Credit cards get a bad reputation because of their high interest. However, in terms of debt, if you must go into debt, credit cards are preferable. This is because the minimum payment goes down as more of the principal balance goes down. Installment loans, on the other hand, have fixed payments no matter how long you have been paying.

Thus, over time, paying down a credit card gets easier and easier. Paying off an installment loan, even with low interest, is just as difficult at the end as it was at the beginning. Making extra payments to principal does not lower your payments.

Still, the preferable way is to have the means to pay for an emergency or to quickly pay the debt. For example, if you have Hive to pay for an emergency, it still takes 13 weeks to get the money out. So, you could temporarily incur debt and use your power downs to pay off the debt. It wasn't that you didn't have the money, it just wasn't liquid.