Best Sources of Emergency Cash

Even if you´re debtaverse, having a credit card to pay for emergencies could be an important lifeline

- By Rivan Stinson. Photographs by Poon Watchara-Amohaiwan

If you have an emergency fund, congratulations. But when emergencies pile up, should you drain the fund to cover every one of them? It’s a question I asked myself recently after I inherited a car from my mom. While having my own wheels has improved my life, the car has needed repairs that I didn’t plan on.

My emergency fund could have covered the work, but I would have been left without a backup fund to pay my rent if I lost my job. Fortunately, I had a credit card with a very low balance. Plus, it had a sufficiently high credit limit to cover the repairs without hurting my credit score.

Loans you can live with.