A "breach" implies a minimal effort by corporate entities to protect our financial data.

"Hackers" implies there's a necessary level of skill required to access the information.

But when our personal information and financial data is just whisked away, willy-nilly, from whomever happens to hold it at any given moment, there's no "breach" and there's no "hack" -- the information is just being simply downloaded from unsecured servers who's function appears to be merely to hold our info until the first interested party pings the connection.

Our data may as well be stored in decomposing peach baskets stacked outside the back door by the dumpster, for all the security afforded it by corporate America.

How many tens of millions is it now who have had their data compromised in just the past few months?

Target, Home Depot, Adobe, Healthcare.gov, J.P. Morgan, UPS, Cedars-Sinai, Albertsons, Anderson & Murison, CVS, Rite Aid, Bank of America.

Oh, hell -- that's just a portion of the first page on the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website. There are 50 breaches per page there, and some 90 page in the database. 4,409 breaches -- a minimum of 929,674,710 records compromised. And those are only the data breaches made public!

It's not a "breach" and it's not a "hack" when there's no evidence of security in place in the least.

and other places where you aren't going to be spending a lot.

didn't credit cards use to mostly be for high price items ?

but things like rewards, financial struggles etc got people to just charge everything. there are some parking lots which only use credit cards also .

The debit card is also called a credit card, altho of course it is an instant withdrawal from your checking account.
Lots of people use debit cards even for small purchases.

If the debit card IS part of the widespread "breaches" that would be disconcerting, since thieves could empty a checking account.

Interestingly, my local community bank now covers 100% of any debit card theft.

after they had their breach

Glad I didn't use my debit card for that ice cream cone. Can someone hack in and steal the calories?

Well Played!

While I don't happen to go to Dairy Queen these days, that's exactly the type of place I'd pay cash at.

Unfortunately, a lot of younger people are conditioned to only use a credit or debit card. I keep on meeting young people who never carry cash because of this. I happen to think they are idiots. For lots of reasons. Not the least of which is that you can keep track of what you're spending by using cash in the first place.

ME. I pay cash for about 98% of what I buy. It's a lot easier to keep track of your money when it's in your wallet than by swiping that plastic for everything.