Ways to Save Money with a Credit Card

For some reason everyone seems to have this stigma attached to credit cards that they aren’t a good way to save money. However, the opposite is actually true. Credit cards are a fantastic way in saving money if you know how to best utilize your credit card.

Almost all credit cards have some period of time interest-free, which means that there is a period from when you make the purchase before you actually start to get charged interest on the purchase. This is a massive advantage and a brilliant way to save money using a credit card because it means, instead of the money coming out of your account at the time of the purchase like with debt cards, it stays in there until the end of the month when you pay your credit card balance. This means that, if your interest is calculated on a daily basis, that your money will be in your account long building up interest.

Also if you run a business, rather than having an overdraft, why not just have a credit card? And if you need longer than the interest-free period, just pay off your credit card with your overdraft. This means you’re still better off than you would have been just paying it directly from your overdraft.

Also, if you get charged a per-transaction fee on your bank account, a bank account debit card may mean you’re unnecessarily getting charged bank fess, whereas credit cards usually don’t have transaction fees per transaction. You could save a pile of money on bank fees because you’re only having one transaction at the end of the month paying your credit card balance.

They can also save you money when you’re buying things over the internet. The cost of sending an international money order nowadays is phenomenal. If you buy something over the internet using your credit card, it costs exactly the same as it would have if you brought something in the US. By using your credit card to buy goods and services on the internet, you can buy goods on the international market for a-lot cheaper than you can buy them in the US. Use your credit card with a service like PayPal and you’ve got the good or service usually within a week. How easy is that?

Credit cards certainly aren’t the money chewers that they have been accused of being and, if used correctly, can be used to save you a lot of your hard earned money just by following a-few easy steps.

Write to Julie Williams at julie@creditdonkey.com