I'm shocked at the credit card concerns. To be honest, the world is already moving past credit cards and way past cash. Am I the only person who has bought something with ApplePay here? I can't wait until I no longer pay with credit cards. Cash? It's like a rotary dial phone.
For 12 years we've only used credit cards onboard. In the Bahamas, yeah, you need more cash. But ignoring that and looking at US east travel? No way.
Sure, we've had fraud use issues cancellations - never cost us a penny. We've had cards cancelled - about one per year. So we carry about 4-5 cards.
We've had purchases returned because of non-delivery - credit cards are great at being on your side in a transaction. You also get extra insurance for car rentals on some credit cards. But there, no rental car company will even take cash when you check in.
There are ATM's everywhere although, again, we never use them. We are loading up on cash right now because Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands has no credit card abilities. I hope I remember how to use my ATM card to get cash over the next three weeks. I think I'd die if I had to actually walk into a bank.
We purchase fuel for "cash" about 25% of the time. In 12 years, I've never given out real cash. Every facility takes a check. You have to make a calculation though - almost all of our credit cards give back 1-2% so a $0.05 discount on cash can be easily a bad deal when I'm getting $0.08 back on $4/gal fuel at times.
ApplePay, etc = cellular
Credit Card = landline/push button
Cash = landline/rotary
We're way past cash and there's no reason to go back.