So if I ever have the option to use a credit card versus a debit card or cash i am always going to
pick the credit card if i can because overall they offer the most benefits for you versus what
a debit card can offer you or even cash now i do want to make it clear that i am not against using
debit cards or cash because honestly they do have their different pros and cons when it comes to
using those versus a credit card and i also want to make it very clear that i am not for credit
cards if you're paying interest on them or if you can't get your spending under control so if you're
using them responsibly then i really do feel like credit cards offer a lot more benefits to use
over debit cards and cash but you have to be using them responsibly so the first benefit you're going
to get by using a credit card is that it can help increase your credit score in a few different
categories because your credit card when you open it you're going to start building credit history
and then as you make those payments every single month you're going to be building payment history
and then on top of that you're going to have your credit usage being tracked which is how much money
you're spending versus how much your limits are so those three different categories inside your
credit score are all being helped just because you're using a credit card but just be mindful
that if you're not being responsible like for instance if you're making late payments or if
you're using too much of your available credit then those can actually hurt your credit score
so just be aware you've got to be responsible with your credit cards now another benefit that you can
get by using your credit card is a lot of cards out there will offer free credit score monitoring
so just by going online you can actually check your credit score and a lot of the times they'll
update this information a few times a month so it's usually pretty accurate as to when things are
happening with your credit score i've even set it up so that anytime somebody checks my credit score
i'll get a text message and an email that way i can check if it was actually me that was doing
that or if something isn't right some credit cards also have coupons that you can activate
right onto the credit card so for instance let's say if chili's is 10 off then all you
have to do is just activate that onto your card make a qualifying purchase and then a few days
later you'll actually get that 10 percent as a refund right back onto your card and so those
coupons are very easy to use and they offer them from a lot of different companies that are also
rotating them every single month so for instance you might find a lot of different restaurants
on there or different retailers and they're all going to change at different points in the year
for instance one of my cards this summer actually had a generic coupon where if you activated it
you could get an instant five percent cashback on gas and travel and that was just for activating
the coupon and using the card during the summer so you really want to pay attention and make sure
your issuer has those coupons because if they do and you're already going to be spending that money
then you might as well activate the coupons and save some money now obviously one of the
most known benefits for using a credit card is the fact that a lot of them have different credit card
rewards like for instance you might get free hotel stays free flights or maybe just cash back just
for using your credit card and then also be aware that when you're looking for a new credit card
a lot of those have different sign up bonuses so a lot of the time if you spend a certain
amount of money within about 90 days you can get a cash back rebate just for starting to use that
card when it's brand new credit cards always offer fraud protection so you're never going
to be liable for any purchases that you don't authorize and the credit card companies are
always monitoring for fraud and a lot of the time they're going to catch something before you do
because i've personally had a few instances where the credit card companies call me up and ask me if
i made a certain purchase and a lot of the time it was made a few days prior to them even calling me
so i had no clue that it had even happened and they were already on top of it credit cards
also offer what's called purchase protection and what this means is that when you buy a new item
they'll actually protect it from damage or theft for about 90 days on items up to about a thousand
dollars obviously there are different rules and limitations when it comes to purchase protection
like for instance a lot of credit cards will only protect items up to 500 and not a thousand but to
be honest this is a very handy feature when it comes to getting new purchases protected just by
using your credit card another cool benefit that you can get is called extended warranty protection
and what this means is that if you buy an item that has a warranty that's three years or less
then the credit card company will actually extend the warranty by another year making it four years
if it was a three year warranty just because it qualified and because you're using a credit
card to buy the item you can also get different types of travel insurance and car rental damage
insurance as well just by using your credit card when you're traveling or when you're renting a car
so pay attention to those different rules if those apply when you're doing that kind of stuff there's
always going to be different limitations and rules to basically everything that i've been talking
about but overall if you are using a credit card versus a debit card i feel strongly that they do
offer quite a few other benefits that you're not going to get just from using a debit card now if
you are in the market for a new credit card and you're going to be responsible with it then i'd
recommend checking out creditcards.com i've got an affiliate link for them in the description below
if you have an interest because honestly they have a very large selection of extremely competitive
credit cards to choose from and you can compare the different rewards and the sign up bonuses
to decide which one is best for your lifestyle but just remember to be responsible with them because
i don't want you paying interest and i also want you to be very careful with your spending now if
you just happen to find this channel i'm jason with honest finance and i make a lot of videos
on different topics that will give your life and your finances more value so feel free to subscribe
if you're into this type of content but thanks for watching this particular video have a great day