24 Looking to build Credit... What are some good tips on your first Credit Card

[luckyluchiano]

So hypothetical situation,


Say you have a good credit score 750+, and you take out a loan for a home. Because of your good credit, you lock in a good rate. Let's just say a 15 year loan for 4%.

(Numbers are just for demo purposes)

During the course of a year, your credit score goes down because you didn't pay some bills or whatever, can that harm your loan you already had locked in? Would they be able to raise the interest if your credit worthiness drops?

Will the bank or creditors check periodically to see if you keep the credit score in good shape?

Your rate doesnt change assuming you are talking about a fixed rate mortgage.

 

[jordman23]

Your rate doesnt change assuming you are talking about a fixed rate mortgage.

^^ Yea I forgot to mention that. Of course fixed mortgage.


Does anyone really do ARMs?

 

[jewseejay]

So hypothetical situation,


Say you have a good credit score 750+, and you take out a loan for a home. Because of your good credit, you lock in a good rate. Let's just say a 15 year loan for 4%.

(Numbers are just for demo purposes)

During the course of a year, your credit score goes down because you didn't pay some bills or whatever, can that harm your loan you already had locked in? Would they be able to raise the interest if your credit worthiness drops?

Will the bank or creditors check periodically to see if you keep the credit score in good shape?

Dont get an adjustable rate mortgage and your fine. Once approved they dont care if 5 years later you max out all your cards... as long as that mortgage is getting paid. Now youll want to be speak to your realtor though because some programs/grants things of that nature may require you to keep your score upnim not sure but for a traditional mortgage youll be fine if your score drops for whatever reason.

 

[jordman23]

Dont get an adjustable rate mortgage and your fine. Once approved they dont care if 5 years later you max out all your cards... as long as that mortgage is getting paid. Now youll want to be speak to your realtor though because some programs/grants things of that nature may require you to keep your score upnim not sure but for a traditional mortgage youll be fine if your score drops for whatever reason.

No I would never get an adjustable mortgage. I have my finances down to a Tee and know exactly what I spend.

I currently do have a 780 score, I was just curious. I don't think I've ever had a late payment or missed.

 

[capital sb]

 
On this link, at the top they have CC from their partners....There is a DiscoverIT card and a DiscoverIT Chrome?

They list the normal IT under people with a FICO of 660-719 and the Chrome for 720-850, but the benefits are exactly the same, except....the normal IT card gets 5% CB vs just 2% for the Chrome. Doesn't this make the normal one better?

Also....those dudes with their sig at the bottom listing out all those CC they have?! 

Yeah man those are the cards they have, those people are credit card addicts 

. It's a great place to soak up information about credit cards that's about it.

They are overly obsessed with their credit scores. 

Discover It Chrome is the students version of the It card, they give lower limits. Cash for good grades too  never knew that 

 .

NFCU doesn't factor in income much when they give out the limits.

My friend told them an income of less than 30K and they gave her a 10K limit. I told them 45K and I was given a 15K limit.

I'm not sure about how the refi'd loan affects your credit.

@Jordman23  People do get ARM's if they plan to live in a place for a short amount of time (1-7 years). The interest rates are really low.

 

[a-friend]

 

That's even better on the payday loan. You want to try and get 4-7 lines on your report whether revolving, secured, installments etc.


They don't have to be all open, but the history is nice.
I know I had several situations where kids/younger folk would come in for a loan(auto) and had 700 FICO scores, but I had banks @1.99 interest that wouldn't give them a loan because they didn't have 5 prior credit lines. All banks are different.


Just saying, the thicker the file, the better buyer you can be in a lot of situations. A Bank that's loaning money in a lot of situations, never meets you, they meet your report, and it needs to make the best impression.

When I was in college, my pops added me to his CC for emergencies or if I needed to get something. When I graduated, I decided to by myself a car. It showed that I was on the CC but didn't report it too much. Since it was the only thing on it, I had no credit history, so even though my score was a 723, I had no loan payment history and had like a 4.9% interest rate. I paid on it for a year and then refinanced it down to like 2.9% or something and dropped my monthly payment by $115.

Not to rehash something old, but other than this said car and the refinance on it, I had no other real credit history and NFCU gave me a $13,500 card. Granted I had that car paid on for at least a year since I did the refi and applied for the CC since I was there, and I was making over 60k since I am sure yearly salary played a part too in that.

