There are two types of people who use credit cards. People who possess consistent financial discipline and use the powers of their credit card(s) to their advantage. The other pool of people are those who use the credit card as infinite no obligation money, until they receive a bill through the post and hefty interest charges attached as a result of their lackadaisical spending. Credit cards could be your best friend regarding finances or your worst enemy, and can slowly destroy your cash flow if you don’t respect the value it offers and the pitfalls of not keeping an eye on your credit card expenses and payments. The 4 credit card powers below summarize how you could and should be using credit cards to better your existing financial situation.

Credit Score

There are some people under the assumption that because they have never had any credit or finance taken out in their name, they would be deemed as a suitable candidate for let’s say purchasing a mortgage. This is highly inaccurate, as your eligibility and affordability of a house or car, are significantly dependent on your documented buying behavior accessible on your credit record. This records finance, credit, phone contracts, store cards and so on taken out in your name and will present your history of keeping on top of payments, and even display missed payments. In taking steps to learn how to boost your credit score, using a credit card sensibly to purchase an item and pay the bill in time will enhance your credit score. As It demonstrates to a future lender you are capable of borrowing money and paying it back in the agreed time frame.

Protection

Using a credit card to make a purchase provides you with the power of security regarding your finances. The reason being, if money is taken from your debit account by a thief, you will only be returned the money once/if the financial fraud investigation team seeks to pursue the crime. By using a credit card instead, your actual cash from your debit account is protected, and the money stolen from the credit card is mostly the responsibility of the credit card company to solve and restore

Rewards

Depending on the extent of purchases you make within a given category, some credit card companies offer cash back and rewards for using your credit card to make purchases. For instance, if you’re an avid flier and spend significant amounts of money traveling across the world, there are credit cards available that could provide you a points system to accrue airline miles for flying. For other credit cards, spending a certain threshold of money per month could mean a return in the form of cashback. Due to this, it’s worth shopping around for the available credit card options to find which credit card powers you can use to enhance your current spending habits.

Tracking Expenses

When you thought there couldn’t be any more powers left for a credit card to possess, it can also be used to tidy up and simplify your current finances. Opposed to attempting to track the income and outgoings in one account, some people find it easier to use a credit card solely for their spending and pay this off once they receive the bill at the end of the month. This saves a lot of headache over trying to balance the books for your primary account. Various credit card providers also provide online access to preview spending for the previous month and some even categorize the expenses for you. This is an excellent tool for monitoring how much you are spending on food, technology, entertainment, etc to assist reigning in your spending and take control of your money.

With credit cards being subject to approval the type of credit card you will have access too depends on your existing credit history. For those with a better credit history and regular income, you are more likely to have a wider variety of credit opportunities available at your disposal. The advantages of this are the option to rummage through the best interest rates and match this up against the rewards and benefits you can receive from a specific credit card.However, avoid interest rates that far outweigh the rewards as this provides no advantage to your existing spending.

The 4 credit card powers above provide distinct reasoning behind why using a credit card purposefully, and in a disciplined fashion makes financial sense. With the benefits being; boosting your credit rating, gaining cashback and rewards, protection of your money and tracking expenses easily.