I disagree with many financial experts in that I believe that credit cards are a good thing to have if you are responsible with your money.  It’s all about tracking your spending.  In fact, I have a harder time controlling my spending when I use cash since I can’t track it in my Financial Aggregation Tool.  Here are my Fave 5 reasons that I have a credit card.

5. Float  your debt
I pay my balance in full every month so I don’t accrue any interest.  In essence, I am getting free interest on that money every month.  For example, if I pay a $100 electric bill every month with my credit card, I can keep an extra $100 in a Certificate of Deposit or Money Market account to earn interest.

4. Get gifts/rewards for signing up
From cash to free toasters many cards offer some sort of incentive to sign up.  As long as you don’t go crazy signing up for every card that has some kind of gift with it you can use this to your advantage.

3. Save on interest
May cards have special terms on interest.  0% or reduced interest rates… some are promotional and some cards have a fixed low interest rate.  Use this in conjunction with Reason 1 (float) and you can get some extra interest.  Just make sure you read all the fine print and have the money to pay in full when the promotion period ends.

2. Get a reward for making purchases
Get cash/points/rewards for spending.  If you’re going to make a purchase anyway why not get an instant 1% discount.  Just don’t go overboard with chasing points.

1. Build your credit for big purchases
And the NUMBER 1 reason for getting a credit card is to build your credit.  Some day you may need financing.  The deal specialist does not believe in financing for cars (unless you can get <3%), but someday you will want to buy a house.  Easiest way to build up credit is to get a credit card.

• Credit card statements must be mailed out 21 days before they’re due
• Individuals under 21 will need a co-signer on their cards unless they can prove that they have the means to make payments on their own
• Credit card agreements will have to be posted on the internet
• Interest rates can’t be raised during the first year of an account
• Customers will be notified 45 days in advance of any change in interest rates
• Bills can be paid online or over the phone without incurring a processing fee
• Customers must be over 60 days late on payments before their interest rate can be raised on balances; if the rate is raised, it will go back to the lower rate if customers make the minimum payment on time for six months in a row.
• Overlimit fees can’t be charged unless cardholders are told that the purchase will put them over their limit and they authorize it to go through anyway
• If your card has more than one interest rate on balances, then payments must be applied to the highest interest rate first
• Gift cards can’t expire for five years, and issuers can’t charge dormancy fees for unused amounts left on the card

Changes sound reasonable.  It would be interesting to see how this will affect credit card offers.  These fees probably help fund credit card promotions.