The misconception about credit card being bad is untrue and very much misunderstood. People say that it is better to use debit card for making purchases but i totally disagree with that opinion. Debit card does not earn you any rewards which you could have earned if you have used credit card for purchases. Using either of the type of cards, money is going out of your account anyways. The only difference is that debit card deducts the money almost instantly after making a purchase whereas credit card will take several days before the transaction is posted in your credit card account. Since money will be going out of your account, isn't it better that you earn rewards such as 1% cash back, Air miles, Aeroplans, Walmart money, Canadian tire Money, RBC points, Esso points from using those credit cards?
All these credit cards rewards add up in course of time and before you know it, you would have saved enough rewards to get yourself a tablet or laptop or anything you fancy. I have known some people who got a free tablet for redeem his points at Walmart store by using his Walmart points. Someone i know, redeems his points for free Air tickets every year sing the Aeroplan points, since he owns a restaurant and he keeps buying things from Costco Wholesaler using his Aeroplan credit card to earn Aeroplan points. Another person exchanged his Aeroplan points for Esso points worth about 30 free car wash.
The key to not getting buried in credit card debt is to make sure you can pay off the amount of purchases put on your credit card in full by the statement period time. If you feel that you can't afford those expensive things, then do not purchase those items and put them on your credit card. Also do not think of paying the minimum amount required by the credit company as stated in your credit card statement bill. You should know that if you pay only the minimum amount allowed by the credit card company, then it will take a very long time to fully pay up the credit card debt The reason being that every month that you have balances in your credit card, interest rate is charged on the remaining balance by the end of your credit card bill cycle. This way the credit card company earn most of their money from people. So to recap, do not purchase something if you feel that you can't pay it off by the time your credit card bills are here. If you do end up making the purchase anyways, try to pay as much as you can each month instead of only paying off the minimum amount allowed by the credit card company as stated in the credit card bills.
