[subatomic]

> i'm sure there are some people are responsible enough to never incur a finance charge from a credit card by always paying their monthly balance. I've never actually met one of those people.

Hi, I'm one of those people. Nice to meet you!

We use our (no fee) credit card for everything we can and pay it off at the end of the month. Initially we did this to allow as much of our own money, for the longest possible time to sit in our mortgage. We've never paid a cent in charges, fees or penalties.

You can save incredible amounts over the years just by shifting the time at which your money sits where.

[PeanutCurry]

I've been doing similar. I realize that some people prefer to spend their money, including grocery shopping, somewhat spontaneously and for those people credit cards are probably a bad idea. But if you plan a monthly budget ahead of time there's almost no reason not to be using a credit card with a good rewards program. Different people value different things so what rewards program is the best is a more complicated issue. But purchasing via credit is only detrimental if you're spending more than you can pay back.