Credit card advice

[Rashad]

college kid + credit card + drinking = PWNT!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

lol

[ishmael]

For what it's worth, I was told by a credit reporting agency that if you don't carry a balance for at least a little while, then you actually don't have a credit reference for that source.  That is to say, if you take out a Mastercard and you pay it off in full every month - the full balance, then it won't count as a credit reference.  You actually have to carry the balance for a month or two (accrue some interest - yuck) and then if you want (and I'd recommend) pay it off.  That way you don't get in trouble and you actually develop a credit reference for that card.

ding ding ding

thats right cranky. for your credit rating to really shine you want to show that you can both borrow money and repay the money without missing any payments. that means incur a debt of whatever amount you are comfortable with. pay off some, a little more than the minimum payment is always good in my opinion and let the amount float for a month. the next month you will recieve a bill with the previous amount plus finiance charges on it. depending how much you want to work it you can keep this up for a while. it will cost you a few bucks every month to incur more finiance charges, but when you pay it off your credit record will show that you successfully borrowed, floated, and then finially payed off X amount of money. they will then be more willing to raise your limit and mark up your credit rating.

 

i've heard of people doing this for a while and either taking out a loan and putting it in a cd for 3 months and then repaying it in full, or simply just floating large amounts of excess money about for periods of time. it works very well to get your credit rating up near 800. you can get higher than that, but to be honest, most people never will assuming that make it that far up.

 

so, key rules

1) NEVER EVER MISS A PAYMENT

2) make sure you float money from month to month to show a credit line

3) NEVER EVER MISS A PAYMENT

4) never use the card for more than you plan. know what you are doing and plan.

5) NEVER EVER MISS A PAYMENT

 

those missed payments will kill your CR

[Ice_Berge_00]

Hehe, what if you follow rule #1 but not #3

 

J/K, but he's right. If you do nothing else, NEVER MISS A PAYMENT.

 

 

 

 

Cranky,

 

Actually I meant, what IS a cash card??? I've never heard a card referred to that way.

 

Oh, just for bragging rights,

This past week I received a notice that my credit limit on my card was bumped up yet again, I've lost track of how many times in the last year and 1/2 they've done that!

 

BTW, I've never carried an balance from 1 month to another, I always pay it off in full each month. I'm not saying that you guys are wrong, just what I've done.

 

Although, I do have 43,000 in student loans so those probably count more than my credit card

[gOOters]

good advice ish.

[Cranky Bullfrog]

One other thing I'll mention. I was also told there are some things that adversely affect your credit rating about which you may not be aware. For example, everytime some institution requests a credit report on you (such as for consideration of a loan), they bump the ole counter up one. If too many credit reports are being pulled, it starts to look bad on your score even though it might be for legitimate and very benign purposes. That is to say, it might look like you are running around trying to get loans and having trouble. This might seem innocuous and you might think "well, nobody pulls my reports that often" but frequently when a bank wants to offer you some great new loan rate, they may pull a report (ding goes the counter).

 

The other thing that can trigger a warning flag - is increases in your credit limit (believe it or not - that's an odd one). That includes solicited increases and unsolicited increases. So watch out for that one too. I tell my credit card company not to bump it up without my authorization even though they will (as Ice mentioned) gladly bump it up for you if your scores are very good.

 

Anyway, even some forms of what would appear to be benign inquiries or increases in your credit account balances can trigger flags for people who supply loans.

 

Just thought I would mention that.

 

Cranky

[Cranky Bullfrog]

Oops Ice - forgot to answer your question.... a "cash card" is just a bank card or ATM card issued against a bank account (doesn't carry interest charges, doesn't provide credit - it's just basically an ATM card but sometimes they work as credit or debit when making purchases. Still, they aren't an extended line of credit but rather just a card for getting money out of your own account. I'm not sure which institutions use that name for them and which ones just call them ATM cards but that's something I ran into some time ago.

 

Cranky

[Ice_Berge_00]

Got ya