You know like looking for the best roth ira providers, there are plenty to choose from, and that’s no different with credit cards. Given the amount of offers that come in the mail on a daily basis, there are plenty out there that are seeking out your business, so might as well get the best one in terms of APR, preferably no annual fee, and the best rewards. While credit cards may have had a bad reputation in the past, there actually is nothing wrong with using on purchases, provided you use correctly.
Can Protect as Best as You Can from Fraud
These days you just never know you can take your information and start charging up a storm, so why risk having your debit card compromised and wipe out your bank account while you sort out the disputes, when you can use a credit card and stay in a pending status until sorted out so you don’t have to make payments on those charges. If you do have your information breached, it’s a good idea to pull your credit report to ensure all accounts are up to date and accurate.
Provide You with a Nice Grace Period
When you do make charges on your credit card, instead of having the funds come out of your bank account right away like a debit card, you can pay back next month on the next statement. This is great if you need a couple paychecks in order to pay back, but if you are unable to pay the full statement balance by the due date you will carry a balance over to the next month and begin paying interest, which could be a recipe for disaster if you get deeper and deeper into debt and are unable to get out. Making the minimum payment will satisfy your account for the month but will do little towards the balance.
Accepted Anywhere
You could argue that a debit card is accepted everywhere too, but the catch is, when you go to book a hotel room or rental car, there will likely be a hold on the account, greater on a debit card to ensure funds are in the account, not to mention it can take a week for the funds to be released, so it’s better to use a credit card where they can put whatever hold they want on, but by the time you go to make a payment it would have already been released and not showing up on a statement anyways.
The Rewards are Excellent
Probably the best reason to use a credit card, even for all purchases that you make, is for the rewards. You can earn cashback in points for gift cards, hotel rooms, airline miles, or even dollars back, just by making the purchases you were going to make anyways, so by not taking advantage you are missing out on free money essentially. Just make sure you don’t start making extra purchases just to have the rewards add up, otherwise if you can’t pay back the balance, the interest will outweigh any rewards earned.