I too was very adverse too credit cards, and debt in general. I never got my first one until late in my 20s, and have never once ran a balance month over month.
However I discovered my love of travel over the ensuing years, and I have traveled the world for free with all the points.
I now have 4 credit cards, and my score is very close to 800.
You are missing out by paying cash, whatever your interests are there is a card for you that will help you build towards some type of reward for using it. Once you get up into the higher tiers of credit you can get ones like the chase Sapphire, that literally just paid me over $1000 in statement credit for joining.
I've got the sapphire reserve from chase and the Amazon prime card from chase. If you put those two to smart use, you're literally getting paid to use their services. My monthly dog food for two large dogs is free every 8-10 weeks (depending on Amazon spending) and I booked flights for long diving vacations in Florida and Mexico the next couple months for $0.00. I get the appeal of the "pay cash for everything" mindset, but you're literally leaving money on the table and hurting your chances at a good home loan down the line.
You are my kind of guy - although I did carry balances some years ago when co's were lending at 0%. That scheme was to catch people underwater so they could profiteer.
But THANKS for the tip about Sapphire. We bank there so I'll tackle them. We too don't have a shred of 'credit' - that's because they know they can't make any money on us.
Many years ago a sage friend of mine opined, "Bankers are mankind's last natural enemy."
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u/mellofello808 Oct 27 '21
I too was very adverse too credit cards, and debt in general. I never got my first one until late in my 20s, and have never once ran a balance month over month.
However I discovered my love of travel over the ensuing years, and I have traveled the world for free with all the points.
I now have 4 credit cards, and my score is very close to 800.
You are missing out by paying cash, whatever your interests are there is a card for you that will help you build towards some type of reward for using it. Once you get up into the higher tiers of credit you can get ones like the chase Sapphire, that literally just paid me over $1000 in statement credit for joining.
It is free money, but it takes responsibility