I shared in August that I will be without a credit card for one quarter. I’m making this mini weekly update to share how I’m tracking.
I actually forgot my credit card was expiring so come October 1st I tried to order things I didn’t need from Amazon and payment was not possible despite my loaded account. For context, I planned to spend only €50 per month on Amazon and already bought vouchers that I preloaded into my account. Amazon wanted me to provide an alternative card or link my bank account for the transaction to go through. At that point I gave up and was fine to forfeit shopping on Amazon for the rest of the year as I won’t be having a replacement card and do not intend to link my bank account to Amazon. I’m waiting to see if the transaction will get processed as it’s a subscribe and save order.
Up next was me trying to book an aesthetic consultation which required prepayment for the appointment. This was only possible with a card and I was almost OK to let it go until I saw that my preferred Doctor has no availability until December. I am not willing to wait that long so I caved in and booked the appointment by using my bank account via PayPal.
And now it gets interesting as I’m leaving for a business trip tomorrow which will require me spending ahead for reimbursement. I should have withdrawn cash but was not able to fit this in at all. I have only €50 cash on me and at a minimum I have to pay for transportation to the airport early tomorrow morning and pay the hotel bill. I will switch my Uber payment method to PayPal before I step out and request to make the room payment via bank transfer or PayPal.
I knew I was heavily reliant on my credit card but didn’t realise it was so well integrated.into my daily life. I’m expecting a lot of my subscriptions (Hellofresh, Disney+, Netflix, Amazon subscribe and save) to get cancelled in the coming weeks and this will force me to review if I need to keep them or it’s time to move on.
Having no credit card is no fun so far but I appreciate how it’s forcing me to re-evaluate what I spend on. I wonder which curveballs I will get for the rest of the week.