The Score

Off Topic
41

[quote]A Ninny Mouse wrote:
I’m having a little trouble following this…

Is the lesson:
-Don’t sign up for a credit card until you’re ready
-Don’t use the credit card to buy shit you don’t have the money for
-Don’t miss payments

Am I getting the lesson?[/quote]

I have the lowest rate card you can get. It has a $600 limit and there are no annual rate to pay.

-I always pay it off in time. Before I even buy things with it I make sure I have enough money before hand or I know I’m getting paid the next day.

-Sept 2010-April 2011 is the first time living on my own and getting my first appartment with my girl friend. The land lord said my credit score was out standing. I got mine at 19 when you first can (I think or did I get mine at 18?). So I’ve been building my credit score since then (2 years).

However, I think I missed a payment before because I didn’t understand fully how a credit card first worked (Wasn’t a large amount but your interest instantly goes up for next time you miss a payment. I think mine is at 16%). I do my banking online and it says that I have to pay $10 minimum withint 30 days of purchase. So my understanding was all I had to pay was $10 a month and not get dinged for it. Well not the case. Pay your card off WHEN you have the money to or don’t buy anything with it.

$600 is not a lot by any means but it gets me what I need it for. You can always add more money to it through overpaying your credit card. Say something you want to buy is $700 and you have a $600 dollar limit on your card, you just add $100 from your debit or cash you have to it.

42

…So does this mean I’m stupid for always saving cash to pay for EVERYTHING I buy?

Ok, my house has about 7 years at 4% interest, but I have no truck payment and no children. Should I be using a credit card to make my everyday purchases then paying them off monthly?(serious btw)

43

[quote]Paste42 wrote:
…So does this mean I’m stupid for always saving cash to pay for EVERYTHING I buy?

Ok, my house has about 7 years at 4% interest, but I have no truck payment and no children. Should I be using a credit card to make my everyday purchases then paying them off monthly?(serious btw)[/quote]

How I got my score good. I only used it for purchases that were a lot or I knew I was getting paid the next day. Don’t pay them off monthly, pay it off as soon as you get the money. This way you don’t forget about it and then you won’t get in the habbit of letting it all add up.

44

[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:

[quote]Paste42 wrote:
…So does this mean I’m stupid for always saving cash to pay for EVERYTHING I buy?

Ok, my house has about 7 years at 4% interest, but I have no truck payment and no children. Should I be using a credit card to make my everyday purchases then paying them off monthly?(serious btw)[/quote]

How I got my score good. I only used it for purchases that were a lot or I knew I was getting paid the next day. Don’t pay them off monthly, pay it off as soon as you get the money. This way you don’t forget about it and then you won’t get in the habbit of letting it all add up.[/quote]

So maybe I should pick up the card with the best frequent flyer miles so I can travel more? I’m obviously new to this game…:slight_smile:

45

Just use it for the occasional purchase, say a tank of gas and then immediately pay it off. Man did I ruin my credit in college but turned it around by over 100 points in 14 months.

46

[quote]Nards wrote:
I have no credit.

I’ve never been in debt and have money invested, but never got a credit card and have been in Taiwan 10 years and they won’t give one to foreigners here, from what I’ve heard, and don’t know how to go about getting one while overseas like this. I know it’s a good idea to have good credit by having a card and paying it off promptly but haven’t done it yet.

[/quote]

off topic but i was in taipei from saturday to weds. pretty cool place. i stayed at a hostel in the shida area. what do u do there?

47

[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:

[quote]Paste42 wrote:
…So does this mean I’m stupid for always saving cash to pay for EVERYTHING I buy?

Ok, my house has about 7 years at 4% interest, but I have no truck payment and no children. Should I be using a credit card to make my everyday purchases then paying them off monthly?(serious btw)[/quote]

How I got my score good. I only used it for purchases that were a lot or I knew I was getting paid the next day. Don’t pay them off monthly, pay it off as soon as you get the money. This way you don’t forget about it and then you won’t get in the habbit of letting it all add up.[/quote]

Or you could just not forget what you spend and pay off your debts when they’re due?

