As a financial term, credit, used in such terms as credit card, refers to the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. These two always go hand-in-hand. Any movement of financial capital is normally quite dependent on credit, which in turn is dependent on the reputation or worthiness of the holder. A similar usage is in commercial trade, where credit is used to refer to the approval for delayed payments for goods purchased. Sometimes if a person has financial instability, the credit is not granted. Companies frequently offer credit to their customers as part of the terms of a purchase agreement. Institutions that offer credit to their customers frequently employ what is known as a credit manager. Unlike money, credit itself cannot act as a unit of account. However, many forms of credit can act as a medium of exchange. As such, various forms of credit are frequently referred to as money and are included in estimates of the money supply.

There is also the form used in markets, known as the Credit Default Swap Market, a traded market in credit insurance, representing the price at which two counterparties exchange the risk. Also, there is the Personal Finance Monitor, the first consumer product derived from this technology developed by Virtual Perception Systems Inc. It deals with supporting monitoring financial transactions at major financial institutions and credit card companies, as well as summarized or transformed information about those transactions, directly to the user’s cellular phone, computer, email or other destination. By raising the user’s awareness of unauthorized use of their credit or debit cards, the Personal Finance Monitor provides an immediate solution to fraud and identity theft.