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+1 to Selma's post.

I had 3 credit cards, from 2 banks and had available credit of about $8000 amongst the three.

I used them and paid them off and built up my credit history, then got into some problems when I went back to school and stopped working. It sucks having these assholes calling you all the time getting you to pay interest on interest on interest because you didn't or couldn't pay the full balance.

Another truth about credit cards: The bank gets paid wether you pay or you don't, all loaned money is insured and they will get their money either from you or the Bank of Canada (in the US: Federal Reserve Bank)or both + interest.

They are a scam, there is NO need to own one unless you rent a lot of cars (the only thing a pre-paid credit card wont get you is a car rental).

Get a pre-paid card from Mastercard, one that you can load up online, you'll love yourself for both the convinience and peace of mind.

It's what I've done, I use it constantly and I don't worry about nasty bills or debt collector assholes at the end of the month.

My sister went mega-oober-wtf-default on one of her Visa cards and now whenever she gets a pay check, she loses like 10% or 15% or something until the balance is paid, not to mention all 9 trillion phone calls from dickheads she got in the past few years.

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Originally posted by JD8180 i don't believe in that. i just use my credit card as if it was a debit card. i never spend more on it than i do have cash. even if the card has 0% interest for the first 2 years or w/e.

Smart. Thats the best way to use a card, if u don't have the funds to pay for the item/trip, etc, don't use the card till u do.

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Originally posted by JD8180 i don't believe in that. i just use my credit card as if it was a debit card. i never spend more on it than i do have cash. even if the card has 0% interest for the first 2 years or w/e.

Not everyone is as responsible as you.

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Originally posted by chach What about building credit though?

specific questions? ill answer as much as i can, but i dont know what youre asking that i havent answered already.

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Originally posted by JD8180 i don't believe in that. i just use my credit card as if it was a debit card. i never spend more on it than i do have cash. even if the card has 0% interest for the first 2 years or w/e.

youre smart, but as i said earlier, if you have never had a revolving balance, that doesnt show the credit reporting agencies that you know how to manage credit. this will be reflected in your credit report.

also for those that dont know, if you MUST have a balance on your credit card, assuming you have had this card for 2+ years, do everything you can to steer clear of more than 50% of the total available credit limit on the card.

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Originally posted by gehzumteufel paying them off will be good, but just paying it off and never using it again does NOT help your score. the card has to be used here and there. also after 2+ years of having a credit card and having payments on time for at least 6 months, preferably 1yr+, your credit rating will improve. do not get more than 2 credit cards. anymore than that is usually deemed excessive for your income (unless you make 100k+ every year consistently for 2+ years then you can have more than 2) and will HURT your credit rating. also try to NEVER have more than 50% used on a card. this hurts your credit rating also. if you have to for a few short months thats ok, but dont do it for extended periods longer than 3-4 months. it will hurt your credit rating.

Yup Im still using them......I only have two now had three before....Third one is paid off and now sitting somewhere in garbage dump in itsy bitsy pieces......Thanks for info though

The best way to build credit, is to take out a small loan, and let the money sit in your accound and be taken back by the bank.

You will have to pay a bit in interest but it's worth the awesomeness it gets you with the credit bureau.

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Originally posted by JD8180 i don't believe in that. i just use my credit card as if it was a debit card. i never spend more on it than i do have cash. even if the card has 0% interest for the first 2 years or w/e.

That's my plan. I already use my debit card like it was cash.

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Originally posted by Alex The best way to build credit, is to take out a small loan, and let the money sit in your accound and be taken back by the bank. You will have to pay a bit in interest but it's worth the awesomeness it gets you with the credit bureau.

thats not really that true. the reason being is that once the loan is paid off, its done. it doesnt effect your credit rating anymore. this is why a revolving balance on a credit card, even if its just $100-200 every month, actually does improve your credit rating.

umair: did you cancel that card!? if not, you better call right away. not using a card doesnt cancel it. most companies will leave it open for years in hopes you will use it.

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Originally posted by Enigmatik Not everyone is as responsible as you.

That's your fault, not the card's.

