this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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If in the US, there is almost no downside to credit cards as long there's no annual fee and you pay it off in full every month. Most credit cards have some kind of rewards like cashback, miles, discounts, etc., so you gain something from using them. Banks are also very strict with fraud (because it's their money you're spending), so they will most likely side with you if you file a claim for unauthorized purchases. If you used a debit card, it's your money that gets stolen; and while the bank will try its best to recover it, they have less incentive to work for it compared to a credit card.
I used to limit myself to the card that didn’t have any annual fees. Practically all my purchases are made with a credit card (all paid back in full by the end of the month), so it turns out to be really worth it to take the card with the most advantages and highest cashback rates. They pay me back the yearly cost of the card many many times over.
The catch is, if the amount of transactions starts to drop below a certain threshold, it might not be worth it anymore.
Note that I am in Canada, not the US. Not sure if that makes any difference here.
I think US cards tend to have better rewards than Canadian ones, but echo on the fees thing. If a person is spending $1000/month on their card(which isn’t much once you put all your utilities/gas/grocery/etc. purchases together), and youre getting a 1% cash back/reward, that’s $120/year worth of rewards. So depending on your yearly spending, it can be worth paying that annual fee to get a card with better rewards.