1. Here's a quick riddle - what's plastic, has your name on it,
and pays for your Cadillac and your European vacation? So
what is this mysterious rectangular shape? The answer
would be a credit card.
2. But you might be trying to solve another riddle of your
own - do you really need that credit card?
3. Of course, the most salient advantage of using a credit
card is being able to buy now and worry about the
consequences later. Avid shoppers can even get a number
of incentives due to redeemable reward points, free air
miles, cash back on purchases and more, all through a
reward credit card.
5. Going on the Internet has never been the same due to the
proliferation of online merchants, all of them more than
happy to hawk their wares on the World Wide Web and
accept payments via credit card. The credit card company
should cover you and you will not be held liable for
fraudulent use of your credit card online. Read the fine
print as this is where you would often find this pertinent
information on your credit card agreement.
7. Your credit card would also take the cudgels for you if you
need to use it overseas - no longer would you have to
crunch numbers in your head and fret about the ever-
changing figures of currency exchange. A lot of credit cards
are also equipped with payment protection. A major
drawback of this would be that it will cost you extra every
time that you use the card abroad, normally a flat rate of
around 3% on the transaction cost will be added to your
credit card balance.
9. Credit cards prove to be a boon when you think of
emergency situations. So let us say you get into an
accident for some reason or another. You are in a
predicament - not enough dead presidents in that wallet
of yours. So what's the plan, Stan? Plan to wait for the
organ music to pipe in as an angel descends from Heaven?
Of course not, silly - they stopped making Ghostbusters
movies two decades ago. You can always rely on your
credit card and pay for those expenses. As a matter of fact,
some of them come with accident insurance.
11. Yet another kind of credit card would be the affinity card -
the name may sound fey (no, not Tina), but these cards
actually serve an honorable purpose as they allow you to
donate to charities or similar organizations you are
affiliated with. In other words, the more you use your
affinity card for purchasing, the more money your affiliate
would receive.
12. People wrongly accuse credit cards of making spendthrifts
out of them. However, pay no heed to these people - it's
not about the credit card but how you use it. As an aside,
you may also want to consider that credit cards can also
help people rebuild their credit if their credit history has
gone bad - credit builder products, which include, but are
not limited to unsecured cards, can do wonders in helping
people start anew with their credit.