I personally believe that credit cards are awesome, maybe The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread® (okay, probably not). I get perks on my normal, day-to-day expenditures. Why would I complain about that? Of course, I'm keenly aware of all the misuse of credit cards. It's easy to forget that $10, $5, and your monthly bill turns out to be a rather hefty chunk of change, but I blame the credit card companies' greed more than anyone's lapse of judgment for many of those issues.
What? Crafting a consumerist driven economy and loading it with obscene amounts of debt, so you can charge interest off it wouldn't have consequences? Please.
Anyway, what was the point of this writeup? Oh. Right. Why credit cards are useful.
Credit cards come with a lot of perks that people tend to forget about, besides features such as cashback or rewards programs like Discover Card's Cashback Bonus or the famous American Express Memembership Rewards Program, a lot of credit cards and charge cards offer some perhaps more unexpected things like extended warranties, return programs, or travel insurance. In particular – since I imagine a lot of us like shiny electronics – I'll make note of the extended warranty program.
Extended Warranty
This is on almost every card in the United States, except Discover Card (Maybe Morgan Stanley didn't cozy up to the idea before they spun them off?); BankAmericard and MasterCharge offer it on their platinum cards only; American Express cardholders are in luck, they get them on any card American Express issues directly. The warranty extensions tend to have some caveats (i.e. no, your fruit salad that went bad is not covered under your card's extended warranty), but for stuff like consumer electronics and whatnot, you'll probably be surprised that your credit card company might be footing the bill for the repair. Each card handles them differently, some might request an estimate before approving, others might have you do the repair and then just reimburse you for it. Sometimes I've heard they might deem the repair not worth it and just give you the original purchase price of the item.
So yeah, go and find out about your card and use those benefits! Credit cards aren't completely debt inducing scourges of the American consumer...at least I hope not.