Your phone bill should have nothing to do with it unless it is huge and you have very very low credit limits.

Dumbass

Yep, got it set to to where my discover card that has a limit of just $2,500 takes all the charges. The other cards have $5,000 limits each and are emergency only.

So $7500 total? If that'a truly all you charge it shouldn't make a bit of difference.

Well I qualified for the BankAmericard Cash Rewards™ Credit Card

Anybody know any dirt on these guys?

Welp.. Weird as it sounds I got a Discover It card and a Bank Of America rewards card and my Transunion score went from 669 to 718 almost overnight and my Experian and the other one has jumped to mid 800's WTF

I haven't even used the BOA card and bought some Gun Mags online with her Discover...


I thought it would take alot longer

riiiiiight. "GUN MAgs".....
you're not fooling anyone.

:D

Stay single!

Thats ****ed up man :harumph:

Ok I am bringing this back to life hopefully to help someone else trying to get their credit up... In a little over 2.5 months I got 3 credit cards

Bank of America Rewards 1500 limit
Discover It 4000 limit
and Chase/ Amazon Visa 4000 limit

First month my credit score actually went down because I put all my gas, groceries and eating out on the BOA card and actually had 1522.00 bucks on it after a month for a 101% utilization.. This is not good even though I paid it off in full on time.. You should not max out a CC even if you pay it off as it will hurt your score... I found a way around this..
Make multiple payments per month to keep the balance low and it improves your score..

Bank of America pays 3% back on gas, 2% on groceries and 1% for everything else (I use this one now for nothing but gas)
Chase pays 2% back on groceries and restaurants and 1% on everything else(I use this one for groceries)
Discover it Pays 5% on rotating categories (until 07/1 it pays 5% on home improvements after July 1 it will pay 5% on Gas)

It's working out good Credit Karma is reporting my score is now 81% higher than the rest of the users of the site...

Hope this helps someone who does not know this info.

Theoretically they don't want to see you put more than 50% the max limit on any credit card. You can offset this by paying off the balance on that card early in the month, as most card balances don't get reported until the end of the month. That is the trick around that scenario if you do end up charging quite a bit of that card limit.

Ok after 8 Months here is how it went..

Applied Got a Bank Of America card 1500 limit
Amazon Visa 4K limit
Discover it Card 4250 limit

Paid off twice/3 times a month in full on all cards

After 8 months, FICO Score is 756

Was expecting on an ending of you going into debilitating credit card debt. OP did not deliver.

No but I do find I spend more money with credit cards than I ever did with cash in my pocket

I guess I never did ask.... do you ball crack rock or something?

what is your secret bro?

Spend less than you make is my only secret

Then you will fail. Just like the Raiders. You should chop up all your credit cards right now and go back to your cash only way of living since you've confirmed you're not mature enough to own a credit card. You can save enough to buy you a house before you die . Unless you die before you're 80.

You have to have a history of on time payments

You just figured that little gem out now??? :rolleyes:

You Raiders fans are a little slower than the rest of us......

After 1.5 years of paying all credit cards off in full every month

http://thumbnails111.imagebam.com/35...4352097536.jpg

Nice

Awesome.

It's stupid how that works, isn't it?

Nice. We are only down to 1 final credit card after paying them all off over the last 4-5 yrs. Car paid off in august. I'm going to start using my credit card for fuel and groceries and pay off in full each month. I want to try that first instead of charging all expenses just to I don't get into any bad habits

Actually, this is 100% false. The higher your credit usage is--i.e., ratio of credit used to credit available--the lower your credit score is. If you have $50,000 in available credit and have a revolving balance of around $25K, you're going to get dinged pretty hard for having 50% credit usage. The lower your credit usage ratio is, the higher your credit score.

Sounds like the original poster is getting screwed. I underwrote residential and commercial loans for years, and if the scenario the OP laid out is accurate, his FICO should be in the high 700's to low 800's. I would recommend ordering a full tri-merge credit report which shows all 3 scores. Maybe one of the 3 credit bureaus--Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion--has erroneous info. Make sure to look at all pages of the credit report, including the Public Records section, which shows any past or outstanding liens and/or judgements.

Unfortunately the credit bureaus intentionally make it almost impossible to contact them and review things that may be impacting your credit score negatively. Just another in a long line of banking/finance-related scams that Wall Street and its minions use to screw the average hard-working person.

Wait what?

