Credit Cards - good or bad? (Credit Cards in general)

Member Name: judman

Product:	Credit Cards in general
Date:	05/05/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No need to have money on you, reward schemes

Disadvantages: interest rates

A credit card is a plastic card which is issued to a person upon request (often after approval of a credit check) allowing the card holder to purchase goods and services with a promise of paying the funds back to the merchant (often with interest). Credit cards are often issued by banks. The cardholder is usually sent out with a statement of purchases and funds spent, and a due date of which a certain amount of funds are to be paid back by(providing the charges are correct). Credit cards are great for if you are really wanting to purchase something but don't have enough cash to pay the full value, and instead use your credit card and pay back the amount periodically. Although credit cards can be great to have, they can also be costly as some people can tend to spend more than they can afford! There are also many other additional fees that may be imposed for late payments, exceeding the credit card limit, etc.

Many credit cards also offer reward schemes / incentives in order to obtain more customers, ie: frequent flyer programme, cashback, etc.

My opinion is that if you can do without a credit card, then that is great, but if you do need a credit card, be vigilant with your spending!

Summary: Credit cards