Credit cards come with plenty of advantages beyond rewards points and Air Miles. What are some advantages that your card might offer?
Emergency Expenses
A credit card can be an extremely useful financial tool in emergencies. If you don’t have enough savings to handle an urgent expense, you can turn to your credit card for help.
As long as you have room on your card’s balance, you can charge the expense to it. This would allow you to resolve the emergency quickly and then focus on repayment slowly and steadily. You can pay down your outstanding balance through your regular billing cycle.
Don’t use your credit card for emergencies if the balance is too high or if you’re not sure that you can keep up with the billing cycle. If you need an alternative for handling an emergency expense, you could try to apply for a personal loan online as a solution.
Look for online loans that are available in your state of residence. So, if you’re living in Phoenix, you should search for online loans in Arizona to handle your emergency. This small step in your search will guide you toward loans that are accessible to the state of Arizona or any other state that you live in.
Online Transaction Disputes
If you have a terrible experience with an online merchant, you will have an easier time disputing your transaction when you use a credit card. Contact your credit card company about the experience, and they will dispute the transaction for you. If you made the purchase with a debit card, it would be much more challenging to dispute the transaction and get your money back.
Theft Protection
Credit card users have limited liability in cases where their card is stolen — or their credit card information is stolen — and used to make unauthorized transactions. Many cards offer $0 fraud liability. At the most, the Fair Credit Billing Act states that cardholders are not responsible for more than $50 in unauthorized credit card charges.
Insurance
Your credit card might automatically provide insurance for purchases that you make with it. Certain types of credit cards offer travel insurance for users. So, if you purchase plane tickets with your card, you will have coverage for circumstances like flight cancellation, lost luggage, medical emergencies, etc. This feature saves you from purchasing a private travel insurance plan — or worse, having to manage all of these costs completely on your own.
Another common type of insurance credit cards have is insurance for rental vehicles. You will likely have collision and damage coverage. This feature could save you from paying for the rental company’s insurance add-ons, giving you a cheaper bill at the end of your trip.
Extended Warranties
Your credit card can offer extended warranties for certain items that you purchase with it. Typically, the feature will double the coverage time of the item’s original manufacturer’s warranty. So, an item with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty will be pushed to two years with the help of your card.
Purchase Protection
Some credit cards offer their users “purchase protection.” Purchase protection offers coverage for an item if it is damaged or stolen within the first few months of purchasing it. So, if your brand-new laptop was taken from your bag two weeks after you bought it, you could get it replaced with the help of this credit card feature.
Don’t ignore these incredible credit card features. Use them whenever you can.