Having 100k credit limit and only using 1k is worse than having 100k credit limit and using 75k?

I read it as the opposite..

Yup it makes no sense :hmmm:

The way I keep my spending in check is I pay the credit card off every damn week (yea it sounds anal but it's free to do so) This prevents me from over spending... My direct deposit goes in on friday morn... I usually pay credit card off every wed night before I go to work.

No he said it right but you have it backwards in your mind. 100k with 1k used results in higher credit score than the other option. You want to use the least percentage of your available credit. Those who use near all their available credit have crappy scores.

Thats what i said in the very first post he commented on but he told me i was 100% wrong

high credit to debt ratio

credit 100000000000 debt 5 = high credit to debt ratio

I did NOT say high debt to credit ratio

We use our credit card for everything. We write down each dollar spent on our checkbook register and subtract it from our checking account. When we pay the credit card off, it's already been deducted.

Credit Card Utilization ............................ 1-20% High Impact
Percent of Payments Made On-Time ........ 100% High Impact
Derogatory Marks ........................................... 0 High Impact
Average Account Age (in Years) ..... More than 8 Medium Impact
Total Account (Open or Closed) ................. 22+ Low Impact
Credit Inquiries .............................................. 0 Low Impact

LMAO

So you want me to carry $800 debt each month on my $2000 credit card and $3500 on my $10,000 credit card? LMAO

Sounds like a great way to get ahead in life!

Sorry!! You were 100% correct, not false. I misread your post as if you were saying the opposite. We're in total agreement. My bad.

Ha ha ok. You had me really confused... I was like "WTF man, why would they want you to use up all of your credit?

Money advice from this place ROFL but yeah some great advice in between a few loony suggestions

Nice. I was in a similar situation. No debt after I paid off a car loan real quick in 2003 but I used CCs all throughout so when I wanted to shop for a new car earlier this year I was golden.

If you can control your spending, CCs are incredible. They give you a free loan for x days, benefits (including cash/rewards/flight points), and great credit just for paying the bills you would have spent anyway.

Reighters you need to spend a bit of dough going to a game and supporting your team

I put everything on that Amazon/Visa... I get free stuff I need from Amazon

Shit I bought a new Lazyboy sofa and 2 Lazyboy recliners last month and got the free points... Paid the furniture off the next day :)

Do you have any friends in the mortgage business? If so, ask them to pull a "tri-merge" credit report. That's the one they use, and it shows all 3 bureaus. They get charged about $15, so offer to pay. That way you can compare and see if one bureau may have bad info.

Also, most loan originators/officers know a good credit repair place. Not to be confused with a credit counseling companies, which are for people who are in over their heads, credit repair specialists can look at your credit report and immediately tell you why your score is what it is, and what you can do to improve it. I'd try that first, so that you don't take any unnecessary steps.

We have over $500 coming cash back this year in credit card rewards and we pay off our credit cards in full each month. We charge everything. We even charged 5k for re-doing our floors on the card because 1% of that is a free $50 down the line!

Sorry to shit on your 50 bucks but it probably cost the person taking your card 150 or more in fees.
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And yes I'm bitter.










Lol
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Who cares...

Sounds like a personal problem brah. I would hope they'd be ok with paying that fee since I spent 5k with them. **** 'em if they don't!

Me.
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I charged that brake job I talked to you about the other day too.

WINNING = ME

True, wonder what their profit margins are on that product?


But I can understand where you are coming from. I wouldn't care either if it wasn't coming out of my pocket when I'm in that situation. Hell if someone told me after putting an engine I made about 1200 bucks on buying and installing that if I would knock off 50bucks if they didn't use a cardi would do it every time.

I would gladly pay whatever perks they would be getting off that transaction because they are hitting the point of sale for at least 3x that.

And like I said nothing against you lew, just bitter lol. But reading that has probably helped make up my mind to just charge the 3% add for using the card to every transaction.


So actually thanks, this thread just saved me money
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LMAO.
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I intentionally avoid places that don't take credit cards - I hardly ever deal in cash. Sorry, it's the way it is.

This. Have all my bills hooked up to it. If I need to pay someone cash I use the Square.

How does one get credit?
 

I pay cash for anything that isn't a monthly bill. I walk out of work with cash every shift though so it's convenient for me.

Idk if I'd ever carry around cash if I only made money off of paychecks.

Ahhhhh, the stripper life.

