Be Careful Using Those Credit Cards!

This Sunday several writers chose to write a cluster of stories about how you should be careful using credit cards.

Humberto Cruz writes about how credit card rewards can have a downside. He talks about how he uses several different rewards cards to optimize his rebates -- the Chase Freedom card for gas because it's offering the biggest rebate on gasoline purchases, his MBNA World Points card at the local supermarket because of its 5% rebate on purchases of groceries between now and the end of the year, etc.

Writing from Rochester, NY, Frank Bilovsky says that the convenience of using credit cards can "bite". He quotes a local book author:

"The ultimate bottom line is if you use a credit card, you are going to buy more than if you don't have a credit card," said Robert Manning, the Rochester Institute of Technology professor and author of the book Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit. "That ultimately was the selling point to get it into grocery stores."

Finally, Michelle Singletary says to be sure to be careful when paying routine household bills with credit cards.