Credit cards are a constant source of discussion for people with financially inclined social circles, normal consumers, politicians, and people who work in industries all over the globe. There has been page after page of advice written by ordinary people about these little bits of plastic, and while some of them are great, others lack the research and experience to make them applicable to every situation. So, let’s talk a bit about credit cards, and why considering the possibility of acquiring this type of investment may be in your ultimate best interest.
Table of Contents
Basics of Credit
For people considering a card based on the idea of credit, it should go without saying that the idea of a credit score is essential knowledge for the average consumer. If you want to pick up a related credit card, knowing where you stand on the scale of financial trust is extremely important. A credit score is, in essence, a combined summary of your past experience with debt that is used to determine future eligibility for loans. It is a number that, depending on where you live, can make you always eligible for loans or never eligible for loans and everything in between.
Credit is a concept that is built on past experiences in the field of debt. Debt is something you take on, a loan given to you for use in something like a home or car, but it is also something that a bank needs to trust you will repay. Otherwise, chances are you will end up defaulting which is a super paperwork intensive and financially harmful process for both you and the lender. For banks to know you can regularly take on debt, what better method is there of debt acquisition and repayment than a card which can give or take these values on a daily basis?
Advantages of the Card
Credit cards are a great way to regularly find yourself in debt, which is both a good and bad thing. Put like that, it is fundamentally terrible since the connotation of the scary debt word can pollute minds and bank accounts alike, but let’s try and rephrase it. Credit cards let you accrue small bits of debt that are easily usable as engines of credit score elevation. You take 100 dollars off a credit card, and then when you pay that off it goes on the record that you yourself have paid off that thing.
This is simple, and has highlighted advice columns about money for many years since the inception of this idea. Yet, it is worth repeating, and if you are in Norway for instance searching desperately for alle kredittkort then the same internet is available to you as it is in the United States. The same bits of tradition pass on via the internet to everyone nowadays, a truly global world, but let’s see some global cases where the possibility of debt is particularly advantageous.
Medical Debt
For modern Americans, a doctor is a scary place with all sorts of pins and needles sticking out of every place imaginable. This isn’t because of any syringe though, but rather due to the American medical apparatus that can put someone tens of thousands of dollars into the red within 10 seconds of a dangerous injury. The fact is people would rather live than die, so they get away with it, but in cases like this where you have both workplace insurance and have had an injury, being able to say you can put this somewhere (debit or credit) is worth doing.
For many people, medical debt in particular is super harmful and a drain on how they operate their lives. Yet, if you can take the debt apparatus there and move it onto a preexisting method of convenient payment, you may be able to kill two birds with one stone by building credit as well. This is not to say you won’t build debt with normal medical debt, but if the bank has eyes on a number chances are you will see bigger gains from that particular method.
International Travel
Traveling to a foreign country is a terribly nerve wracking experience, especially for first-timers without the requisite knowledge of the world to guide their movements. If you are going to Spain or Ireland from across the Atlantic, or America from France, you will be nervous. But, what will turn nervousness into panic is a lack of immediate money when the total comes up on the cash register. Speaking a foreign language is especially terrible for this.
Imagine trying to explain to someone in a foreign land that your card is declining, and you’ll find yourself panicking in your chair before it ever happens. Now, if they don’t speak any English it gets 10x worse. So, credit cards are built for this and are a good financial safety net in the case of travel since even if your savings account is huge and your checking account has 3 cents, a charge on a credit card goes through regardless. The fact is, in the midst of first-time travel, your bank account is the last thing on your mind.
To Give Them Credit…
Credit is a terrible word to bring up in some circles, sometimes giving off the air of financial readiness and superiority that if you’re meeting someone for the first time is not socially acceptable. But, regardless of the background meaning of this kind of statement, credit cards can have real, practical uses that benefit people in real, practical ways. For many people, building the precedent of loan repayment is enough, but for others who need specific uses it may be worthwhile to remember use cases that are outside the norm.
In fact, for many people who end up with a credit card, it becomes a second debit card. For those who don’t need it for that, you can rest easy when you enter a store with a low bank account number. Peace of mind is a very expensive thing nowadays, after all.
