There was a time 30 years ago when everyone bought everything on credit cards however they did so without fully understanding the consequences and as such many people ended up in mountains of credit card debt. Unchecked credit cards are a spiral, but if you know what you’re doing then credit cards can be the superior way to buy anything in life. Here’s what we mean. 

Rewards Programs

Almost every credit card comes with some sort of reward program. Most people ignore these which is kind of what the banks are relying on but if you actually get into them you might find that you could be saving money. 

Generally these programs work on a points system where every dollar spent equals 1 point and these points can be redeemed on a wide variety of things from movie tickets to groceries to hotel rooms. It all depends on the bank your with, but it’s worth looking into what programs your bank offers

Building Credit Score

Finance can often be very counter intuitive, and one case where that’s certainly true is credit score. One of the main factors of a good credit score is a good credit history with no missed payments or defaulted loans. However, if you don’t ever take out any loans or buy on credit then you don’t have a credit history which also gives you a bad score. 

In order to have a good credit score you need to have a credit history, which is where credit cards come in. If you responsibly use a credit card for purchases, then you can quickly build up a good credit history and with it a good credit score. 

Safety

Something which you should always keep in mind with credit cards is that the money on a credit card isn’t yours, think of it as a tiny loan. However, the quality of credit cards can be put to your advantage. Because credit isn’t technically your money, if you ever fall victim to fraud or have the card stolen, as long as you alert the bank of the issue it’s not your problem to deal with beyond that, because it’s not your money that’s being stolen. 

Think of it as a safety net that you simply don’t have when buying things with debit. Credit cards also come with several consumer protections that you likely don’t know about, but will be listed somewhere by the bank. Protections like travel insurance and product warranties that may be situationally useful.