In many of the articles I've read lately about being laid off, and how to survive unemployment, one suggestion has been to stop using credit cards. In general, this is a fine piece of advice, especially for someone who carries a balance (or balances, perish the thought). However, I think it is just fine to keep using your credit card during a layoff if you have no balance and can continue to pay the bill off in full each month.
We have used a Chase Freedom Visa for a long time now (before it was a Chase Freedom, it was a Disney Rewards Visa). I wrote about this a while back. We put everything we possibly can on the card to earn rewards points. With the Chase Freedom, we get 1% cash back on all purchases, and 3% cash back on our three top spending categories each month. Every time we hit $200 in rewards, we can cash them in and get $250. I have used the rewards dollars for several large expenses, including 6th grade camp (a schoolwide program) tuition for my youngest, and drivers' ed classes for my oldest.
Why would I stop using a card like that? Now, as our spending gets cut back, I won't be earning those rewards quite as quickly, but I'll still be earning them. As long as I continue to pay the balance in full each month, I'd be a fool to give up this source of free money.
