Credit Cards

We use our credit cards whenever possible. Why? We get 1.5% cash back, even internationally. Without a balance, there are no charges whatsoever until the due date. Since we have our cards on automatic payment, full amount every month, we are ahead by 1.5% and don't have to do anything other than look at our statement regularly.

Let's be specific: We are leaving here the 23rd of February. Our billing period ends the 21st of February. That means that we don't have to pay for the gas it takes us to drive out of Mexico until the 18th of APRIL, and we still get 1.5% back. It's not much, but it all helps. Gives us time to work and make some money before the card is paid.

Money management takes some time and understanding, but does not have to be anything that costs.

Sounds good to me. But does you card have an annual fee? Our experience is that the currency exchange rate charged was very similar, whether we used our debit card OR our credit card.

(Incidentally, we stopped using our credit card in Los Cabos as soon as we discovered that most businesses added a 10 or 12 % charge for the "privilege" of using a credit card. When we returned to Canada, we complained to both VISA and MASTERCARD, who both insisted that it was a violation of the credit card agreement for any merchant to impose any additional charge for using a credit card. We suggested that the merchants in Los Cabos must have missed that memo.)