I am sorry to hear that US lacks such basic consumer protection.Guess Denmark is leaps and bounds ahead here.

Also PBS (The payment service who admins the debit card) doesn’t sell the information to advertising firms at all,(again by law) so no risks there. Even if they couuld get the information, isn’t targeted spam better than generic spam ?

(and if we are talking snail mail spam, I can just put a “No advertising,please” on my letter box and 99% is gone)

I can see that cash is better budgeting when the risk of overruns are great. But card is definently better for keeping track of expanses.

My Dad once left a whole turkey in his cart. We found it but could not really do anything with it but throw it away, as it had been out in the sun for about 45 minutes and my mother was not about to risk killing us by cooking it!

Sorry about that.

Also, I worked as controller for an advertising firm at one time and found out that using a card tracks every single item that you purchase. This information is then used for all kinds of marketing gimmicks and I hate the junk mail that generates! The database(s) that generate this info are handy to advertisers because their better able to target their audiences, but…

Although I use my credit card for certain things and electronic payments for others, I also use cash-on-hand as a budgetting tool. It’s probably old-school, but I find it handy.

I’ve gone back once when I was supposed to get $20 cash back and didn’t – waited about 40 minutes in the store while they closed that line and counted down the drawer.

I’ve never had someone else’s stuff end up in my bags, but being single I don’t get just a crazy amount of stuff. If something ends up in my bag that I didn’t pay for – honestly, I just consider that a freebie and I don’t really worry about it. It doesn’t happen often, I’m not trying to make it happen, I’ve always found out after I left the store and it’s never been anything worth more than $5. I would hate to see someone get fired over it and if I noticed while I was rung up, I would say something … but otherwise, if that cashier has a history of letting small things slide then they do need to know and to start re-training or firing them. I’m sorry, but while I’ll correct something onsite because I’m an honest person, it’s also not my job to do their job for them and I doubt they’ll get fired for one or two things – probably more like 10 or 20 and then maybe being a cashier isn’t for them, maybe they don’t have the attention to detail necessary to do a good job?

As for incorrect orders, if something is not bagged (although I do a lot of my own bagging), I generally return to the store. The last time it happened, the cashier had kindly set the item aside next to the register in case I came back. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten anything that didn’t belong to me.

My wife always checks the receipt when we get home to be sure we got proper credit for coupons and discounts. (We usually have enough for 35 to 35% of our bill). There have been a few times when the correct amount was not credited. Generally, I return to the store, and find them most willing to make the adjustment.