A Reddit user recently posited that it’s better to use a credit card to make purchases than cash or debit cards. With a credit card, the poster wrote, you can enjoy cash back or rewards, which you don’t get with cash or debit cards.

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Respondents were quick to point out that credit card usage isn’t so cut and dry for everyone. Sure, using a credit card works well for people who pay off the balance in full each month, but not everyone does that. And if they don’t, they might have to face interest and fees.

As we approach the spendy holiday shopping season, shoppers have to decide how to pay for their purchases. NerdWallet’s 2025 Holiday Spending Report found that nearly three-quarters of 2025 holiday shoppers (74%) plan to use credit cards for at least part of their gift shopping this year, while 64% said they would use cash, checks or debit cards.

Additionally, 29% said they would use money from savings, 18% cited buy now, pay later services and 10% said they would use a cash advance app.

We asked a couple money experts: Is it better to make holiday purchases with a credit card, cash or some other method?

Evaluate credit card offers with care

Credit cards can be a helpful way to pay, as long as you’re responsible with them.

Make sure you understand the details of the cards you’re using, says Lucas Wennersten, a certified financial planner and founder of 49th Parallel Wealth Management in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Some credit cards, for example, offer a period of 0% financing. “That’s a good option,” he says, because it allows you to spread out a big expense over multiple payments without paying extra.

As long as you make the minimum payments during that introductory period and then pay off the balance before it ends, you can safely use the credit card without accruing interest, he adds.

But once that introductory period ends, the interest can add up quickly.

That’s why he says shoppers need to manage their credit cards and payments diligently.

Carefully managed credit cards can net you extras just for paying — like points, rewards and cash back.

But remember: The value of rewards is negated if you can’t pay off the card in full each month.

Buy now, pay later?

BNPL is a popular payment method, but financial experts urge shoppers to use it with caution.

Carl Goodin, CFP and president of Financial Planning Associates in Ellisville, Missouri, says that while paying off a purchase in installments over several months may be better than incurring debt with interest, it’s also risky.

It can be especially dicey if you find yourself managing more than one BNPL purchase.

You might find yourself overwhelmed with BNPL payments coming due at the same time and even unable to make all the payments, which can trigger additional fees and interest. Much like with a 0% APR window on a credit card, you must take care to pay off the balance before the deadline.

Goodin suggests managing your cash flow so you’re not spending more money than you currently have in savings.

Set cash aside

Setting money aside for holiday expenses months in advance can alleviate the strain on your December budget. It’s a strategy to consider for next year.

Money saved is yours to spend — via cash, check or debit card — without worry about owing any interest or fees, Goodin says. (A debit card pulls the money directly from your checking account, essentially acting like cash.)

“If you have a spending plan that you developed beforehand that says you can spend X amount, then you won’t jeopardize your higher priorities and long-term objectives,” he adds.

Still, Goodin says every plan needs some flexibility to work. He encourages people to build a cushion into their spending plan so they have room for enjoyment this holiday season, too.

That flexibility will make it easier to stick with the plan all season long.

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like payment methods, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article Discussed on Reddit: How Should I Pay For My Holiday Purchases? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Lawyers for two sons of Virginia Giuffre, her housekeeper and her former attorney appeared in an Australian court Friday in a case deciding who controls her estate.

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Giuffre was the highest-profile accuser of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and she settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in 2022 against then- Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after he was stripped of his royal titles over his association with Epstein

She died by suicide in April at the age of 41 at her farm in Western Australia state without leaving a will.

The only adults of her three children — Christian Giuffre, 19, and Noah Giuffre, 18, — filed a case in the state Supreme Court in June to gain control of their mother’s estate including property in Western Australia, where she had lived for years, and potential revenue from her memoir “Nobody’s Girl.”

The memoir, released last month, expands on her claims that she was sexually trafficked as a teen by the late financier to billionaires, politicians and King Charles III’s brother. Mountbatten-Windsor categorically rejected the allegations and said he didn’t recall having met her.

The brothers want the court to appoint them administrators of their mother’s estate.

The brother’s application is opposed by Virginia Giuffre’s former housekeeper and caregiver Cheryl Myers and her former Perth-based attorney, Karrie Louden. The women want to be made administrators.

