Credit cards may not be a perfect fit for every purchase, but there are some times that using a credit card makes a lot of sense, protecting you against fraud and bad business practices, while allowing you to collect rewards on every swipe.
Here are five ordinary purchases you should always make with a credit card.
1. Expensive consumer items
If it's expensive, it should probably go on a credit card. Credit cards offer one big advantage over cash payments and debit cards: When you put a purchase on a credit card, you're often protected against damage, theft, or loss of the item for as long as 90 to 120 days after the purchase.
This card benefit, known as purchase protection, acts as a short-term form of insurance for products you buy with your card. If you buy a new tablet computer only to break it a few weeks later, a credit card with purchase protection will pick up the tab to fix the damage.
Most credit cards have this feature, but Chase has one of the best purchase protection policies, offering up to 120 days of purchase protection when you use your card to make a purchase. It's a card benefit that few people know about that can save you hundreds of dollars when you really need it.
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2. Online purchases
Making purchases online often means dealing with sellers and merchants we don't know as well as the neighborhood mom-and-pop shop. Making online purchases with a credit card gives you better protection against merchants who fail to deliver on their promises, since they offer better chargeback protection.
But that's not all. Many credit cards also offer "return protection," a benefit that allows you to make a claim if a merchant won't allow you to return your purchase for a refund of the purchase price. Return protection effectively extends the amount of time you have to return an item you purchase. Thus, if you can't return an item within a merchant's timeline of, say, 10 days, you may be able to file a claim with your card company to get a refund of up to $250 by mailing the item to the card company within 60 days of purchase. See your benefits guide for your credit card, as this is a common feature on many credit cards on the market today.
3. Gasoline
Many cards offer high rewards when you use your card to make a purchase at gas stations, but there is another reason to use credit cards to pay for gas: Gas stations are one of the places where card numbers are most frequently stolen.
Gas stations have become a hotbed for card theft because they were allowed a three-year extension to install chip readers on pumps, making them one of the last remaining places for sophisticated thieves to collect card numbers and empty the accounts of unsuspecting customers.