I saw that a lot. TFCU bought a lot of paper from us and we could get them to overlook thin files in almost every situation, regardless of their lender requirements. We didn't extend that credit to buyers unless, it benefited us first and the customer second. It's wild how much money you can save buying a car if you are lined out before going in to see the salesman, sales manager and finance manager. We ate on good credit folks at a much higher per copy than bad credit folks, which is unheard of.

The credit high on the Car was enough to get you the CC with a $13500 limit through NFCU even if you had not refinanced your auto loan with them and just wanted the CC.

NFCU see's 60k per year with no revolving credit or debt other than a vehicle, which was probably 10-20k credit high, and paid as agreed. Any bank would extend credit in this situation. 

Sidenote; How great was that feeling though when you refinanced and went 4.9 down to 2.9 and $115 lower per month?

I remember my first re-fi, man it was literally one of the coolest, happiest, most accomplished and confident moments I had ever felt up to that point. It was a good day.

 

[wrightone86]

Sidenote; How great was that feeling though when you refinanced and went 4.9 down to 2.9 and $115 lower per month?

I remember my first re-fi, man it was literally one of the coolest, happiest, most accomplished and confident moments I had ever felt up to that point. It was a good day.

Man it was great! The fact that I was able to drop like that and only had to move the loan out like 2 extra months was

I paid a little extra every month to make up for those 2 added months too

 

[polosanddunks]

Yeah those people are obsessed with CCs on the site. Dudes have like 30-50 inquiries on each bureau

 

[capital sb]

Yeah those people are obsessed with CCs on the site. Dudes have like 30-50 inquiries on each bureau

Nah most of them have less than 5 inquiries. They are anal about that stuff. They try to go as many years as possible without obtaining new credit to mature their scores, they call it gardening.

Only time they get inquiries is when they go on CC app sprees. It's a smart strategy IMO, inquiries fall off after 2 years and stop impacting your score after 1 year.

 

[polosanddunks]

Nah most of them have less than 5 inquiries. They are anal about that stuff. They try to go as many years as possible without obtaining new credit to mature their scores, they call it gardening.

Only time they get inquiries is when they go on CC app sprees. It's a smart strategy IMO, inquiries fall off after 2 years and stop impacting your score after 1 year.

Damn I read a couple of those dudes in the forum having like 30 inquiries on on bureau. must of read wrong. Yeah i see they call it gardening. Those dudes def go CC app crazy though

 

[capital sb]

Damn I read a couple of those dudes in the forum having like 30 inquiries on on bureau. must of read wrong. Yeah i see they call it gardening. Those dudes def go CC app crazy though

he must be trying to get to 100 cards like this one guy on there. They are od, I don't even see the point.

 

[drjdoc26]

"Your credit report and your credit score are not the same thing. Your credit report is all the information that a credit reporting company has gathered about you. Credit reporting companies calculate your credit score by plugging the information in your credit report into their exclusive credit score formula.

Federal law gives you the right to ask for a copy of your credit report from each nationwide credit reporting company every year for free. However, the law does not require the credit reporting companies to give your credit score for free."
link

Is Credit Karma the best/easiest place to get your credit SCORE?

 

[capital sb]

@DrJDoc26  Credit Karma is a FAKO scoring system, the scores are not accurate.

To get your true FICO credit score you have to pay for it, or have a CC that reports your monthly score

such as AMEX, Discover, Barclay, Walmart, BoA, Chase...I might be missing a few.

Your credit score is based off of your credit report, you can get your credit report for free once a year from :

annualcreditreport.com

 

[drjdoc26]

capital sb so I understand the score and the report are not the same. Is it the better route to get the REPORT prior to paying for SCORE?

 

[capital sb]

@BeezyGotSole so I understand the score and the report are not the same. Is it the better route to get the REPORT prior to paying for SCORE?

Yes I would first start with your report that is free. Make sure you select the report for all 3 bureaus.

You can sign up for Credit Karma to kind of get a feel for where your score may be.Real FICO scores can vary +/- 30 points from the CK score.

