On young freelance entrepreneurs: Credit cards are good

Around one year ago I decided to quit my job as a team leader of a customer service team within a big international company with headquarters in my country. Although it was fun, it was not my area.

So I decided to give a try to freelancing. I had prepared quite a bit to be able to jump out there with almost no experience with clients and some web development experience.

I'll leave the rest of the preparation story for another post, but now I want to focus in the fact that one month after quitting I requested a credit card which was approved by the bank due to my "decent" balances in my bank account.

I did not believe in credit cards at all, and even thought they were like a "disease or virus" spreading around making people fall in eternal debts, but as I found out pretty soon, I was quite wrong. And I guess it all comes down to how you use it.

When spending money from my credit card, it all depends on the answer to these questions:

"Will I have the money to pay for this in a not so far future?"

"Does it add value or do I need it?"

If the answer is yes for both questions, then I go for it. My credit card literally has saved my life a couple of times for the time being. And the main reason is something you as a freelancer will need to face sooner or later:

"Payments from clients will not always come timely"

That said, you always need to pay for your services, food, apartment and this needs to be done in a timely fashion. Having a credit card has let me "cash" several projects without even completing the project.

As a freelancer/entrepreneur there's a lot of things you need to consider and be able to measure, for instance there's always the risk that your client will not pay for your work. You need a plan for that as well.

But if you think like I used to, maybe this story will change your mind and you might be just right in time to ask for a credit card, which I'm pretty sure will be helpful if used correctly.

**Disclaimer: I made enough research before asking for my credit card, so I know exactly how much they are charging for each service, also I know how much they would charge me if I don't pay on time, etc. You should do the same and see if it's a good deal before having one.