Current Events > Should you use credit for any purchases, or not buy it if you can't afford it?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Got into an argument/debate with some folks over this. Basically someone said you should never go into debt for anything other than an emergency and it went from there.

What does CE think?
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Credit cards are super useful, people who only use them for emergencies are wasting them tbh

The only case where you shouldn't use one is if you genuinely cannot afford what you're buying and would be stuck making minimum payments on the card or paying a bunch of interest.
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I mean, "don't go into debt" should be pretty obvious.

That said, as long as you don't miss a payment or have to pay interest on anything, then there's no reason not to have credit cards and use them regularly. It's literally free rewards for continuing your normal spending habits (unless you have a card with an annual fee, though there are plenty of good cards with no annual fees).
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It's not an either/or situation. You should use your credit card for every day purchases and pay it off entirely each month. It lets you build up credit, doesn't put you in debt, doesn't cost you any more money (and, in fact, can save you a bit of money with rewards bonuses), and provides you with protection in the event of a stolen card that you wouldn't have from a debit card. Save debt for things you can't pay for all at once but have built in payment plans that don't kill you, like your mortgage, car payments, and certain big purchases that have built in zero interest payment plans that you can reasonably expect to payoff before that zero interest period runs out.
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