How to use credit cards to your advantage

Usually I don't advise the use of credit cards to anyone. However, in some situations it can have positive aspects. As in almost everything in life, nothing is entirely positive or negative and with credit cards the situation is exactly that. In my opinion any credit is bad: it usually means that we are spending money with do not have. The best option is always to plan a purchase and instead of buying on credit save money until we have enough to buy what we want. Or we will be spending what we have and what we don't have.
I recognize that it is not always possible and it makes sense to look at credit cards and try to understand how we can help our financial situation. We must not forget that to get a credit card account for an immediate and easy credit is easy and then it is simple to fall into temptation and abuse their use. Only disciplined and focused people may benefit fully from the advantages that may exist in the use of credit cards.

The benefits of credit cards

Credit cards may be one of the most useful tools in the identification and control of its costs. It works in a very simple way. You make a purchase with a credit card, spending is sent to the bank, the bank approves the transaction, and then the banking system makes all this information available for you to download. With this information you can 'feed' your Excel sheet or your personal financial software.
It is impossible to beat this ease of use. If you pay the balance at the end of each month, there is no charge for this service. In fact with so many reward programs available many banks will pay you to basically use your credit card.
This only works, of course, because many people do not pay the balance in full at the end of the month. If everyone did, the banks would lose money and they certainly would not have any of those programs that give you free flights or points toward the purchase of goods.
In Portugal, these data are not very easy to obtain but the average amount owed by an American credit card is $ 8,000. Only 1 in 20 Americans have over $ 8,000 in credit card debt but many of these have credit card debt much higher. For Portugal, the average debt is not so high, but in recent years claims that each family holds have also increased dramatically. For banks this is a stroke of luck. The interest rate on credit cards is very high, so they do a tremendous amount of money to people who do not pay the entire cost of the credit card.

We read can in the Portuguese Economic Newspaper on the recent escalation of the credit:
The trend of rising bad debt is also visible in consumer credit. There the doubtful loans rose to 1.12 billion euros.
However, loans granted for housing and consumption is rising, with the same values on record, a sign of the growing indebtedness of Portuguese families.

If you have the discipline to pay your balance at the end of each month and not spend more than you have (like a checking account), you basically have the credit card service completely free - paid by people who do not have enough discipline to pay your balance at the end of each month.
Many credit cards offer some type of insurance, if the purchase is stolen. Other offer life insurance policies extra when buying your travel with the credit card.

Some credit card companies offer extensions of credit guarantees on anything you have purchased with your card.
One of the most important benefits a business credit card is the fact that they tend to defend and / or help a good customer who is being charged incorrectly. For example, say you want to cancel an order that purchased wrongly, that is taking too long to be delivered, or have already arrived but not what bought. When you try to return the items or to cancel the purchase, the merchant says you can not. A quick call to your credit card company will probably be all that is needed to resolve the situation. Credit card companies may withdraw the money received by the merchant and that is exactly what they will do if you complain about the situation.

There are many benefits you can get using a credit card - all for free while you pay your balance at the end of each month. Other people will not pay the balance and they're paying you to use the service for free. This is the main rule in the use of credit cards: always pay the entire balance due.

Credit Cards, how to get yours