Yes he sure does bud. He sure does!

Let's support him in this endeavor. A list of supplies he needs sure would be nice!

Why do you need credit? You have a paid off house and can live off <$30k easy. Retire early and screw credit. You can always open a HELOC if you needed cash in an emergency.

http://mrmoneymustache.com

PM me if you have any other questions.

:spock:

or you can build your credit score easily with no cost to you....

I had no idea a Raider fan such as yourself could even exist...:)

My base is just under $200k with some bonus potential.

My debt consists of wives daily driver which is 18 months from payoff, but at 0% why pay early? I also owe about $200K on my house that has a 30 year mortgage at 3%, and has about $100K of equity.

Credit rating is around 800, I use my Chase to buy everything and reap the rewards at the end of the year in cash back, but I guarantee the wife and I spend money we wouldn't otherwise if cash based. I pay it off in full; every month without fail.

My question to the CP gurus is what to do next, pay off the 0% car just to get it over with, start paying off the mortgage, or start heavy investing in IRA's, mutual funds, etc...

My 401K is low six figures, have about $60K in stocks, and $75K in my online checking/money-market account.

I'm mid 30's, so I obviously need to get my retirement rolling, but I am at a total loss what to do next due to my low cost of money borrowed. Start heavy debt elimination, or heavy investing? The money in the bank is just losing value, although inflation is non-existent and the feds are taking steps to avoid deflation I hear.

My credit score is available through my CC company. I score 849 out of 850. What the hell? Did I put a stamp upside down on an envelope? How do you have a perfect score minus one point? I can look at my history and everything is perfect.

I usually immediately come home and transfer what I just charged into a different account from our primary checking etc; then when the bill comes, I pay it.

but I'll probably also do the weekly thing too lol. I hate cc debt after all the crap we've been through.

Inquiries?

I'm sure it's been answered, but I can't go through 10 pages lol. The answer is you pay stuff off too fast! That's pretty much it in a nut shell.

Anyone else ever hear of this cat?

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about building good credit.

When I was 20 I was looking into getting a credit card and was told to keep 35-45% balance at all times.

This thread seems to imply that you should keep as little as possible on your card/pay it off in full every month.

I've also been told you don't even build any credit with a credit card.

I don't know what to believe...

My credit score went way up using this approach, although I am sure some sort of car/student loan with revolving balance is important to grow your credit score as well. The keeping 35% balance sounds like something credit lobbyist would sell, its complete bs imo unless you have no other form of revolving balance. Hope that made sense.

It's a personal preference. With your mortgage rate right at inflation, I wouldn't feel like you need to pay that off. Same goes with the car, no need to pay it off early. Some people just don't feel comfortable holding debt, however.

I would make sure your company match is met in 401(k), then max out a Roth IRA for both you and your wife, max out your 401(k), then put whatever remaining in index funds, in that order.

That's exactly what I thought. They want you to be paying interest every month or they don't make anything off of you..

I'm going to go back to paying my card off in full every month to see how that works out.

Can you do Roth catch up all at once? Also would you suggest hiring a financial adviser, or use a site like Vanguard and do all this yourself. I read on these topics all the time but at the end of the day I get total paralysis by analysis, so I turn to CP, where everyone has their financial phd's.

I agree with all of this as well. You make quite a bit of money so no reason you shouldn't be maxing our your 401k and contribuiting the max to your Roth but if you can't do both, make sure you contribute enough to your 401k to get the highest match from your company as you can. Then contribute rest of money earmarked for retirement into a Roth. Calculate what you think you'll need in retirement per month, how long you might live in retirement and determine if you savings amount will meet your needs. There are many online calculators to help you with this.

If you feel like you are going to be into mostly low cost mutual funds or ETFs with investing, I'd just manage that yourself and re-balance maybe twice a year to keep within whatever risk you are comfortable with. If you plan to mix in quite a bit of individual stocks or make quite a bit of moves, a financial planner might be an option but I'm not sold that they get you ahead since you have to pay them a percentage of what you are making. If you plan to work quite a bit longer I'd manage much of that myself and get a financial planner later is your feel uncomfortable with how large your assets become over time.

Sorry missed this but no, only 1k extra per year into Roth as catch up and must be put in before the due date of your tax return.

Because Chiefs

"Retirement". Lulz. Good one.

It's what I'm working for.
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Semi retirement is where it's at...