I put the majority of my spending on my credit card (even though I get paid in cash). Then a day or two before it’s due I pay it all at once. I condense my large spending into a single day (pay rent and credit card on same day) and I collect points on my credit card.

I’ve never forgotten that I owe 1000 dollars before.

48

[quote]AdamC wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
I have no credit.

I’ve never been in debt and have money invested, but never got a credit card and have been in Taiwan 10 years and they won’t give one to foreigners here, from what I’ve heard, and don’t know how to go about getting one while overseas like this. I know it’s a good idea to have good credit by having a card and paying it off promptly but haven’t done it yet.

[/quote]

off topic but i was in taipei from saturday to weds. pretty cool place. i stayed at a hostel in the shida area. what do u do there?
[/quote]

I teach.
You were just here? Neat. Nice weather for it. Did you eat at any f the 5 or 6 burger places in the ShiDa area? They have great burgers around there. I live not too far from there…on the other side of the river.

49

I was lucky to have a personal finance class in HS and credit scores/history, along with retirement planning were the two main points of the course. Then I was a finance major for 3 years before I switched to biochem, which further embedded these points.
I got a credit card the week I turned 18 (10 years ago) and the best advice I ever received, like many on here have said, was not to put anything on there unless I knew I could pay it off that month. I’ve also done the same for some tuition loans. I worked multiple jobs and applied for every grant, tuition and stipend award I could find through undergrad, masters, and now PhD and so I have had a little cash on hand. I would take out a student loan and then pay it all off at the end of the grace period, just so I could plan out my other finances appropriately to decide if I could do it again the next semester of just let it ride until the end of school. I should note that I went to schools where tuition was less than 4k a semester in most cases so this isn’t always feasible. I haven’t gotten a new car or house but having these lines on my credit reports have kept me in the upper 700s.
AC that’s a great idea on adding rent and utilities as additional lines, since I’ll be renting for the next few years I might as well make it work for me. I was getting frustrated that I wouldn’t be in one place for very long so getting a house didn’t make much sense.
Oh, another thing that helped me is that I’m incredibly cheap, so I would have monies to put toward paying off loans. I did piss away relatively large amounts at times but always kept my mind on at least 5 years in the future so I never hit rock bottom. It’s a pain, but it’s worth it.

51

I have three credit cards. I’ve always payed them off in full. I’ve never missed a payment. I imagine I have a decent credit score, but I’m probably still too young and haven’t made any major financial decisions that would affect that.

52

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
My credit rating is awesome. We get gold card offers all the time. I’ll let my credit card debt climb up, then in one big payment pay it off. Never late, never default.[/quote]

In the past 4 years I have put charges on my cc that I couldn’t pay off during that cycle. I usually put larger purchases on the cc (vacations, laptop, etc…) and just pay it off before I incur any finance charges. This way I get the “points” (what a fuckin’ joke points are) without it costing me anything more than the monetary charge.

53

[quote]polo77j wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
My credit rating is awesome. We get gold card offers all the time. I’ll let my credit card debt climb up, then in one big payment pay it off. Never late, never default.[/quote]

In the past 4 years I have put charges on my cc that I couldn’t pay off during that cycle. I usually put larger purchases on the cc (vacations, laptop, etc…) and just pay it off before I incur any finance charges. This way I get the “points” (what a fuckin’ joke points are) without it costing me anything more than the monetary charge.[/quote]

Points suck balls.

Another reason to love Discover. Cash Back. They kick ass at monitoring for fraud anf theft too. Only downside to discover is they are super fucking stingy with their limit.

I don’t need more than I have with them, but AMEX gives out credit like a hooker on a meth binge gives out $10 BJs.

54

Angry Chicken -

Can you expand on exactly what “Reporting Rights”?