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Originally posted by gehzumteufel i am 100% sure on those things. your bank account, in general, doesnt affect your credit rating itself very much. it just shows that youre in good standing and that you have had it open for x length of time. the ONLY time your bank account has a real effect is if you are constantly in the negative, it has been opened for a short amount of time (less than 6 months), or you have a history of bad checks. your credit report does always show the current (at the time the agency last polled your bank which can be anything from 1 to 45 days ago) balance.

i meant "account" as in your credit card account

i hear they tap in to your credit card account to see what your balance is at a specific point in time. so if your statement comes out on april 25th, and by april 23rd they happen to tap into your cc account and you have $xx amount balance, then to them it seems like you have a balance. that is how i was taught, and like i said i'm sure paying it off entirely will not boost your score quickly, but it will go up slow and steady.

if your over 18yrs old and havent recvd any kind of PRM from credit grantors, i highly suggest start checking your credit. make sure your not mix with someone else ssn. Once every a year, FCC provide free credit report from all three bureau pending on what state your located.

here what you should do to build excellent credit score with using credit cards.
1. Only use 25% of your credit limit.

2. Make sure you have activity every month on your credit card. example: pymnt on time (( doesnt have to be paid in full ballance, but more than minimum bal. )),and debit activities.

3. Maximum credit card you can have would be 3. if you have more than 3credit card, and other not being used. I highly suggest cancelling them, that will effect your fico/beacon score also. majority of the time good outstanding C.C. will remain to your credit report within 7-10yrs. Bad C.C. will remain to your credit report for 5-7yrs.

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Originally posted by Project-K That's your fault, not the card's.

I've never had a credit card, nor will I ever.

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Originally posted by JD8180 i meant "account" as in your credit card account i hear they tap in to your credit card account to see what your balance is at a specific point in time. so if your statement comes out on april 25th, and by april 23rd they happen to tap into your cc account and you have $xx amount balance, then to them it seems like you have a balance. that is how i was taught, and like i said i'm sure paying it off entirely will not boost your score quickly, but it will go up slow and steady.

iirc your credit accounts are polled every 45 days, but i cant remember if thats the interval or not. either way, when you apply for things, and say you had a $4000 balance on a card that had a limit of 8k, and you paid down 2k, but then 7 days later applied for a loan, before doing that you need to call your credit card company and have them update the bureaus they report to. not all companies report to all agencies all the time. some only report to but one, and others report to all. this will ensure that your 2k balance is reflected int he bureaus records and you will then be scored properly. if the company doesnt want to do that, you can call each bureau and have your report rescored, which will poll all accounts that they have on the report (with respect to each agency) and you will then have an updated report.

row: spot on and proper. the only thing i disagree with on a general sense is the max # of cards, as i was formerly in the mortgage industry (not doing loans thank fucking god), and pretty much every loan officer and even the processors that worked more with the nitty gritty, will say that 2 cards is the most you should really have. anything more starts pushing the limits unless you make lots of money.

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Originally posted by Enigmatik I've never had a credit card, nor will I ever.

joint cards count for/against you also. and since canada has a similar credit system to the US, you'd be smart to get one. and do as i tell everyone, always put the money that you would be using to pay for the item directly, in a savings account. when the bill comes, for at least the first year for first time card holders, pay half the balance off, and leave the rest in the savings account. then at the end of the first year, pay the rest off with the savings, you will have a sizable chunk in there to pay it off with the interest that you made. i dont recommend ever having more than $200 every month on the card as this has bad effects on your credit, but sometimes (read: should be rare) it happens.

Credit cards are a very smart thing to have. If someone has bad credit or has maxed their card to the point that they have creditors calling ( which a lot of people are afraid of who wont invest in a credit card) then that's the stupidity of the card holder, not the card. You don't HAVE to use it and I know for a fact that a lot of people (including myself) rarely use it. I use mine if I happen to be purchasing a trip online or maybe e-bay shopping. I advise everyone to get one provided you're smart with money and have self control. I think that to buy a house, a car or any big life long purchase it's wise to have credit or it's NEEDED to have credit.

