Why Cash Is King: Security Breach Edition

Cash

Image courtesy of nuchylee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve never received a thin envelope from my bank and had it contain good news. I’ve opened up similar thin mailings in the past from my financial institution and been greeted by a loan decline letter, or an overdraft notice. It’s never been a positive experience, so when I found just such a thin envelope in my mailbox last week I knew I should brace myself for bad news.   I slowly opened the letter to discover that my debit card may have been compromised due to the recent security breach at Home Depot.

A new debit card and a new PIN number would be sent to me within the next ten days.

I knew this was going to be extremely inconvenient because I’ve gone through this same situation recently. My card expired in December of last year resulting in a new card and PIN number being sent to me.   I had just started to consistently remember my new PIN number when the Target security breach hit the news. Now, due to the hit at Home Depot, I was getting my third new card and PIN number in 10 months.

Here are just a couple of inconveniences I had to endure due to my card change:

  • My son and daughter have a Netflix account. It is automatically paid for through my debit card, and I deduct the payment from my kids’ allowance. Forgetting this was the case, my daughter was frustrated because she could not get Netflix to work, as it kept telling her there was a problem, and to try back later. When I checked my email the next day, I found a notification in my inbox stating my payment had failed, and I needed to update my payment information.
  • My son was on his way out the door for school, when he notified me that his lunch account was almost empty. I instantly logged into the web interface, and pressed a few buttons to add money to his account. Of course it failed because the card information was invalid.
  • My son purchases online games through Steam. Again, this is linked to my debit card. He tells me when he wants to purchase something and hands me cash. One of these transactions occurred late on a Friday night, which as you can guess, failed because the payment information needed to be updated.

My dislike of credit cards and of using plastic in general is a frequent topic of discussion here on Enemy of Debt. When I use a plastic method of payment I tend to overspend.   There are instances, like the three above, where I really don’t have a choice but to use a card number to pay for a service. But given the recent rash of security breaches of financial information at major retailers, I have one more reason to continue to live by my beloved, “Cash is King,” methodology.

As these annoyances kept occurring, I thought back to that day at Home Depot.  My wife and I had cash for what we were looking to buy, but found an outdoor patio heater we really liked. We had always wanted one, and had been looking for just the right price and model. When we found one on an unbelievable sale, we decided to pull the trigger. But since we hadn’t been planning on purchasing it that day, we had to use our debit card.

Five and a half months later, I was paying the price for that decision.

In 2005, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss was fined $10,000 for an incident where he pretended to moon the crowd. When asked how he would pay his fine, Randy Moss gave us all some sound financial advice:

“Straight cash, Homey.”

About Travis

12 Responses to “Why Cash Is King: Security Breach Edition”

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  1. We’ve avoided this issues so far. (knocking wood) If it did happen to us we would be in the same boat, with some auto pay accounts. I tried to plan ahead with cash when shopping this weekend, but fell short with a few unexpected things come up and had to rely on the debit card too.

    • Travis says:

      The funny thing is, it’s never online payments that seem to get hacked like this…it’s always major retailers like Target and Home Depot. Being an IT kind of person, hackers do this sort of thing mainly for the notoriety….they likely didn’t want the information or the money they could get from using it – they probably sold it to someone else and basked in the glory of their act. You don’t get ,much fame from hacking a local school district lunch money account system. 🙂

  2. Geez fine for pretending? I guess they take that seriously! lol! I know for me right now with money being tight cash is king. I had another credit card I was trying to churn for travel reward points, but I fear that a bit right now because I don’t like when things are not deducted straight away from my checking account. When money is flowing more I don’t mind, but yeah cash will always be king.

  3. I like cash too Travis, but perhaps for different reasons. I’m not wild about reconciling a credit card or bank statement with tons of purchases on it, and I like the idea that when I buy with cash, no organization or company can monitor or track my spending.

    I always liked Randy Moss… 🙂

    • Travis says:

      Those are great benefits as well, Kurt….I’m a HUGE fan of reconciling my checking account in just a few minutes as well. Randy had his issues, but he was certainly entertaining. 🙂

  4. Sorry you to have to go through this again, Travis. It doesn’t sound fun at all. We’ve been fortunate thus far. I agree cash will always be king, but admit that I use my credit card for most purchases. I understand and respect why you don’t – in fact I think it’s fantastic that you recognize the temptation and risk credit cards are to your hard-earned financial freedom.

  5. J. Money says:

    Haha… straight cash homey, indeed.

    Also – time to make a list of all the places your cards are used/attached to if you don’t have one already. I’ve had to update my online accounts three times this year alone for similar stuff, so annoying indeed!

    • Travis says:

      Not much is more entertaining than a good Randy Moss interview. LOL. The Holiday season is coming up again, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again….booo!

  6. Funny, I find I spend more when I’m carrying cash around. It seems like play money I need to find a use for. I grew up using a debit card though and have put everything on credit cards as soon as I could (and paid the balances off each month).

    I hate when I need to get new card numbers though. The biggest issue was with our insurance company that made us jump through hoops (with quicker and quicker timelines) once we had missed the auto payment. I still cringe.

    • Travis says:

      I find that’s true when I’m just carrying cash around for no reason, Emily…..however what I’m talking about here is planned spending. Example: my daughter was having a halloween party with her friends and we budgeted a certain amount – we took it out in cash, and carried it with us as we bought the items for her party. If we were just using our debit card, it would be too easy to not keep track of the total and go over budget. With cash in our hand, when it’s gone, it’s gone! Thanks for sharing, Emily!

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