 

[anht0an]

If you can pay your balance off in full, I recommend it. You can learn how to take advantage of Credit Card bonuses (credit card churning, travel hacking etc) and promotion programs. I recently took advantage of 2 Southwest Airlines credit card promotions. Pretty much by using my cards to pay all my bills minus my mortgage and paying my credit card off before the due date, I was able to rack up over 107,000 points and qualified for a companion pass. A companion pass allows someone to travel with me on any of my trips for free, the companion pass is good for the rest of this year and the entire 2016! I'll be booking a round trip to cancun using 27,000 points and my girl will get to go for free. Well basically we're both going almost for free because I got the points from just paying my bills, just gotta pay the taxes! If you are responsible with your credit cards, and can pay your balance off in full, I would recommend looking into credit cards that give you massive rewards. They're tons of blogs out there that will teach you how to get round trip first class tickets off points/miles to travel all around the world.

View media item 1767141

 

[crcballer55]

@BeezyGotSole so I understand the score and the report are not the same. Is it the better route to get the REPORT prior to paying for SCORE?

What do you need your score for? The purpose of your report is to make sure everything is reporting properly. The score is just so lenders can rank your perceived risk level.

 

[drjdoc26]

What do you need your score for? The purpose of your report is to make sure everything is reporting properly. The score is just so lenders can rank your perceived risk level.

crcballer55
Man IDK really, I guess for the fact its better to know than not.

I'm planning on applying for my first credit card soon and right now I'm lost in the sauce. I'm trying understand the game of credit before I get lost in that too.

 

[crcballer55]

 

What do you need your score for? The purpose of your report is to make sure everything is reporting properly. The score is just so lenders can rank your perceived risk level.

@crcballer55
Man IDK really, I guess for the fact its better to know than not.

I'm planning on applying for my first credit card soon and right now I'm lost in the sauce. I'm trying understand the game of credit before I get lost in that too.

Why do you need a credit card? How's life been going for you so far?

 

[drjdoc26]

crcballer55 decent enough, but I do have my student loan payments lurking. Grace period is over in November but Navient told me I have until January for my first payment to be due.

 

[polosanddunks]

he must be trying to get to 100 cards like this one guy on there. They are od, I don't even see the point.

me neither

 

[capital sb]

Since Black Friday is coming up in a few weeks and a lot of NTers have signed up for the Discover IT card

I wanted to remind people of Discover's Price Protection card member benefit. 

Here is a guide that I found on slick deals:

http://slickdeals.net/f/6347766-discover-price-protection?v=1

 
Discover Price Protection

Discover card members benefited from price protection feature last year by purchasing the BF advertised items early and claimed through price protection.

People have confirmed by contacting Discover that the price protection applies to BF deals in this year as well.

Steps you need to follow:

1. Purchase the exact item  advertised in BF deals (same model #) before BF (sale date).
2. Call Discover and ask for price protection claim. They'll send a form in snail mail. (yes, no online application).
3. Fill the form. You have to send a copy of your receipt, copy of the advertisement with lower price (at the same or different store) (You have to buy BEFORE the sale date, which is BF in this case). File the claim after the sale date. You can file up to 3 claims per claim form. $500 limit per item, $2500 per year.
4. Wait for the claim to be approved. Takes several weeks.
5. Enjoy your new item purchased at BF price without staying at lines.

Edit: There is an option to submit documents online.  

1. Purchase the exact item  advertised in BF deals (same model #) before BF (sale date).
2. Call Discover and start a price protection claim. They'll they will ask how you would like to process it. Select online option. https://cardbenefitcenter.com/oc-dc/app/login
3. Fill the form. You have to send a copy of your receipt, copy of the advertisement with lower price (at the same or different store) (You have to buy BEFORE the sale date, which is BF in this case). File the claim after the sale date. You can file up to 3 claims per claim form. $500 limit per item, $2500 per year.
4. Wait for the claim to be approved. Takes several weeks.
5. Enjoy your new item purchased at BF price without staying at lines.

Link to Slick Deals 2015 Discover BF Price Protection deals

 

[Bert.]

 

[crcballer55]

@crcballer55 decent enough, but I do have my student loan payments lurking. Grace period is over in November but Navient told me I have until January for my first payment to be due.

So how's life been without credit cards thus far?

Your student loans will have a bigger impact on your score than credit cards.

 

[polosanddunks]

Damn Discover is killing it