Both are spendable, but at the same time both spend differently. With cash, a person has a sum of money, and if they need to buy something that costs more than they can afford, they have to save up and come back later, buy an item at a lower cost, or perhaps wait. for a sale of some kind to occur and purchase the item when it is within your available budget. With a credit card, you have a limit of money available to be used. The person may or may not have said an available limit in cash, but with the credit card they can still purchase things that may actually be out of their reach, and simply worry about it later. This method allows the consumer to end up spending more than they have available, and possibly accumulate unwanted debt to pay off