But Ramsey's credit card advice (i.e., cut up the credit cards and pay cash) is equally bad in today's economy.

I don't count Ramsey's idiotic advice about not needing a credit card and not even needing a good credit score(!) as "get out of debt" advice.


There is a quote, I think maybe from R.A. Heinlein, that goes "A cat who burned itself on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove ever again. Or a cold stove."

That's Dave Ramsey. He burned himself on debt & credit cards, so he won't touch them. He has internalized the harm that credit cards, IF MIS-USED, can do. He and his co-hosts absolutely refuse to see that credit cards are like a stove.

The most amusing one they had where they said you don't need a credit card to rent a car. Then one of them outlined all they had to go through to get Avis to rent him a car using just his debit card. Had to get them to call corporate, who needed to see a credit report and pay stubs. One major rental agency eventually let him rent a car. Another major one refused. A non-major rental agency would not even consider renting him a car without a credit card.

(Being retired I have a lot of available time to watch youtube videos. Ramsey ones keep popping up and I watch some of them for amusement and entertainment. His anti-credit card screeds get hundreds of comments with people telling him that he is wrong, and that if you pay it off each month that you don't pay any interest, so the CC is effective a debit card. But with much more legal protection in case of fraud.
And you can get 2% cash back.
Or more.
Discover regularly has 5% cashback categories, commonly on grocery stores and restaurants.
Bank of America you can get 5.25% on gas. 3.5% at Sam's Club and online purchases.
)