Credit Cards… Yeah! It’s the easiest way of availing credit. Just swipe and charge! Presto! You can buy that particular commodity that you’re eyeing!

Often times, we see a lot of people heavily burdened with their credit card debts. They end up working for the rest of their lives paying an unsurmountable amount of credit card debts that piled up over the past years from student loans, car loans and home loans.

 

Before, I really avoided having credit cards. A lot of companies already offered me to avail of their credit cards for free but I denied them. It was just recently, year 2007, that I was finally convinced to avail of credit card offered to me for free by a bank. I have four credit cards as of now but only two are in use. Based on my one year experience of having a credit card, they can provide wonders for users:

Here are some of the advantages of having a credit card:

Cashless Transaction. We all know that it is scary to bring a lot of cash in your wallet because you will be a target of thieves. Because of credit cards, you can now buy expensive things without the need to bring large amounts of money in your wallet.

Emergency Cash. With the built in cash advance facility of our credit cards, we can avail of fast and easy cash for our emergency cash needs.

Float Advantage. Take advantage of that float! This refers to the time it takes the credit card company to bill you for the purchases you made. You can practically purchase without money and you can give yourself enough time to earn that money to pay off that purchase. You can “buy now” but “pay later!”

Huge Discounts. Yes, credit card companies tie up with several merchants from time to time and they provide huge discounts when you use your credit card to purchase things from these merchants! You can even have a free meal with just a minimum purchase.

Reward Points. Yes, credit card companies lets you accumulate points in exchange for a reward. This is their way of thanking their users for being loyal to them. You can then later on exchange these reward points to freebies such as appliances, gift certificates, and even free vacation trips abroad by accumulating miles.

Raffle Promos. Aside from reward points, credit card companies also conduct raffle promos from time to time, sometimes electronically. You can win huge prizes with these raffle promos.

Credit cards can truly be a wonder for us. However, we must possess the right discipline in handling them. If we left our credit cards unpaid, finance interests and penalty charges will pile up leaving us debts that can be as high as mountains. They may provide wonders but they can also provide disasters in our finances.

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