Capital One took money out of my bank account without authorization...

[MadHatter]

Forced savings for some people may outweigh the interest lost (which is tiny these days.)

Absolutely...if you don't have the discipline to save, then you are better of getting a refund. But with discipline you are still better off owing.

I just direct deposit a portion of my paycheck (the expected under witholding) into a separate interest bearing account. That way, i don't even miss it. Don't make much from it, but I would rather me make an extra $1k than the gov't.

[KSpan]

Really not much to deal with if you are disciplined. The risks and headaches that you refer to are user created. Use the card and pay the bill at the end of the month....and there are no headaches.

If you combined the cash back from the cards ALONG WITH your general spending and cash savings, you would be at a $2,000 mark.

Using the cards correctly can be financially beneficial. But, as some have said, doing it without the discipline of paying everything off every month could be a huge mistake and tragedy.

I'm an accountant. Managing 4-5 credit card accounts is nothing to me.

I've done it both ways and see zero reason to bring a middleman back into my finances. $1000 a year, likely significantly less for me, simply isn't worth the possible hassle, and I have no interest (pun intended) in playing a game with a deck stacked against the customer.

[Anybodyhome]

Capital One:

"What's in your my wallet?"

[pstall]

little tip on the credit score/reporting deal. since trane, experian and equifax offer FREE reports once a year, just use each one every 4 months(quarterly) and for an entire year you have a free report.