Ok, time for a rant. I’m sick and tired of people almost looking down on me whenever I mention I have a credit card. I actually have 2. And I’m applying for a third one. (There are reasons, I’m planning to cancel one and there are reasons for having two which I’m not going to go into here but ask me if you really want to know).
As soon as I mention “oh, I have a credit card” it’s all “oh well you’re going to end up in loads of debt you won’t be able to pay off.” No, I really won’t. Just because you may be a retard who can’t handle money, doesn’t mean I am. For your information I’ve had a credit card for a year and I’ve done just fine with my repayments thank you. And that is really the only bad side to credit cards, the fact you can get into debt if you’re not careful (even though students get really low credit limits anyway).
So with that in mind, here are the arguments for having credit cards. First of all, and I think this reason makes it silly not to have a credit card. Making purchases online. If you buy something that never arrives or you get ripped off, what are you going to do? Chances are loose your money and feel bad about it. But if you have paid for it on your credit card, your credit card company will refund you. Debit card purchases aren’t protected like this. PayPal’s “buyer insurance” is limited and doesn’t cover most internet purchases.” Your credit card does. Buying things on your credit card is the best fraud protection out there.
Secondly, if you need to buy anything in an emergency you have you’re card.
Thirdly, if you are using your card so you don’t need to carry as much cash around. Therefore if you get mugged they won’t get your cash and you can simply cancel your credit card as soon as you get home, they mail you out a new one and everything is good.
Forthly, as well as giving you protection online it more simply allows you to buy things online. I’ve come across instances where online stores will only take Visa or Mastercard, without one you simply can’t get what you want.
Indeed, to extend that point some highstreet stores won’t take all cards. Lots of places didn’t take my Solo card and just the other day I was in Debenhams who were telling customers trying to pay with a Visa Electron card that they couldn’t accept it. That’s one of the biggest department stores in the UK.
Fifthly, I’ve just applied for a credit card that gives me cash back on everything I buy just for using the card. They are giving me money to use this card. Why would I not want that?
Finally, you get a period of a month or two between spending the money and having to pay for it. That is a month or two, the money you have spent is still sitting in your bank account earning interest.
So, to conclude. I fully understand some (indeed many) people have problems managing money and so should avoid credit cards as they can cause lots of debt. But used wisely, credit cards are amazing things so for those of you who like to preach the evils of credit cards please hold your judgement and take a minute to consider the fact it is you who has the problem managing money, not us.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.