Credit cards
You screamed and said ” No, no, please, not again, can you stop writing about credit cards !” Ok, point taken. What do you think of a world without credit cards ? Inconvenient, less debts or ? Do you think people will spend less if they don’t have credit cards or do you think it is a matter of self control ? I look at credit cards like two-edges swords. You can let credit cards work for your advantage but you can also let them ruin your life. I am not humble to say I am pretty good in self-control as far as credit cards are concerned. I use credit cards towards my advantage, especially those ones that offer 0% credit cards and 0% balance transfer . It is like having a personal loan without interest, I love them.
I think an international credit card like Visa is necessary when ordering something from the internet or when you travel!
I hardly never use it otherwise but if something totally unexpected happens, it is good to know that you can use the credit card to cover the expences regardless of the money on your savings account.
Leena,
Thanks for comment.
If you read more of my blog , you will discover I am an avid investor, I always look for leveraging opportunity. I am a calculated risk taker.
Say I have $1000 which I budget for something I want to buy, the retail shop that I want to buy the goods offers credit card with no interest for a year. To me that is like a personal loan without interest for a year. I will use that $1000 that I have budgeted for to invest in gold or silver.
In fact, the retailers hate customer like me, they set up the credit card system for shoppers that want to buy with no money but willing to pay interest
. They hate customers like me who pay up everything 1 month before the interest due 
.
One month before the due date for the interest to be on, I will sell my gold or silver one month and pay back my entire amount
. I do not incur a single interest plus I use OPM (other people money, in this case it is the bank that offer me the credit card) to buy gold and silver. I love this kind of deal and I make plenty of money out of it 
.
Check out my investment category : http://www.seaykopitiam.com/category/investment/investment-gold/
Js.
we have miss used our credit cards many times. we now only have one line of credit and we pay it off every month. It was not easy getting to this point. I too like the 0% interest credit cards. I used them as a tool to help get us out of debt. Usually the term was for 6 months or a year. I would do a balance transfer from a card charging over 10% interest to the 0% card. How nice it was to be able to put all our hard earned money solely to principle. It takes a bit of your own leg work to get your interest rates reduced, but it is better than using a debt consollidation company that takes a peice of your skin in the process.
My wife and I do the same thing. We use the credit cards to our advantage. We haven’t paid a dime in interest in over 10 years for anything we have bought. That includes a new 2006 Nissan 350Z and a 30 foot boat, not to mention putting in a 17000 gallon swimming pool. We did this by using a credit card with a 0% interest rate and no balance transfer fee. I can’t possibly explain this to most people but I think you can understand and appreciate the fine art of playing the credit card game better than the credit card companies.
Oh, by the way, our credit scores are impecable.
Phil,
Thank you for dropping by and drop a comments.
Js