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Comment by pimmen | Hacker News Reader

The whole idea of a credit card is that you buy something by borrowing money, because you don't have the money right now. If you do have the money, use a debit card.

However, I'm not completely against debt. I think debt can be managed and healthy under the right circumstances, and as long as it's used for stuff that you need and not stuff you want. If you truly need the stuff, the time and other purchases the debt gave you (such as a student loan to get a degree for your job, or a mortgage to live close your job) will pay for themselves.

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That's patently untrue as a blanket statement. I NEVER use my debit cards for purchases, only my credit cards. I pay all of my bills in full every month. I use my credit cards because I'm not risking the security of my primary checking account in online transactions, and also because I've collected ~ $2000 in rewards in the first half of this year alone by using my credit cards ...

>The whole idea of a credit card is that you buy something by borrowing money, because you don't have the money right now

That's a false premise: it's cheaper to pay for something on 0% credit while the same money gathers interest than it is to buy it outright. It also ignores opportunity cost and could be applied to every form of credit from mortgages to business investment and government bonds.

For me, credit cards — as opposed to debit cards in their various forms — are exceptionally useful for their benefits (e.g. transaction liability, insurances, rewards schemes) which don't require you to ever pay a cent of interest.

I have various credit cards and all of them are set up to automatically pay themselves off on the statement due date. I've not paid a cent in credit card interest in my life.

I don't think you answered my question. I'm trying to say that people use credit cards even when they have the money and aren't going into any kind of debt.

Not having money, and "being good for the money" are two different things.

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