I agree with the other posters. Do NOT take a cash advance for this purpose.
watchnerd wrote:
Tell me more about these other reasons to use a CC more and security...
Ah, I thought you'd never ask. LOL
For starters, every time you use a debit card, you are authorizing a merchant to withdraw funds directly from your bank account. If the merchant either makes a mistake or intentionally and maliciously (and illegally) withdraws too much, the cash is already gone. You have to file a claim with your bank, and while they investigate your claim, you still don't have your money. If your debit card is lost or stolen, there are a lot of places people can use it without a PIN, and once that money is out of your account, you have to fight to get it back.
With a credit card, however, you are protected by law from the CC issuer holding you liable for any fraudulent charges. In situations like I described above, if you dispute a charge on a credit card, you still have your money while the dispute is being investigated, and you don't even have to make any payments that would normally be due on the disputed amount during the time the investigation is continuing.
In short, it is MUCH safer to maintain complete control over your bank account and only pay those bills and credit card charges that you know are legitimate than it is to open up your bank account for merchants and trust them to withdraw the correct amount every time you make a purchase.
Also, credit cards offer purchase protections that debit cards do not. Visa, MasterCard, and Amex require merchants who accept their credit cards to live up to a certain expectation by ensuring the products they are selling are up to the standards you believe you are purchasing. If you buy something with a credit card and it turns out to be a piece of junk or was misrepresneted by the merchant, you can do a chargeback (if the merchant refuses to work with you on the situation), and the credit card company itself will deal with the merchant so that you don't have to. If your complaint is well-founded, the credit card company will credit your statement for the purchase price and make the merchant eat the cost. Debit cards do not have this feature.
For any purchase made on an Amex card, Amex will double the length of the warranty on the product up to two years. So if you buy a new Plasma TV with a one-year warranty, and it breaks in the thirteenth month, Amex will make it good. A debit card issuer will not.
When you rent a car or book a hotel room, they preauthorize your card for a certain amount before they actually charge you for th final bill. If you use a credit card, it is only a certain amount of your available credit that is frozen; if you use a debit card, it is actual cash in the bank that is unavailable for you until the preauthorization is released. For some categories of purchases, preauthorizations are allowed to hold for up to 30 days, by the way, even AFTER the acual charge has posted.
Add in the benefit of rewards, and I think credit cards are MUCH more attractive than debit cards for ANY purchase. All of my daily purchases are 100% credit (except for the few places I have to use cash). The only place I use my debit card is at the ATM.
