Legal and Official
- Thread starter FluerVanderloo
- Start date
) (you got to read that fine print)
Inkara1
Well-Known Member
You're better off getting a Visa or MasterCard (preferably Visa; there are, believe it or not, places that take Visa and not MAsterCard) credit card than a store card. Almost every store contracts out to Citibank now, and store credit cards tend to charge 21-24 percent interest even to people with 700+ credit scores. Many people have began their credit histories with a Sears card, but now that they contracted out to Citibank you have to have solid credit already to get the card.
Even with no credit history, you can get a better rate with a regular card with the added bonus of being able to use it somewhere besides the one store if need be.
But when you do get a card, use it to buy something small and pay it off in full each month. Repeat every month. Keep this up for a while and they'll boost your limit, improving your debt-to-limit ratio because you've got a higher limit.
Even with no credit history, you can get a better rate with a regular card with the added bonus of being able to use it somewhere besides the one store if need be.
But when you do get a card, use it to buy something small and pay it off in full each month. Repeat every month. Keep this up for a while and they'll boost your limit, improving your debt-to-limit ratio because you've got a higher limit.
FluerVanderloo
New Member
HomeLAN said:
How about renting an apartment?
And speaking of Citibank, I have a Stafford loan through them.
Yeah, if it was a major property owner they might report to the credit bureau, but I kinda doubt it. I was a little surprised at Cats post, I worked at one of those rent to own places, we never reported to the credit bureau.
He is right regardless though, that's a damn expensive way to buy anything. Avoid it unless you just want a TV for the weekend or something.
He is right regardless though, that's a damn expensive way to buy anything. Avoid it unless you just want a TV for the weekend or something.
SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
My last word on credit cards:
If someone offered you a product...any product...and told you how great it is, then started with "But don't do this....and don't do that...and this part of it is no good...and only this part is good if it's a certain way...", how badly would you want that product?
Credit cards are a rip off every time, every card, in every circumstance. Unless you're Donald Trump. And you aren't.
The book I suggested tells you precisely how to establish credit safely. And much, much more.
I know people who use credit cards. I used to be one of them. Never again, no way, no how. There is absolutely nothing in this world worth that much to me. I pay cash/check/debit card, or I don't get it, house and vehicle excluded and I'm working on the vehicle. Your grandmother would tell you the same thing, and my bet is that your grandmother has/had some money.
Do as you will. It's your money. But don't say you weren't warned.
If someone offered you a product...any product...and told you how great it is, then started with "But don't do this....and don't do that...and this part of it is no good...and only this part is good if it's a certain way...", how badly would you want that product?
Credit cards are a rip off every time, every card, in every circumstance. Unless you're Donald Trump. And you aren't.
The book I suggested tells you precisely how to establish credit safely. And much, much more.
I know people who use credit cards. I used to be one of them. Never again, no way, no how. There is absolutely nothing in this world worth that much to me. I pay cash/check/debit card, or I don't get it, house and vehicle excluded and I'm working on the vehicle. Your grandmother would tell you the same thing, and my bet is that your grandmother has/had some money.
Do as you will. It's your money. But don't say you weren't warned.
HomeLAN
New Member
Renting will do nothing for your credit rating, 99.8% of the time.
SnP, if you mismanage money, you're correct, they can be an enabler. However, if you do as I do and pay the fucker off every month, in full, it's a free loan for 5-30 days, you get rewards programs, you get whatever earnings you can finagle on your cash until the due date, you get buyer's protection, and it's much easier to deal with a stolen card than stolen cash or a ripped off debit card.
Just because some people can't control their spending doesn't make the credit card the culprit.
SnP, if you mismanage money, you're correct, they can be an enabler. However, if you do as I do and pay the fucker off every month, in full, it's a free loan for 5-30 days, you get rewards programs, you get whatever earnings you can finagle on your cash until the due date, you get buyer's protection, and it's much easier to deal with a stolen card than stolen cash or a ripped off debit card.
Just because some people can't control their spending doesn't make the credit card the culprit.
SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
HomeLAN said:
And what percentage of card holders pay that balance every month? If we all did, the banks wouldn't make any money, hence they would either stop issuing them or be a helluva lot more selective about who gets one.
Banks issue credit cards to dead people. They issue them to dogs. I know this. Elvis ****** has been offered three. He's a basset hound. Think he's gonna pay his balance every month?
Y'all can do as you please...it ain't my money. But when you accept a credit card, you are doing business with that bank. A bank that engages in tactics as described above. They issue the "card checques" someone mentioned earlier, which I think you pointed out as total ripoffs. It's more risk than I am willing to accept with my financial future. Your results may, of course, vary.
As far as added protection goes, credit cards offer not one thing more than a debit card offers.
Again, it ain't my money. But my responses were to a recent high school graduate just starting college. Most of us know, college has some pretty warped priorities attached to it. We learn a lot of life's lessons there, the vast majority not being taught in a classroom. I cannot in good conscience watch this girl make a serious mistake without at least warning her. I'm just that way. Whether she heeds the advice or not is out of my hands. I learned the hard way; she might have to as well. I'm willing to bet that she will not be among the .05% of people who pay the balance in full, every month, without fail. I've been in her shoes (not figurativelty mind you...). I know the pitfalls that lie in her path. I assume you do to. If I can help her avoid one, I'm happy to try.
Peace out.
SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
Luis G said:
And how do you think they make that back up?
SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
HomeLAN said:
Then we differ. Not the first, likely not the last.
I think what he was trying to point out is that even if you pay off your credit card every month, without interest, the credit card company still makes between 1.5 and 5% of the sale from the merchant. So yes, even if everyone paid it off every month, the banks would still issue credit cards.