On The Money: The Pain of Paying There’s evidence that people spend more when using credit instead of cash. For example, a study in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied (http://tinyurl.com/APA-spend) found that paying with cash leads to “an immediate pain of paying”. But “any payment made that makes the outflow of money less vivid, and thus less painful” — like using a credit card — “reduces the psychological barrier to spend.” Another study found that people remember cash expenses better than those made with credit. So it’s not just you: In general, it
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