Credit Cards are the need of the day. This enables a person to do monitory transaction without using hard cash. There was a time when having credit card was a class as it was issued to a few of the prominent person who have exceptionally good reputation in credit market. But now with the ease in policies, credit card is in reach of everybody who fulfills some easy conditions laid down by the issuer. If you have an excellent credit score, you can get a credit card easily and even many banks and other financial institutions would approach you for their different financial products including credit cards.
Many of us have a doubt that credit cards are very expensive and can trap us in financial crunches. This could be true but if credit cards are used wisely it is a bundle of benefit…Using Credit card has more advantages than using cash. By using cash, you are not earning anything except the goods you paid for, but Credit Cards bring lot more benefit on expenditures. In short it gives you the option to earn on your spending. Let’s find out the numerous benefits that place credit card above than using hard cash.
Benefit of Credit Cards-
- Speedy Transaction: Credit card allows you to make fast transactions. In matter of seconds the payment is done and you got the intimation from bank. You need not to wait for getting change or counting currency notes. You get the payment notification instantly on your registered mobile number.
- Safe: Carrying Credit Card is much easier and safer than cash as it can easily fit in your wallet. Whereas cash took much space and also the fear of theft and losing money is always there. If in case you lose your cash it cannot be bring back and the one who founds it can easily spend it anywhere, on the other hand your credit card is Pin protected which makes it safer as without pin no one can do any transaction on it even online transactions required one time password which will only be on your phone.. Nowadays many card issuer have introduced Tap facility in which you need not to enter the Pin for a certain amount. You have the option to disable Tap facility in order to safeguard your card.
- Spend today and pay later: What if you have the chance to spend now but pay after a few days without using your cash and that too without any other cost, would you go for this? Certainly yes. Credit card offers this fantastic option in which you get interest free period to pay for the transaction you made today. Credit Card has a billing cycle of one month. All the transactions done within a month reflect on completion of the billing cycle in your credit card bill. Normally issuers give more 15 days for payment as grace period. In this way you would have 45 interest free days and you need not to pay even a single penny as interest on your spending but yes , if you won’t pay on due date you could have to pay higher interest on your outstanding.
- Wide Acceptance: A few year back, usage of cards and EDC machines were very less, therefore it was difficult to do all the transaction through cards and cash was needed at all stage. But now the situation has turnaround completely. All are opting for digital payments for various good reasons and therefore you would find a large number of outlets who are accepting payment through cards. With increase in competition and competitive offers by various banks to vendors have made it possible. Now you can easily transact at numerous, restaurant, shopping outlets, online payments, can buy movie, railways or air ticket etc. hassle free and in much easier way.
- Rewards: Mostly all the banks and other issuers have their reward system in which they provide reward points to the cardholder on usage. The more you use your card, more the rewards you can achieve. Reward points have some proportionate value as described by different card provider at the time of issuing the card. These points can be used for shopping or can be en-cashed. Thus, this feature gives you advantage to earn even when you are spending.
- Loans : The more you use your card and make your payments on time for all your spending would create a good credit history which will help you on maintaining your credit score at higher level. This will brought you numerous offers and financial products like car loan, home loan, personal loan, instant loans etc, by your card issuer as well as by many other financial institutes. On the basis of your credit card usage you might also get a chance to get higher credit limit on your existing card or new add-on credit cards with new limit. Hence, using credit card is beneficial in all the ways.
- Cash Back facility- To entice the customer and encourage the maximum use of credit card, banks offer a certain amount cash back on the transaction made through credit card issued by them . This amount can be of 1% or 2% of the amount spent. Even a few banks offer up to 10% cash back on the amount spent through their credit card with some conditions. Often banks are having their tie ups with brands, hotels, restaurant, airports, online portals etc to provide cash back facility.
- EMI Benefit: There is also a very useful feature of credit card is to convert your expenses in equated monthly installments on lower interest rates. This facility helps you to distribute your financial burden as monthly installments. This is like a short term loan which you can avail on your credit card without further documentation. You can simply avail this benefit through bank portal or phone banking. Emi facility may vary from bank to bank or as per the policies of card issuer.
- Other benefits: Credit card benefits are not ended yet, it offers various other benefits too. There are different types of credit cards which provide different benefits to its holder like surcharge refund on petrol, additional points on some partner brands or outlets, free access to VIP lounges at various airports, discounts on travel bookings through credit cards etc.
All these benefits make the credit cards a better option for your payments than cash. Credit cards are very helpful in many ways if used responsibly and wisely.