A temporary administrator was appointed this week to manage the estate. The first court hearing in the case was held Friday and another will be scheduled next year.

Lawyers on Friday discussed a range of issues, including whether Virginia Giuffre’s daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and her estranged husband Robert Giuffre should become parties in the case.

Virginia Giuffre separated from her husband and children this year. She had been charged with breaching a family violence restraining order over an incident in February, and died before she was to appear in court over the matter.

By DAVID RISING and CHAN HO-HIM, Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong firefighters found dozens more bodies Friday in an intensive apartment-by-apartment search of a high-rise complex where a massive fire engulfed seven buildings, and authorities arrested another 8 people involved in the towers’ renovation. The death toll in one of the city’s deadliest blazes rose to 128, and many remain unaccounted for.

Burned buildings are seen at the scene of the fire that started Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

First responders found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, said Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services, though he did not say how many were not working or if others were.

The blaze jumped rapidly from one building to the next as bamboo scaffolding covered in netting and foam panels apparently installed by a construction company caught fire.

Authorities on Friday arrested seven men and one woman, ranging in age from 40 to 63, including scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultant company and project managers supervising the renovation, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a statement.

On Friday, crews prioritized apartments from which they had received emergency calls during the blaze but were unable to reach in the hours that the fire burned out of control, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters. It took firefighters some 24 hours to bring the fire under control, and it was not fully extinguished until Friday morning.

Even two days after the fire began, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.

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Some 200 people remain unaccounted for, Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters. That includes 89 bodies that have not yet been identified. Yet more bodies might be recovered, authorities said, though crews have finished a search for anyone living trapped inside.

More than 2,300 firefighters and medical personnel were involved in the operation, and 12 firefighters were among the 79 people injured, Yeung said. One firefighter was also killed, he had said previously.

Katy Lo, 70, a resident of Wang Fuk Court, was not home when the fire started Wednesday. She rushed back roughly an hour later to see that the blaze had spread to her building.

“That’s my home.… I still can’t really believe what happened,” Lo said on Friday as she registered for government assistance for affected households. “This all still feels like a bad dream.”

The apartment complex of eight, 31-story buildings in Tai Po district, a suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China, was built in the 1980s and had been undergoing a major renovation. It had almost 2,000 apartments and some 4,800 residents.

Three men — the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company — were arrested Thursday on suspicion of manslaughter, and police said company leaders were suspected of gross negligence.

Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but documents posted to the homeowners association’s website showed that the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations. Police have seized boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered Thursday.

In addition to the new arrests Friday, the anti-corruption agency also searched the suspects’ offices and seized relevant documents and bank records.

Authorities suspected some materials on the exterior walls of the high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, allowing the unusually fast spread of the fire.

Police said they found highly flammable plastic foam panels attached to the windows on each floor of the one unaffected tower. The panels were believed to have been installed by the construction company but the purpose was not clear.

Preliminary investigations showed the fire started on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings, and then spread rapidly as the foam panels caught fire, said Tang, the secretary for security.

“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang said.

Authorities planned immediate inspections of housing complexes undergoing major renovations to ensure scaffolding and construction materials meet safety standards.

The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. A 1996 fire in a commercial building in Kowloon killed 41 people. A warehouse fire in 1948 killed 176 people, according to the South China Morning Post.

Researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press

The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years.

But that boom looks set to come to a crashing halt. Buried in the bill that ended the federal government shutdown this month was a provision to ban those drinks, along with other impairing beverages and snacks made from hemp, which have proliferated across the country in recent years. Now the $24 billion hemp industry is scrambling to save itself before the provision takes effect in November 2026.

“It’s a big deal,” said Ryan Bandy, Indeed’s chief business officer. “It would be a mess for our breweries, for our industry, and obviously for a lot of people who like these things.”

Ryan Bandy, chief business officer at Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis, stands outside a cooler for cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery’s taproom on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

Here’s what to know about the looming ban on impairing products derived from hemp.

Congress opened the door in 2018

Marijuana and hemp are the same species. Marijuana is cultivated for high levels of THC in its flowers. Low-THC hemp is grown for its sturdy fibers, food or wellness products. “Rope, not dope” was long the motto of farmers who supported legalizing hemp.

