[quote name='dmaul1114']Credit Cards are great, and much better than using a visa check card as long as your intelligent, don't buy what you can't afford and pay the balance in full each month. There are three main reasons for this.
1. You establish a credit history, and can do so before you're at the point of taking car and house loans.[/QUOTE]
This part is the only gripe. What did people do before FICO to get a house? car? You do NOT need a great credit history if you're responsible with your money and save.
House: Have the Mortage Broker manually write the mortgage and check your income. There's people with craptastic FICO scores and can still buy houses with a No FICO home loan (But you must put at least 20% down).
Car: You can also save for a beater (because let's face it, you don't want to get that crappy feeling when your upside down on your 20k car loan. It's bad, trust me) and then save for more later for a better beater (you can sell the old one for about the same price you paid for it) and repeat until you can buy a brand new car.
[quote name='dmaul1114']
2. You can earn rewards--get something for nothing as long as you're paying off in full each month and thus paying no interest.
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There isn't many people who actually pull this off. If you can actually use a card with responsibility (not everyone can) and pay it off at the end, then do it. But I don't believe in the cards.
[quote name='dmaul1114']
3. Easier to deal with fraud or if you get robbed and have people use your cards in the time you are dealing with the police like I did. With the check cards the money is out of your account and you have to sign an affidavit and wait a while (was about 2 weeks for me) for them to investigate and put the money back at most banks. With a credit card they just take the charges right off.[/QUOTE]
It's easier, but the credit card company is making alot of cash from you so this is why they have conviences like this (along with credit card insurance, but that's a scam within itself). If tommorow the credit card industry took a big dump, you'd better believe they would discontinue this benefit, hehe.
I like living with cash and I've seen what the industry has done to responsible and unresponsible people. That's why I'm cautious.
I personally don't care if people thinks I'm nuts; normal IS broke. Live to be wierd.