Credit Cards and Establishing Credit...

Credit cards are fine as long as you are responsible with them.

Going to probably need credit at some point, so might as well get some started as long as you are responsible with them....

 

my friend has poor credit, he was given the same respone you were. it worked for me however, and the 2 other people that i've sent there....

believe it's a scam if you want, but it was signed in to law in 2004 that all americans can get free reports from each bereau once a year.

 

Anyway I want to dispel some myths about credit, such as. "as long as you are making the minimum payment your credit score will be good." that’s true and false in the same sentence. If you are over %50 on your available credit its bad for your credit score. SO say Joe blow, the famous comedian/ bubble gum tycoon, has three credit cards with a total limit of 2,000 dollars on them but owes 2,000 dollars and is making the minimum payment on each card his credit score will be less, much less then some other guy that has three cards but only uses one to pay for his electric bill each month. So if you do get a credit card, be sure to pay off the balance each month. two reasons, 1. there is no interest charged to your account if you pay it off monthly 2. its better for your credit. Also, I have heard this from several people and i don’t know what they smoke, but they say if you pay more than the minimum or pay off your debt too soon its bad for your credit. No that is not true. If you only pay for the minimum you are screwing yourself. Seriously, I rented a car in Florida 2 years ago and decided to charge it to my credit card. However Times were a bit tight and I only made the minimum payment for a year and a half, well in a year and a half my bill had gone down a whopping 50 bucks. . . .no good.

My advice would be to go to several credit unions, and see if they have a youth visa, usually those have a lower balance of say, 500 dollars and a decent but not good interest rate. Then pay one or two bills a month with it. But pay off the balance each month. IF you do that, since you don’t have any credit established, in 1 year you will have a credit score in the 700's I guarantee you. I have seen it time and time again. However since you don’t have a lot of credit history, one late pay can screw up your credit score pretty quick so stay on top of it, because they track that stuff for 7 years. I had 1 60 day late pay 7 years ago, it finally came off my credit report and my credit score went up 47 points. So just pay your credit bills on time.


Also paying your utility or phone bill will not help your credit, but not paying them and being sent to collections will hurt your credit, funny huh.

 

you don't have to pay it off directly after you spend it, you can wait until the statement comes and pay it off then without incurring any interest.

if you are going to go this route, just about any card will do, but try and pick a bank that is repected. capital one, citibank, mbna are fairly well known, if you're gonna get a visa or mastercard. you probably won't get a high line of credit as you would if you went with a lesser known bank, but i've had 2 dealerships tell me they like which banks i have used on my credit (although this could just be them sucking up to me)

 

I have cards and am responsible about paying them on time and all that stuff.... and over time they have been willing to raise my credit limit if I want.

It is better for your score to leave the limits lower.. or does it help you to raise them because then whatever you owe is a lower percentage of available credit lines?

 

I just got a credit card and put 350 bucks on it in 24 hours.








...well, it was 310 towards a bill my dad needed to pay, and he gave me the cash for, and it will be placed towards the credit card, helping me earn amazon.com points...

The other 40 was for clothes for work, which will also be paid off within the next 24-48 hours.

 

I need a credit card so i can purchase something.

i own something of high value that i would like to sell.


i can't walk into a store and barter with this thing i own.

you know how unsafe it is to walk around with somebody's kidneys?

 

Start small - retail/gas cards and work up. Only use them on necessary items. If you have something you want, then save your money seperate. There is plenty of time in your life to establish credit. It will take time, but stay smart about it. You could easily get into a debt situation if you're not careful. Please also keep the interest rates and due dates in mind as interest rates can change, if you're late on your payments.

Credit can be something you take pride in. Just know when/when not to use it.

Good luck

 

Be careful with this. Your card may have a limit, but that does not necessarily mean you can't go over that limit. Let's say you have a $200 limit. For whatever reason you charge up $210 on it (you forgot that $30 tank of gas). That $10 could cost you an "over the limit fee", similar to overdrawing a checking account.

The best way (in the old days) to establish credit was to get a local department store card. To show my age, I think mine was Joskes. Nowadays it is hard to find those because they tend to be associated with Visa or MasterCard.

Also, see if you can find a gas card to apply for.

Another thing to remember is everytime you apply for credit, your credit score may go further down.

 

It depends on what card you applied for. Obviously you (and 99% of the posters here) will be denied an AMEX black.

But if you can't get any card, you may want to learn why in case you need credit in the future. Using a card and making timely monthly payments builds credit - a good thing. It should be easy to get a card.

The gas man told me that parents with bad credit who can't get service start utilities in their kids names. So not only do they have bad credit, but they give their kids bad credit as well by missing payments. And their kids didn't do anything at all. That's messed up. It's the only recourse the gas company has.