all the other stores were local and individually owned.

[EC]

30. I think it was something called

Cash?








All I use since 2002...

[Sydnie]

31. We bartered. n/t

[fla nocount]

32. We wrote hot checks on Friday and covered them on Monday.

In the good old days you didn't need a Wall St. address to kite money. If you missed you paid for the overdraft, the cost of doing business.

[OmahaBlueDog]

33. Check kiting

[SheilaT]

37. Credit cards, in the form of Visa

(originally Bank of America Card) and Master Card came into widespread use by the early 1970's. American Express, Diner's Club, and Carte Blanche have been around since the 1950's. But the constant use of credit cards instead of paying cash or writing a check has grown very much for about the past twenty years.

I first started using an ATM around 1980, and not all banks had them then. I could not persuade my sister that she ought to make use of them until some time in the late 90's.

And yeah, before ATMs you had to plan ahead for whatever cash you might need for the weekend.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. credit,in one form or another goes back to the high middle ages

you may have heard of the Templars? That is one of the things they did

[Elwood P Dowd]

43. When I was drafted during Vietnam

they paid us $115.00 a month in cash. The captain and the E-6 had M-16s. You stood in line, signed a form, and took your cash. When I made E-5 18 months later, they paid you with a check - about $400.00 a month. You lived from payday to payday with cash and paid a few bills with checks.

[question everything]

45. People lived within their means, and they saved to make a major purchases

Today we use credit cards for impulse buying. We like bigger houses, cars, vacations.

Before credit cards, the only loans were for houses and for cars. Otherwise you paid up front for your purchases, so you were more careful with planning ahead.

Oh, and people used to pay off their mortgage, with the ceremonial "burning" of the mortgage papers. A couple of years ago, at the height of the bubble, you'd hear real estate people deriding the ones who paid off their mortgage. Owning your house free and clear, they said, is not the best way to manage your money..

[obamaforme]

46. Cash or check