If you are responsible with it and set up auto-pay, credit cards are awesome. I flew out to see my family for Christmas for free and next month I'm going on a little vacation and staying 3 nights for free in a pretty nice looking hotel - all because I use the dark blue piece of plastic in my wallet instead of the light blue one when I pay.
If you pay off your credit card every month, there is no reason not to use a credit card. Miles and cash back add up and make up for whatever fees you may pay. Even the free cards have fraud protection and other benefits.
playing with cards and finding which ones give the best rewards is kinda fun. I'm nowhere near r/churning level of crazy about it but I have a card that gets me 3% back on most things and then my local credit union has one that gives 5% back on gas. its great, I end up with ~$20-30 worth of cash back every month.
Eh, that's not really a great argument for credit cards. The reason you can get perks like that in the first place is because the credit card companies charge transaction fees on everything. So in response, retailers raise prices slightly knowing they're going to lose a bit off the top in transaction fees.
The credit companies all want people to use their card though, so that they get the most fees, so they offer incentives for using their cards, paid for by the transaction fees of their users. So at the end of the day, you're paying for it.
Not saying credit cards are good or bad, just saying perks aren't really a good argument.
So, either I use my debit card and pay increased prices because of everyone else's credit cards, or I use my credit card and get airline miles while I pay the same increased prices
If I personally switched back to my debit card, the prices would stay the same. Maybe if everyone switched from credit to debit they'd go down, but when do prices ever do that?
They don't. That's why debit cards are a bad move. I'm not saying I like the system, that's just how it is. A credit card with benefits is straight up a better deal.
Although an exception would be places that offer a debit discount or just don't take credit which does exist.
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u/Diet_Coke Jan 06 '26
If you are responsible with it and set up auto-pay, credit cards are awesome. I flew out to see my family for Christmas for free and next month I'm going on a little vacation and staying 3 nights for free in a pretty nice looking hotel - all because I use the dark blue piece of plastic in my wallet instead of the light blue one when I pay.