55

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]postholedigger wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:

AC, I thought I remembered reading that to decrease fraud, they were no longer letting people grow their credit by being authorized users?
:)[/quote]

I use the tactic to improve peoples scores all the time. I did it a week ago…

[/quote]

I was an authorized user on someone else’s credit card for years and was told I was building credit. When I went to rent an apartment last year, they did a credit check and was told I wasn’t even in the system. Not bad credit, just no credit history at all. Same with cell phone plan or even a regular credit card application.

End result? I have a 2 month deposit down on the apartment and I’m on someone else’s phone plan. Bank of America secured credit card for $500 that I have to make debit payment on constantly. Bought a second car in cash. High deposits down on utilities. I’m just glad I had that kind of money just lying around.[/quote]

Did you have the bank send you a letter stating that you were added to the trade line? After that did you take that letter and submit it through a reporting agency such as Kroll or CreditPlus (and pay $30 per tradeline) to each repository to have the tradeline added to your report? Depending upon the card/bank they may not add the tradeline of an authorized user automatically. If you have a friend in the mortgage business they can do it for you.

[/quote]

I was told that just by being added to the credit line I would automatically be building credit. I heard nothing about any letter from a bank or reporting it to an agency. So I blindly took their word for it.

[quote]
It works. If it didn’t, I would not close half of the loans I do. Fixing credit is more art than science. Different banks have different policies and each repository has a slightly different algorithm (that’s why you have three different scores for the same information). It’s taken my six years to really learn it and a few lines on a thread isn’t enough to communicate all of the detail necessary sometimes.

EDIT: Also, who knows what agency the apartment used to check your credit? If they only pulled one repository (Transunion for instance) and used a cheap reporting system, then it’s very possible it wouldn’t show. They charge your $45 for an application fee, but the credit report they pull really only costs them about $3. The credit report I pull (through a legitimate agency) costs me $22. You get what you pay for.[/quote]

Yeah, unfortunately, I don’t get to tell the real estate agency, credit card company, or cell phone or utility company what credit report to use. They use whatever one they feel like using and judge based on that alone. Too bad the authorized user trick or the legitimate agency trick didn’t work for me. At least when I get my deposits back I’ll have a larger nest egg.

56

You can get your credit report annually for free here: Annual Credit Report.com - Home Page I suggest you check your ish, before you can’t buy any actual ish.

57

My goal is to have no credit score and just pay for things with cash. The only debt I’m interested in taking out is a home mortgage (in about 5-6 years), but I’ll be working with a company that manually underwrites the loan as opposed to just running a credit score.

Fuck FICO

58

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
My credit rating is awesome. We get gold card offers all the time. I’ll let my credit card debt climb up, then in one big payment pay it off. Never late, never default.[/quote]

In the past 4 years I have put charges on my cc that I couldn’t pay off during that cycle. I usually put larger purchases on the cc (vacations, laptop, etc…) and just pay it off before I incur any finance charges. This way I get the “points” (what a fuckin’ joke points are) without it costing me anything more than the monetary charge.[/quote]

Points suck balls.

Another reason to love Discover. Cash Back. They kick ass at monitoring for fraud anf theft too. Only downside to discover is they are super fucking stingy with their limit.

I don’t need more than I have with them, but AMEX gives out credit like a hooker on a meth binge gives out $10 BJs.[/quote]

HA, OHHHH MAN. This was sweet. I’m still laughing as I type this.

59

[quote]kellerdp wrote:
My goal is to have no credit score and just pay for things with cash. The only debt I’m interested in taking out is a home mortgage (in about 5-6 years), but I’ll be working with a company that manually underwrites the loan as opposed to just running a credit score.

Fuck FICO[/quote]

That is a dumb ambition, just saying.

You are fucking yourself.

60

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Angry Chicken -

Can you expand on exactly what “Reporting Rights”?[/quote]

My kid has a field trip today and I’m a chaperon, but I’ll get into it later when I get back.