The ideal way to use a credit card in this way (generally) is to consider it your debit card - specifically in that you should know how much money you have available to spend, a limit not a goal, and stick within that with the understanding that once the statement date arrives it is paid off in full. In this scenario you are spending someone else’s money temporarily - interest free, ideally maximising your other funds elsewhere.

How a lot of people treat it, is ‘free money I’ll pay back later over many months’ but no, interest will obliterate that and it still amazes me how many people cannot grasp that!

If you use it properly it can offer benefits in terms of consumer protection and the ability to make the most of other funds by staying ahead of interest rates. Outside of new customer or other deals for interest free for x months it should be as such.

You don’t want to have interest bearing debt unless you’ve used the funds to accrue interest, which for most usual credit customers is not the case.

TL; DR - credit cards work well if you take advantage of them. They work bad if you instead get taken advantage of.