Hopefully your are not one of those credit card users who only got a credit card for the convenience of not carrying cash around. Yea its easy just charging but the are better ways for you to pay for things that charge it. Cash is really the best way to purchasing things because you get a real sense of how much money your are spending. You might not be aware of better ways to borrow money to use for your cash purchases instead of using the plastic (credit cards). This Hub was written to help you with some alternatives to credit cards. There are just too many people using credit cards instead of these alternative methods because of all the great advertising these credit card companies get done. Very few credit card users realize that there are much better ways of getting those things without getting into debt with high interest rate credit cards. In this Hub I am going to show you several ways to avoid using your credit card and avoid paying fees and interest or at least reduce to a large amount. I hope this will help you on a better path for spending your money and saving some cash as well.

Debt cards first started being used by most of the European countries and where rarely used elsewhere but things have changed a lot and debit cards are being used a lot more frequently. Here in the United States these cards are becoming very popular. A debit card is used exactly like a credit card and mostly you can't even tell the difference but the big difference is you are not borrowing any money because you are spending money that already belongs to you. Usually this money comes directly from your checking or share draft account. The main problem here is that you are not protected form fraud and you could end up losing money from your checking or draft account. But still if you are careful you will save a lot of money using a debit card versus a credit card. You fees and interest alone will save you a bundle.

The prepaid Credit Card or secured credit card is not difference in appearance that a regular credit card but its your money and not the Banks. What a deal for the Bank huh! You can't have a negative balance ant your limit is set by the amount of money you put on our credit card. These cards have there advantage over debit cards because you only have to worry about how much limit you have on the card. You can also get you money back by reporting to the credit card issuer that fraud was committed and the Credit Card company will put a stop to it and give you your money back. These cards are also good in getting your credit back up by making payments often and keeping balance low. Nobody but you knows that this is a secured credit card. Some parents use these cards to give to there children in college or high school for allowance or emergencies.

A bank overdraft is kind of like a prepaid loan. The bank allows you to spend more money from your checking account that you have. This usually is not available for new account holders. Your might have to have good credit with some banks but others will do it for you if you been using them for a while and your account is very active. Your over draft limit is usually set by the bank based on you history of adding money and withdrawing money. If you a good customer you can request a higher limit. You don't have to worry about paying it of right away and make some payments to it. What this does basically is to allow your bank account to go in the minus and the bank covers the charges. You will have to pay some high interest rates on this money but its usually less than the charges from a credit card. Plus if you are a good customer they will probably give you a low rate, you can always asked it can never hurt but it can help you.

If you are planning on buying something big like a motorcycle or house you wont want to use a credit card. Going to the band or some loan company for these purchases is something you will have to do. These type of loans have better rates than credit cards because they are usually secured by the purchase and you will be paying some monthly rate set on a budget you can afford. Usually the larger the purchase the better the rate because the banks know you will do what you have need to keep the item. Some might require a down payment or some upfront collateral but most will except your good credit.

Its been my experience that Credit Unions are much better than banks to deal with your financial needs. This is a community and they usually try to get better rates for you and the rest of the share holders. You are part owner in this type of financial institute and they treat you that way. Since they are a coop and are usually local you can really get some good rates in borrowing money specially if you been in the community for a while.Another reason for this is that there are limits set by the law on how much interest the Credit Union can charge and they do not have to make a profit for the share holders if they choose not too. They still have the same type bank fee and such but a much lower values and sometimes no fees for things banks will charge a arm and a let. My advice to you is find a Credit Union in your area and join up today. To me a Credit Union is the only way for your financial needs.