Credit cards can be among the most useful tools in tracking your expenses. It is great how they work. You make a purchase on your credit card, the charge is sent to the bank, the bank approves the transaction, and the bank posts it on a web page or makes it readily available for you to download into your personal financial software.
You cannot beat the simplicity of use. If you pay the balance at the end of each month there is no expense for this service. In fact with many of the reward plans available many banks will basically pay you to use their bank card.
This only works of course because lots of people don't pay their balance at the end of the month. If everybody did, the banks would start losing money and they definitely wouldn't have any of those programs which give you free flights or points toward buying merchandise.
The average amount owed by an American with cards is over $8,000. Only 1 in 20 Americans have over $8,000 in card debt, but many of these have so a lot more credit card debt, that it swings the normal up to $8,000. For the banks this really is a windfall. The rate on cards is extremely high, so they make an exceptional total amount of individuals carrying balances.
If you have the discipline to pay of your balance at the end of each month and not spend more than you have (just like a bank account). You will basically get the bank card service for free--paid for by individuals that don't have enough discipline to pay off their balance each month.
You get free record keeping, free reward points, and several other features. Many cards offer some sort of coverage if your purchase is stolen. Others offer extra life insurance policies for air travel booked on their own cards. Some credit card companies offer extended warrantees on anything you purchased with their card.
One of the most critical benefits of a card company will be the fact that they will usually stand up for the best customer that is being charged in correctly. For instance, lets say you cancel an order with a merchant and they ship you the goods anyway. When you try and return the items, the merchant says that you cannot. A quick call to your credit card company will probably be all that is necessary to resolve the situation. Card companies can revoke money from merchants and this is exactly what they're going to do if you complain that you were shipped an item that was canceled.
You cannot beat the simplicity of use. If you pay the balance at the end of each month there is no expense for this service. In fact with many of the reward plans available many banks will basically pay you to use their bank card.
This only works of course because lots of people don't pay their balance at the end of the month. If everybody did, the banks would start losing money and they definitely wouldn't have any of those programs which give you free flights or points toward buying merchandise.
The average amount owed by an American with cards is over $8,000. Only 1 in 20 Americans have over $8,000 in card debt, but many of these have so a lot more credit card debt, that it swings the normal up to $8,000. For the banks this really is a windfall. The rate on cards is extremely high, so they make an exceptional total amount of individuals carrying balances.
If you have the discipline to pay of your balance at the end of each month and not spend more than you have (just like a bank account). You will basically get the bank card service for free--paid for by individuals that don't have enough discipline to pay off their balance each month.
You get free record keeping, free reward points, and several other features. Many cards offer some sort of coverage if your purchase is stolen. Others offer extra life insurance policies for air travel booked on their own cards. Some credit card companies offer extended warrantees on anything you purchased with their card.
One of the most critical benefits of a card company will be the fact that they will usually stand up for the best customer that is being charged in correctly. For instance, lets say you cancel an order with a merchant and they ship you the goods anyway. When you try and return the items, the merchant says that you cannot. A quick call to your credit card company will probably be all that is necessary to resolve the situation. Card companies can revoke money from merchants and this is exactly what they're going to do if you complain that you were shipped an item that was canceled.