In my opinion, responsible people who manage their money well and don't run up debts they can't pay should always use a credit card for everything they possibly can while avoiding paying interest or fees to their card company...
Get the credit card that best suits your needs. One with no annual fee, and one that gives you non-expiring airline miles, cash or some other perk you can use. Use the card for everything you possibly can. Never pay cash for anything if you don't have to. You're going to pay the same regardless for the things you buy whether you pay cash or use your card. Using a card gives you a record of every thing you buy. A good card will protect you from bad merchants that won't stand behind their products. When you use a debit card, on the other hand, it is virtually the same as paying cash except you don't have to carry cash with you. An erroneous or fraudulent debit transaction can take a large amount out of your bank account without your knowledge. Then it will be up to you to negotiate with the bank to get that money credited back to your account. There can be quite a delay. I have heard horror stories. You may not even be aware that a fraudulent transaction has occurred until you get a notice that your account is overdrawn or you get your monthly statement. If you use a credit card and there is an erroneous or fraudulent transaction, nothing happens to your bank account until you authorize payment on your card account. Big difference! With a credit card the merchants you buy from, in effect, pay the credit card issuer interest on the money you, in effect, borrowed until you pay your card bill.* Why not take advantage of that, since in almost all cases, you are going to have to pay the same price for goods and services you buy whether you use a credit card or not.
Of course the bank where you maintain your checking account would love for you to use your debit card and will try to convince you to use it.
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*In return the merchant is guaranteed payment on merchandise or services they might not otherwise have been able to sell to a deadbeat that is going to run up a big credit card debt. That debt will be the card company's problem, not the merchant's.
- There's a difference between debit cards, debit visa/mastercards and credit cards.
I agree with you on some points. I do own a debit card at another bank but its
rarely used...maybe I used it once in +10 years but only because I had forgotten my primary wallet that has my Debit visa/mastercards.
I'm not sure about any features my debit card may have. Only problem I've had with it in all the years of having that debit card was the mail gal delivered my new debit card (old one expired) to the neighbours mailbox by accident.
Neighbour gave it to me later that night at our barbecue with the neighbour.
Here's the issue...I think you're talking to me as if I'm defending
debit cards after ditching credit cards.
In reality, I'm defending
debit visa/mastercards after ditching credit cards because many many years ago I discover that they have the same rewards, same protections, same insurance and so on. In some cases, they have other advantages that a Credit Card does not have.
In fact,
@SunTrader posted a link that I was going to post later into this conversation but he beat me too it that shows why Debit visa/mastercards have an
advantage over Credit Cards.
https://arsenalcu.com/2019/01/22/run-debit-as-credit/
I've personally experience those advantages because I'm a heavy user of Debit visa/mastercards because I do not have Credit Cards for a very long time (since 1995).
- Once again...you're mistaken. I'm not talking about Debit cards.
Also, I get purchase alerts to my email every time I make a purchase...email usually received within 1 min after the purchase. That's a neat feature I did not have with my Credit Card purchases. Yet, that little difference may be specific to the bank of the Debit visa/mastercard because I don't have that feature with my other bank that I rarely use the Debit visa/mastercard.
Have I ever had a problem with my Debit visa/mastercard ?
Yes, once with my tax accountant in France. He accidentally charged me 3x times...exact same dollar amount within a few minutes of each other. Secretary in his office was new and using his payment terminal the first time that day.
I got the email alerts after I left his office and walking to my car. Here's the cool thing about that email alert...my bank uses algorithms or something. It recognize the triple payments as unusual. I didn't fit my payment history. It held the last two payments in "pending status".
A few minutes later I get a phone call from the bank...it took a few minutes to verify whom I was and then I authorize them to allow only one of the payments to go thru but to "not allow" the other 2 duplicate payments.
I called my tax accountant, he apologized about the error. No problems.
I don't know I could have had that feature with a Credit Card. In fact, when I use to be a Credit Card user...the Mastercard I had did not sent me email purchase alerts for every single purchase and it did not hold suspicious purchases in "pending status" until Mastercard was able to contact me.
Here's the thing...I also have no annual fees on my Debit visa/mastercard. In fact, I've never heard of an annual fee on such at any other bank.
If you want to use a credit card,
that's your choice. Yet, do not tell me I should be using a Credit Card especially when I have had no problems with my credit rating / credit history since I burned my credit cards in
1995 nor have I accumulated any more debt after I paid off those credit cards in
1999 and other personal loans and a business loan that I inherited when I became owner of the business upon the death of my grandparents.
It was a debt they couldn't pay off in 20 years but I paid it off in less than one year. Seriously, I hate debt and I know for fact that
70% (7 out of 10) of the global population are not responsible with their credit cards which is why there's a growing crisis...worst now since the Pandemic.
- In contrast, if you're a new person to Credit and you're trying to build a good credit rating for the very first time...Credit Cards are a good / quick way to do that but its not the only way to get good credit history.
With that said, someone made a comment that one can
not have good credit history if they had no credit cards. That's not true. Read #4
@ https://arsenalcu.com/2019/01/22/run-debit-as-credit/
My bank has the same similar like info too but I'm not going to post a link from my bank (security/privacy reasons)
P.S. Last time I'll repeat the above. You will never be able to convince me to go back to using Credit Cards because I already get better features than the Credit Card with my Debit visa/mastercard.
P.S.S. I get air miles and travel rewards with my Debit visa/mastercard. I also get grocery rewards at two of my favourite grocery stores. My last 3 grocery shopping +150 dollars each...didn't pay a penny because I had accumulated enough rewards over the past year at that particular store.
P.S.S.S. I once purchased a new snowblower for $2500 dollars. It was stolen that night after my kids forgot to close the security gate after a day of snow mobiling with friends. I called my Debit Visa @ 1am in the middle of the night because I knew I had insurance with that purchase. They asked a few questions, I fax them the police report. They reimburse me for the full amount with a check by end of month.
Just in time too, got the 2nd snowblower home the day before one of our many snow storms (we get about 5 blizzards per year). Cleared to snow on my property and then drove to the grandparents home to help them.
Also, I didn't want to use my home insurance policy. The purchase insurance with debit visa was the best option for that situation. Guy in the video is someone I know vai another friend...speaks English pretty good too.
wrbtrader
