Credit Cards: Credit Card Benefits to Customers

• Introduction to Credit Cards
• Credit Card Interest Rates Charges
• Credit Card Positive Benefits
• Credit Card Negative Results
• Credit Cards In Canada
• How to Select a Credit Card
• How to Select a Gold Credit Card
• How to Select a Platinum Credit Card

Credit Cards are a Convenience, but don't get Sucked in!

The main benefit of a credit card to each customer is convenience factor. Compared to debit cards and checks, a credit card allows small short-term loans to be quickly made to a customer who need not calculate a balance remaining before every transaction, provided the total charges do not exceed the maximum credit line for the card. Credit cards also provide more fraud protection than debit cards.

Additionally, carrying a credit card may be a convenience to some customers, as it eliminates the need to carry any cash for most purposes.

Tracking Your Expenses with a Credit Card

Credit cards can be one of the most useful tools in tracking your expenses. It is great how they work. You make a purchase on your credit card, the charge is sent to the bank, the bank approves the transaction, and the bank posts it on a website or makes it available for you to download into your personal financial software.

Credit Cards Can Build Your Credit Rating

You can't beat the ease of use. If you pay the balance at the end of each month there is no expense for this service. In fact with many of the reward programs available many banks will basically pay you to use their credit card.

This only works of course because many people do not pay their balance at the end of the month. If everyone did, the banks would start losing money and they definitely wouldn't have any of those programs that give you free flights or points toward buying merchandise.

The average amount owed by an Canadian with credit cards is over $8,000. Only 1 in 20 Canadians have over $8,000 in credit card debt, but many of these have so much more credit card debt, that it swings the average up to $8,000. For the banks this is a windfall. The interest rate on credit cards is very high, so they make a tremendous amount of money of people carrying balances.

Credit Cards are great if you pay off your balance each month

If you have the discipline to pay off your balance at the end of each month and not spend more than you have (just like a checking account). You'll basically get the credit card service for free--paid for by people who don't have enough discipline to pay off their balance each month.