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Originally posted by Frenchie if I happen to be purchasing a trip online

What if someone calls you with a free one?

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Originally posted by iammesol What if someone calls you with a free one?

ahahahaa!! *click*

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Originally posted by gehzumteufel for credit building purposes, this is the WORST advice ever!

I think he just meant to make your payments on time

My 0.02:
don't spend money you don't have!!!!!!!
(this doesn't include buying a house, car, etc. when you're all growed up )
The only reason I even got a Mastercard was b/c I went to Europe alone for the whole summer and needed it in case of emergency. Now I make occasional purchases throughout the month and pay it off in FULL on the day that the payment is due.

IMO - having a huge line of credit is not all it's cracked up to be (again unless you *need* it for huge ass things)
It depends how much your credit card company will hold you liable for, but if you're card gets stolen and you have a nice $10,000 limit on it... fuuuuuuuuck

quote:

Originally posted by chach What about building credit though?

how old are you? and what do you have so far?

i double post and suck

i was always under the impression that you weren't supposed to cancel credit cards that no longer have a balance on them. i have quite a few that i haven't used in years that are still open, and now i'm reading from a few of you that you should have 2 or 3 cards open at most. currently i only keep a balance on 2 cards, but i have maybe 2 or 3 other ones that don't have any balance on them. what's my best option? keep them open or close them?

quote:

Originally posted by ******** Get one from you bank if so - it will be easier to deal with them, and they've been pretty good with me for sure.. even increased my credit to $5000 plus my accounts are mutually protective to insure an absence of issues.. they work well together not to talk about my personal finances. Also for instance my bank BMO is putting out a joint bank/credit card ... with the new chip technology - I'm actually one of the trial run people - for this so it seems if I understand correctly and I may not.. I'll have a credit card and a bank card in one. Although I may just be confusing it and I'll have both a chip bank card and credit card. I havn't had to pay interest yet cause I make my payments on time, plus I get cashback and airmiles.. pretty good deal, imo.. basically I'm being paid to use my creditcard, and having a few thousand dollars liquidity is useful at times.

get a card WITHOUT RFID. this wave of new cards with RFID is dumb. why? with an iphone or windows mobile phone and 1 device connected either via wireless or wired i can swipe your credit card info WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING YOU!! yes i said that correctly. with the proper equipement (read: buy stuff at radio shack) i can swipe your credit card, your gas card (mobile speedpass) and your mercedes s550/s600/s650 right under your nose and not trigger anything!

fuck i hate this RFID craze. its such a crock of shit for people. its the lowest security thing that is being implemented ONLY trumped by those old credit card imprinting machines!

quote:

Originally posted by l�cid i was always under the impression that you weren't supposed to cancel credit cards that no longer have a balance on them. i have quite a few that i haven't used in years that are still open, and now i'm reading from a few of you that you should have 2 or 3 cards open at most. currently i only keep a balance on 2 cards, but i have maybe 2 or 3 other ones that don't have any balance on them. what's my best option? keep them open or close them?

i think you're supposed to close them. i think having credit cards at a 0 balance just lowers your score.

quote:

Originally posted by l�cid i was always under the impression that you weren't supposed to cancel credit cards that no longer have a balance on them. i have quite a few that i haven't used in years that are still open, and now i'm reading from a few of you that you should have 2 or 3 cards open at most. currently i only keep a balance on 2 cards, but i have maybe 2 or 3 other ones that don't have any balance on them. what's my best option? keep them open or close them?

this hurts you. why? too much credit availability. yes that is right. you can have TOO MUCH credit available to you. close 1 card every 6 months. dont close all at once. it hurts your score.

quote:

Originally posted by l�cid i was always under the impression that you weren't supposed to cancel credit cards that no longer have a balance on them. i have quite a few that i haven't used in years that are still open, and now i'm reading from a few of you that you should have 2 or 3 cards open at most. currently i only keep a balance on 2 cards, but i have maybe 2 or 3 other ones that don't have any balance on them. what's my best option? keep them open or close them?

Open cc and not being used is consider as adverse acct.

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