[pct-l] Payment Options - Debit Cards

[Bob Bankhead]

Personally, I either use cash or my credit card and let my wife deal with the bills when they come in. I find my usage runs about 2/3 credit card, 1/3 cash. I'm too proud to mention how often I sit by the roadside holding out my tin cup with a pathetic look on my face.

However, lacking a wife or some other at-home person to perform said services, I would simply pre-pay my credit card in advance before I left, and charge against the resulting credit balance on the trail. This does away with the need to find a public computer into which to enter my personal banking information (no, thanks).

I have a bias against debit cards, so I've never tried to use mine along the PCT save at an ATM. Some places won't or can't (no phone or internet service for confirmation) take plastic of any kind, and cash is the only thing that works there. See begging reference above.. 

To avoid carrying vast sums of cash and tempting loss to my own carelessness or a run-in with Trail Pirates and Banditos, I carry about $100 in cash, and another $100 in Traveler's Checks - although many places refuse to take them due to counterfeiting. I add "re-charge" cash to periodic re-supply packages.

And never forget what you learned in college: QUARTERS ARE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD. Try to start a campground shower or washing machine/dryer with your Super Premium Look-At-Me Platinum Credit Card! Rustic public pay phones, when you can still find them, often don't have card readers on them (shock, in today's electronic age) and coins are the only answer. Heavy or not, I always have 12 quarters in my kit. They make good screwdrivers for loosening bear can lids as well.

Wandering Bob