I need to get a credit card, any suggestions?

by EntirelyPossible 25 Replies latest social current

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  poopsiecakes

  
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  EntirelyPossible

  I know how debt works, what kind is good and bad. Credit cards, depending on how you use them, can be very good debt. Your credit score is not just income and expenses, it's also a reflection of how you treat debt. Credit cards can be very good at showing that you can responsibly borrow and repay.

  I just never borrow money. I haven't had car payment or mortage in years. My credit score is dropping because I don't have anything to show that I can borrow and repay money.

  I am just asking which cards people have had good experiences with. That's all.
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  EntirelyPossible

  Maybe something that pays rewards in free drinks, you fucking alcoholic?

  Cashback can be use to buy alcohol.
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  ballistic

  "Credit cards, depending on how you use them, can be very good debt"

  LOL, yeah it's right up there, on my FTSE list of things to do.
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  finally awake

  get a card through a credit union. they screw people less than citi, chase, or bank of america
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  EntirelyPossible

  I was just thinking I should go through my credit union. I don't need miles or cashback, just a card with a low interest rate that I can make purchases on, run up a little debt, pay off, rinse, repeat, easy peasy credit magic!
• 

  Aussie Oz

  I fail to see how a credit card can be 'good debt'.

  The moment it is approved with lets say, $2000 limit, as far as anyone else you are interested in dealing with is concerned, you owe $2000 even if you have a zero balance. No one else is going to let you get into hock because you could go $2000 deeper the next day on your credit card and then not be able to afford to pay them.

  I have never had credit approved or refused based on a record of being able to pay off a card or anything else. It has always been on what my or our combined incomes are, balanced against what the financial institution says our living costs are and decided on that, not that i have been good before. I have not had a credit card in 12 years and never has the subject of such come up. When they run a credit check, they are looking for bad debt practices not good ones.

  Needing debt to prove you can afford debt is a myth.

  Maybe your country has a different way of doing things...i don't know.

  Oz
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  Giordano

  Don't fall for the myth that you have to carry a balance to have good scores. You don't, and you shouldn't. But having and using a credit card or two can really build your scores.

  You'll get the fastest improvement in your scores if you show you're responsible with both major kinds of credit: revolving (credit cards) and installment (personal loans, auto, mortgages and student loans).

  Paying off your installment loans (mortgage, auto, student, etc.) can help your scores but typically not as dramatically as paying down -- or paying off -- revolving accounts such as credit cards.

  Lenders like to see a big gap between the amount of credit you're using and your available credit limits. Getting your balances below 30% of the credit limit on each card can really help; getting balances below 10% is even better.
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  EntirelyPossible

  The moment it is approved with lets say, $2000 limit, as far as anyone else you are interested in dealing with is concerned, you owe $2000 even if you have a zero balance.

  That's not true at all. You have a$2000 of credit availability. Credit score in part is determined by how regularly you make payments and your credit load to credit line, basically how much of your available credit you have spent on an average basis.

  No one else is going to let you get into hock because you could go $2000 deeper the next day on your credit card and then not be able to afford to pay them.

  Also not true. You don't have to pay the entire $2000 back at once. You make payments. I know someone who makes a 4th of what I do that has $16000 in credit card debt but makes regular payments on her cards, student loans and car. I have virtually no debt so I am considered an unknown quantity.

  Credit card companies LOVE for you to be in debt and make minimum payment. As long as your debt and payment load isn't too high and you are making minimum payments, they will continue to loan away.

  Needing debt to prove you can afford debt is a myth.

  Also untrue. That's how I am in the top 3% of wage earners and have "bad credit". I have almost no history or borrowing money. They have no proof that I am inclined to pay back loans or that I am able to make regular payments. For all they know I live in my mothers basement and blow all my money on hookers and blow.

  For the record, I blow all my money on my kids college fund, cigars, golf and hookers.
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  EntirelyPossible

  That's my problem, Giodano. I don't have student loans, a mortgage, a car payment, a credit card or anything else. I have to get SOME kind of credit going to get my score up if I want a house.

  Hence, a credit card. I am thinking I will go through my credit union to get a low rate, charge my gas, food, etc., to it and pay it off every month, maybe make one largish purchase on it that I normally would pay cash for, say that new rifle I had my eye on, and let that be my "debt", even though I could pay it off anytime I wanted.

  Credit in the U.S. is a pay to play system. It ain't free, but if you do it right, it also doesn't cost that much.