What are gas prices where you're at?

[Jake]

2.90ish

[Jake]

In the 3.Teens.

[Jake]

370s

[Jake]

random people arent toying with their pumps.

Goldmine material.

They really aren't hard to use. Remove, insert, squeeze, wait, remove, replace. I'd rather myself do it than someone of (likely) lesser talent.

[Jake]

high $3.40s. Higher in places.

[Jake]

I payed $3.39 Sunday.

[Jake]

A lot of places charge moreif you pay with credit, so I always go in and pay with cash.  I'm assuming that's why Phil does it too.

That's incredibly inefficient.

[Jake]

Yeah.

[Jake]

Carrying around cash for one. Wasting time in the store. Not being able to fill up and thus track gas mileage. Staying at the pump longer wasting other peoples' time.

And what credit card fee are you talking about?

[Jake]

And, assuming you pay your credit card payment monthly and you get interest paid to you monthly (like I do at my credit union), you wouldn't lose any money from a loss sof interest.

You obviously have no idea what I'm talking about.

Lets say you get gas on November 15, your credit card bill payment period runs from Nov 14-Dec 13 and payment is due Jan 1. If you pay for gas on credit you won't have to withdraw the money from your account until Jan 1 earning you interest on that money at the end of each month. If you instead withdraw cash on Nov 15 and pay for gas with it you will earn no interest.

[Jake]

No, I understand.  You still earn interest (on the rest of your money in your account).  You essentially save that interest for an extra month.  But if you ever close that account or close your credit card account, the interest would catch back up.  You're still earning the exact same amount of interest, except that you're losing that 50 cents or so (from taking the money out and using it on gas) whenever you get paid interest (at the end of each month for me), instead of at the end of January.  Either way, you're still taking the same amount from your bank account.  Plus, most people pay credit card bills with a check, and those accounts (normally) don't earn interest, so if you use your checking account money to pay the gas (take it out at an ATM - you'd have to use that money eventually if you used your credit card anyway), it all balances out.

None of that makes an ounce of sense. You cannot earn interest at the end of a month for money that you do not have in your account. So if you withdraw money from your account and spend it on gas, you cannot earn interest on it. However, if you use credit to buy your gas, you don't have to withdraw the money until your bill comes meaning the money is still in the account at the end of the month and you earn interest on it.

Say you spend $20 on gas in my scenario. If your account is earning 1% interest, you'd be forfeiting $0.20 in interest by withdrawing the cash rather than paying with credit and delaying the withdrawal of money until the next month.

What about that is difficult to understand?

And if you have your money sitting in an account that's earning no interest, that's stupid. Sign up for an interest earning checking account. They're not exactly difficult to get.

[Jake]

I said you'd earn interest on the rest of your money in your account (obviously, you'll still have money left in your account after you take some out to buy gas).

Duh. What part of that was ever up for debate?

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No. God No. You do not forfeit the interest you earn when you pay the credit card bill the next month. You are merely $0.20 richer when it comes time to pay your credit card bill.

You also lose any cash back you earn by using your credit card. Those several percent earn you tens of cents per $20.00.

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And you've lost time going to the ATM and walking inside to pay for gas.

I earn 1.5% interest compounded monthly on my checking account. It's been as high as 3.5% which would make the loss of interest much worse. Every time I would fill up using cash I'd lose $0.30 interest on the $20.00 it takes me to fill-up. Prior to filling up I'd use several minutes withdrawing money from the ATM (plus ATM fees if your card charges them, mine doesn't) and I'd use several minutes standing in line at the register inside to pay (for every empty store there's a Sheetz with ten people buying food in line). In addition, if I want to track spending on gas or gas mileage, I have to save receipts, fudge my math on the amount of gas I use, and generally waste time doing something that my credit card company is more than happy to track for me. Those minutes can be turned into time at work, time sleeping, time enjoying myself, time studying, etc. All things that earn me money directly or indirectly.

So, they question is whether interest+cash back+more time=$0.60-$0.90. I find it unlikely it doesn't currently, and it certainly will when gas gets more expensive as your savings by using cash will stay the same and the amount of interest lost+cash back lost will increase.

[Jake]

Uh, you don't. At all. You don't lose the interest you already earned on money if you withdraw it from the account later. That's asinine.

[Jake]

$1.81 yesterday between Gettysburg and Harrisburg. Cheapest I've seen is $1.80.

[Jake]

Thanks to the Israel/Gaza conflict and the stupid OPEC meeting and the Gas Nazi's (i.e. Big Oil Companies) who don't like us saving money at the pump, we're back up to around $1.65.  We were down to around $1.35.

Stop bitching or stop using their product. Bicycles are around.