[jIM_Ohio]

CC are a matter of leverage. Using EF to pay off debt is leverage. There is also the issue of "free cash flow" within a budget to be a short term emergency fund.

Pay off debt before saving. If you have a EF and incur debt, pay off the debt (unless your EF is earning you more interest than the debt is costing you- quite rare).

CC to cover an emergency work well in a two day-7 day span. If your car breaks down and you need a car for a business trip the next day or next week... most car rental places REQUIRE a CC to secure the rental (even if you pay in cash at end of week). Hotel rooms require additional cash up front if you secure room with cash as well.

Using CC to handle the emergency within 2-3 days of when it occurs is acceptable (I do this all the time).

Paying off the CC becomes a matter of having a EF and/or having free cash flow within the budget. My wife and I know that one of her paychecks is "banked" every month (one of her paychecks is same as monthly budget for IRAs). If we had no car payments, 100% of her monthly pay would be banked. So we can handle any incidental/unexpected bill equal to one of my wife's paychecks without touching EF.

This doesn't even take into account our 401ks are withdrawn before we get paid, we could always increase take home pay and stop 401ks. Budgeting is the key... knowing how much "free cash flow" you have is important to handling the size of emergencies.