Credit Cards Intended For Dire Emergencies
You may need to use your credit card for direr situations than you think.
Suppose you have two credit cards with balances exceeding the desirable amount (say, more than half of their limits), and some unforeseen circumstance forces you to finance something, but you don’t have the cash to back it up. You could resort to your credit cards and max them out, but the figures are reflected on your next statement and hurt your future loan applications. What could you do to anticipate such a dilemma? Apply for a credit card, for the sole purpose of using it only on emergencies.
Emergency credit cards are the best way of dealing with unexpected situations. Your car suddenly breaks down in the middle of the road with a busted transmission; if your car is your only means of getting to work, you need to have it repaired immediately while you try not to lose any workday in the process. If your possessions were taken during a hold-up or mugging, you need to replace the lost items immediately, especially if such include documents and credit cards which are essential to a business transaction. You need some slack to cover for the expenses, and emergency credit cards can bear the brunt of the burden.
If you go for other means of financing such losses, such as borrowing funds from a money market, you can be penalized for doing so. On the other hand, a balance-free emergency credit card can answer for the losses, as long as it carries at least two thousand dollars’ worth of consumable credit. If you haven’t considered the advantages of having a balance-free credit card, now’s the time to do so, even if you have no intent in using it. Emergency credit cards give your finances a boost when you need it the most.
Emergency credit cards can also be indispensable to college students so long as they know how to responsibly use it. Your first week on campus can drain your finances even if you’re on a scholarship; besides, your program may not cover for things like books and boarding, and you have to answer for those with your own means. In such situations, emergency credit cards are the easiest way out of financial rut – just remember that emergencies don’t include a movie ticket or a smoothie from a convenience store.
Since these cards are designed in the same way as the others, apply for cards which cover for as many situations as possible. You must be able to use it to pay for gas and groceries, as well as for repairs and everything else. If your stripped of cash before your payday, resist the urge to take out a cash advance from your other credit cards, as appealing as this may seem; cash advances can carry an interest rate of at least 24%, and you can end up paying for more than you borrowed for. Instead, use an emergency credit card to pay for the necessities while waiting for the next payday; it can tide you over without costing you too much on repayment. Emergency credit cards can mean the difference between a financial rut and a dire crisis, so consider on applying for yours now.