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After states began legalizing marijuana for adult use over a decade ago, hemp advocates saw an opening at the federal level. As part of the 2018 farm bill, Congress legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp to give farmers, including in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, a new cash crop.

But the way that law defined hemp — as having less than 0.3% of a specific type of THC, called delta-9 — opened a huge loophole. Beverages or bags of snacks could meet that threshold and still contain more than enough THC to get people high. Businesses could further exploit the law by extracting a non-impairing compound, called CBD, and chemically changing it into other types of impairing THC, such as delta-8 or delta-10.

The result? Vape oil, gummy candies, chips, cookies, sodas and other unregulated, untested products laden with hemp-derived THC spread around the country. In many places, they have been available at gas stations or convenience stores, even to teens. In legal marijuana states, they undercut heavily taxed and regulated products. In others, they evaded the prohibition on recreational use of weed.

Some states, including Indiana, have reported spikes in calls to poison-control centers for pediatric exposure to THC.

A patchwork of state regulations

Dozens of states have since taken steps to regulate or ban impairing hemp products. In October, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside the state’s legal marijuana system.

Texas, which has a massive hemp market, is moving to regulate sales of impairing hemp, such as by restricting them to those over 21. In Nebraska, lawmakers have instead considered a bill to criminalize the sale and possession of products containing hemp-based THC.

Washington state adopted a program to regulate hemp growing. But the number of licensed growers has cratered since the state banned intoxicating hemp products outside of the regulated cannabis market in 2023. Five years ago, there were 220, said Trecia Ehrlich, cannabis program manager with the state agriculture department. This year, there were 42, and with a federal ban looming, she expects that number to drop by about half next year.

Minnesota made infused beverages and foods legal in 2022 for people 21 and older. The products, which must be derived from legally certified hemp, have become so popular that Target is now offering THC drinks at some of its stores in the state.

They’ve also been a boon to liquor stores and to small Minneapolis brewers like Indeed, where THC drinks make up close to one-quarter of the business, Bandy said. At Bauhaus Brew Labs, a few blocks away, THC drinks account for 26% of their revenues from distributed products and 11% of revenues at the brewery’s taproom.

A powerful senator moves to close the loophole

None of that was what McConnell intended when he helped craft the 2018 farm bill. He finally closed the loophole by inserting a federal hemp THC ban in the measure to end the 43-day federal government shutdown, approved by the Senate on Nov. 10.

“It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers,” McConnell said. “Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications.”

Some in the legal marijuana industry celebrated, as the ban would end what they consider unfair competition.

They were joined by prohibitionists. “There’s really no good argument for allowing these dangerous products to be sold in our country,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

But the ban doesn’t take effect for a year. That has given the industry hope that there is still time to pass regulations that will improve the hemp THC industry — such as by banning synthetically derived THC, requiring age restrictions on sales, and prohibiting marketing to children — rather than eradicate it.

“We are very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “If they really thought there was a health emergency, there would be no year-long period.”

The federal ban would jeopardize more than 300,000 jobs while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax money, the group says.

Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer at Bauhaus Brew Labs, has no doubt his company would be among the casualties.

“If this goes through as written currently, I don’t see a way at all that Bauhaus could stay in business,” Hurst said.

Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer of Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis, stands outside a cooler for cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery’s taproom on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

What comes next?

A number of lawmakers say they will push for regulation of the hemp THC industry. Kentucky’s second senator, Republican Rand Paul, introduced an amendment to strip McConnell’s hemp language from the crucial government-funding bill, but it failed on a lopsided 76-24 vote.

Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, are among those strategizing to save the industry. Klobuchar noted at a recent news conference that the ban was inserted into the unrelated shutdown bill without a hearing. She suggested the federal government could allow states to develop their own regulatory frameworks, or that Minnesota’s strict regulations could be used as a national model.

Kevin Hilliard, co-founder of Insight Brewing in Minneapolis, said the hemp industry needs a solution before planting time next spring.

“If a farmer has uncertainty, they’re not going to plant,” Hilliard said.

Johnson reported from Seattle. AP congressional reporter Kevin Freking contributed from Washington, D.C.