The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
In today's day and age who does not have a credit card. It is as common as any other basic necessity. However there are still plenty of people who prefer to steer clear of using credit cards which they believe can cause substantial problems with their funding and finances. If you wish to make sure you do not have problems with using credit cards you can just follow some simple guidelines and avoid debts. Firstly you should know that credit cards are a big part of what determines credit history for various individuals based on how the scores stand. If you misuse credit cards you can end up with more debt than you can handle. Especially when interest rates are too high to deal with credit cards can be more of a curse and complicate things beyond expectation.
However it is important despite the numerous marketing emails and calls you get to be able to determine which credit card will work for you and which one wont. If you look at it closely you will see that some cards promise many rewards and discounts but also charge more. You could just buy the reward yourself that end up paying twice and thrice the amount on interest rates that are charged to you. If you choose carefully and take a simple no frills card, you could save a lot on costs such as interest rates and annuals fees additionally.
Credit cards are of so many kinds in the market it often becomes confusing for the consumer to decide which one will work best. Ideally it is wise to take a credit card with a single benefit that will suit you most. If you opt for a gas miles card, it will work ideally as a card for you when you get rewards on the gas miles going forward. In case of other cards like discount cards or store credit cards, although it is a good way to begin with credit cards the amounts you use and the upper limit of these cards will be quite low and hence not substantial in terms of credit scores.
People also tend to use credit cards which are prepaid. Especially if you have college goers in the household and you want o make sure he or she has money at hand in the event of emergencies a prepaid credit card will work very well. It will also help them to learn to shop within a credit limit. What can go wrong is when people consider the credit card itself to be an emergency fund. Credit cards are not for emergency funds or for sudden unforeseen purchases. It's when people make wrong decisions like that, they end up with large bills that they are unable to close.
There are also secured credit cards if you are trying to close the existing card and the bills on it. Using a secured credit card will make sure you pay off what you owe every month or the asset declared will be taken away by the bank to pay for the outstanding bills. They can help with credit history improvement in many cases.
