- Instead of using a bank or a credit card you can now borrow money from people you don't know online. Websites such as propser.com allow people to borrow and lend money to people online who have never met. There is a process for verifying people's identities and their credit worthiness. There are still some problems with this system such as people defaulting on loans but it is a possible alternative that many people are starting to utilize.
- Paypal is a company that is currently owned by Ebay. But Paypal is a system all by itself. A Paypal account is like a bank account. You can fund the account by credit card or by linking your bank account. Paypal lets you send and transfer money to anyone with an email account. More significantly many online merchants accept Paypal as a form of payment. You can use your Paypal account to pay for many things online that used to require a credit card.
- Debit cards are one of the biggest and best alternatives to using credit cards. Debit cards usually are incorporated with a Visa or Mastercard logo signifying that it can be used like a credit card. Any place that takes Visa or Mastercard will accept debit cards the same as a credit card. You are not using credit though because the money comes out of your bank account and not on a revolving credit account.
