| Credit cards are an excellent tool as long as you don't accrue debt with them. I get 1.5%-2% cash back with everything purchased with it. I'd be losing money by using a debit card instead. Not to mention the $500 they gave me just for signing up for it. I also don't to worry about when I get paid. I might only have $100 left in my checking account when I need to buy groceries if the day I get paid falls at a weird time. I don't have to worry about that sort of thing with a credit card, although it is much less of an issue now that I actually have savings than it was when I was in college. If someone steals my debit card or my cash and uses it, my money is gone. My bank would probably refund me the stolen money if my debit card was used fraudulently, but until that happens I'm still out however much of my own money. If they steal my credit card, who cares? I'll call the bank and cancel it and in the mean time, none of my actual money has been touched. > If I need more I go to the Bank's ATM and get more. Easy. Not having to go to an ATM is even easier than having to go to an ATM. |
Cashback almost always is connected with some form of datamining. The 500$ bonus is usually paid back in form of hidden fees somewhere. No money is free.
I don't want to spend money I don't have, ever. And regarding if my card gets stolen, European EC cards are very safe. They aren't CCs where you can just start grabbing cash, you need the pin too and the banks are very aggressive on putting temporary blocks on any transactions (as part of EC, any totally blocked transactions are billed instead and fully transparent for you).
Going to the ATM is easy and it means I have a very good feeling of my weekly and monthly spendings just by looking at how often and how much I use the ATM.