Like Them Or Not, Credit Cards Are Here To Stay

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday May 25, 2005

I'm not sure Ivan Hoy (Letters, May 23) is living in the modern world.

Anybody who has stayed at a hotel, subscribed to an internet service provider, hired a car, booked an airline flight, travelled overseas, bought from overseas, bought on the phone or paid for just about anything online will know they need a credit card.

Anybody who has paid for an expensive item or bill will know that using a credit card has eliminated the need to carry large wads of cash.

The need for credit cards is, I believe, the very reason banks are now cashing in with additional fees and charges. The surprisingly large numbers ($9 billion) might also be a reflection of the transaction volume that has been caused as a result of the need. My guess is that cashless transactions are here to stay.

Fraser Johnson Dulwich Hill

Ivan Hoy, I apologise if I hold you up in a supermarket queue. However I use a debit card which uses only my money, not the bank's. I, too, get annoyed with a one-off article being paid for on a card. Maybe supermarkets could have a cash-only queue.

Carmel Woods Hurstville

Like Ivan Hoy, I, too, have neither wanted nor needed a credit card. However, I note that visitors to Sydney who may wish to use toll roads or the Harbour Tunnel without an e-tag are to make arrangement to pay with their credit cards. Does this mean these public thoroughfares are permanently barred to credit-less drivers or is this a move towards making the cards compulsory?

Rhonda Ellis Mullumbimby

As a person who deals only in cash, I don't need a course in economics, as these idiots (credit card holders) do. My few bucks in "Which Bank" return me a modicum of interest while the nongs are paying interest on their own money! As I left school at age 13 and am now 81, maybe it says a great deal for the maths taught in the 1930s?

Ernest Stewart Nambucca Heads

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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