jwal, a debit card allows you to withdraw YOUR money from a savings account and to swipe the card to pay for puchases as a CASH transaction. Meanwhile, a credit card allows you to make a cash withdrawal in the form of a cash advance from the bank, with whom you will be answerable for automatic transaction fees for the cash withdrawal alone.Money is not yours but is a loan from the bank. You can use it to swipe and pay for purchases, and have a certain interest free period within which you can pay up 100% of your purchases. If you do not pay in full, the remaining amount due will be liable for a certain interest. The good side with CC is that you will earn points, miles, discounts, etc. and you can benefit of the interest free period. This works well as long as you pay in full each time on or before amounts are due.
Main difference to a debit card is, that with a credit card, your account is only debited once per month with the accumulated amounts and that you can choose to pay off the credit card balance in installments. (Best to read the terms & conditions regarding interest rate in this case.)
<em>edited by Kermi on 11/01/2011</em>
My dh recently gave me a credit card, only because he couldn't get 2 debit cards on his bank a/c here. I have never really used one before as I don't see the point I usually use debit, so what exactly is the point of a credit card and what are the advantages? Can you take cash out with them?