Credit cards are a necessary evil in today's day and age. If you're renting a car, getting a hotel room or shopping online, you'll probably need a CC. But as many have said, it's all a matter of restraint and understanding how they work.
Personally, I think all CC companies should be banned from recruiting college students as customers. I've seen too many rack up major debts by the time they graduate. They get suckered in by the super low intro rates, the fact that there's only a $20 minimum monthly payment and the silliest thing of all is getting some silly knick-knack as a bonus for signing up. At first the students are usually pretty good their spending, but then that fades. It's too easy to get spending cash, buy clothes, entertainment equipment, go on a big spring break, etc. Next thing they know their balance is huge and that 1.99% intro rate expires becoming like 17.99%. They're fouled and it will take years to get back on track.
But for my Hubby and me, they work great. We've got 2 we primarily use, pay for everything that we used to pay for with check/cash and pay off the balances every month. One is Citibank Upromise card (see link to my "Cool Sites" explanation of Upromise
http://greekchat.com/gcforums/showth...threadid=67456 ) and the other Capital One College One. We've never had a problem with either unlike some folks here. Both are rewards cards that deposit the cash into our son's 529 account. No annual fee and if for some crazy reason we weren't able to pay in full one month, the interest rate is 7.9%.
I've got the Capital One set up specifically for online purchases. Hubby restores old cars and buys a great deal of parts on Ebay, so I've set up one on Paypal. I've also got the majority of our monthly utility bills on automatic billing to that card. We're never late remitting a bill and the last time I bought stamps was for Christmas Cards.
The Citibank gets used for daily stuff, including groceries and gas, for the extra Upromise contributions from contributing companies, up to 10%. But the cool thing is that they also offer Virtual Credit Card numbers. This generates a one time use number that has a one year expiration date. It's great if you ever want to buy something online from a company/site you are unfamiliar with. You can feel good that your credit card info won't be highjacked because it's not the real thing.
I've also got a local department store card, but normally I don't advise these. Most of them usually charge 21% or higher. But again, if you pay it off each month you won't incur interest. My reason though is that they've got a cash back program as well in addition to the coupons many have talked about. Every purchase earns points and once you reach a given point level, you'll recieve a coupon good for $X anywhere in the store. Plus, about every month or two they have double or even triple point days. They also have frequent 90 no interest events. (Be careful with these sorts of promos though regardless of the company. Often if you don't pay the balance in full by the end date you'll end up paying back interest from the date of the original purchase.)
It's all a matter of being a responsible consumer. Know what you can afford and what you can't. Pay all your bills on time. Read that annoying fine print so that you understand exactly what you are getting into. If you don't understand it ask questions. If you get the run around, ask to speak to someone else because you should never commit to something you don't fully comprehend.
I am now down to 8. I don't use half of them. EVER. I have read where, if you don't ever use some of your cards, TO cancel them. I cancelled two of them simply because they don't have those stores near where I live now. How would I use them? I would like to reduce my credit cards down to maybe 2 or 3. I don't know my Credit Score so will cancelling them be a negative? I mean half of them I don't even use anymore.
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