I’ve had a credit card since I was 16 and for the first time in my life, I’m not able to pay off my balance in full every month. Careless spending? No. Medical bills. We’ll be ok but we can’t overstretch. The CCs have been a life saver even if, yes, for the first time in my life I am paying interest. We could pay them off with our savings but it’s far more important to us to have a cushion in case I’m hospitalized for any length of time.
One other perk about CCs over debit cards is that it’s been my experience that CCs get mailed to you much faster than debit cards if something happens. I’ve had to reorder cards twice this year (on one occasion all of them and on the other just 2) and the credit cards get here within days and the debit within weeks. Of course, YMMV.