Credit card debt is easy to rack up and hard to pay off, which can scare off a lot of potential users. Perhaps influenced by friends’ horror stories, only a third of adults under 30 even have a credit card.
But if you use them responsibly by only charging what you can afford to pay for completely when your bill is due, credit cards become a useful tool. Besides the possibility of rewards points, you get consumer protection from your credit card issuer. Think of it as an extra insurance policy when things go wrong.