In this time of plastic, some people are still putting paper into their wallets.

Even though many people have started carrying credit and debit cards, cash could be a good thing to carry for when cards do not work.

Students and other people have found that cash can help ease their worries about bank fees, help them manage money and allow them to make purchases at certain stores.

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times titled “Cash is king for consumers amid new debit-card rules,” a study conducted by Javelin Strategy and Research found that if banks tried to implement debit card fees as Bank of America did last year, 32 percent of consumers would start using cash instead of their debit cards.

And although TCU students might still carry credit and debit cards, those living on campus have an option for a different kind of card that comes without fees. This is the student identification card.

For those with a meal plan that included Frog Bucks and Campus Cash, the card served as a campus debit card without any bank connection, and students could also keep track of balances online.

Junior criminal justice major Nancy Acevedo said she recommended that incoming students put money onto their student ID cards in order to use the cards like debit cards without fees.

Llisa Lewis, the general manager of the TCU Barnes & Noble Bookstore, said in an email that credit and debit card purchases have stayed constant over the past 10 years, and customers usually only used cash for purchases of $65 to $75 over the past five to seven years. She said more than three-fourths of the bookstore’s customers, though, were TCU students who used their student ID card to purchase items on the “send home” system.

Even though the student ID cards do not come with fees, people could actually see money leaving their wallet when they used cash.

This is also one reason junior nursing major Hillary Hitz said she liked having cash, even though she also had a debit/credit card.

“I like to carry cash because I can see the money going out, rather than a credit card where it’s just a card,” she said. “You don’t actually see the money coming out of your hands.”

Hitz said using cash helped her maintain a budget, and she would recommend to other people to carry cash as much as possible.

Not only did cash help students manage their money, but some locations on and around campus do not accept cash.

Acevedo said one time when she tried to send something at the TCU Post Office, she did not have cash to send the item and had to use the Bank of America ATM in the Brown-Lupton University Union to get cash.

She said she was not a customer at Bank of America, so she had to pay a fee in order to complete the transaction. But she said that incident would not deter her from continuing to use her debit card.

Ira Silver, associate professor of professional practice in managerial economics, said in an email that credit card balances in general have declined by 18 percent since their peak in December 2008, while the amount of currency, not including checking accounts, has increased by 20 percent over the same period of time.

Although cash has increased when credit card balances have decreased, this did not mean students have cut up their cards and closed all debit card accounts.

Even with charges that accompanied cards, Acevedo said she relied mostly on her debit card and only sometimes carried cash with her.

According to a study by Nellie Mae in May 2005, 56 percent of final year students carried four or more credit cards, whereas only 15 percent of freshmen carried that many. The study also found that 56 percent of underclassmen surveyed got their first credit card when they were 18 years old.

Fort Worth resident Dustin Downing said he thought the future of payments could change as mobile payments become more popular but that it had not changed yet.

“The way that mobile payments are moving, it’s not going to be long before you don’t need cash,” he said. “[But] today it can’t hurt to have cash.”

Tips for financial planning:

Close out all but one or two credit cards.
Ask the company to reduce your interest rates (only if you have no late or missed payments).
Record all purchases in a checkbook.
Set an allowance that would cover necessary items for that week, such as food, supplies, toiletries, etc.

Tips courtesy of Texas Tech University’s financial planning organization Red to Black.