Credit Cards...

[Craig Th 0]

Well, how many do you have?

 

I have two, one with a $450 limit and the other with a $300 limit. When I turned 18, I got a credit card with a $1000 limit and didn't pay it off till this past year. My credit is now shot and I am in the process of fixing it, which I am doing pretty well with.

[Ravenbomb 0]

0

[vivalaultra 0]

I have a Mastercard that I've never used. I signed up for it at an Astros' game to get a free coffee thermos. I only got it cuz I needed something to put my coffee in.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I don't get why you'd get a credit card with only a $300 limit. Why not just use a debit card for something that small?

[Guest Vitamin X]

I have 3, but they all have a relatively small limit, so it kind of works well in that fashion. I had a small credit card I got when I was 18 and I never paid off for whatever reason, so that fucked up my credit until this year or so, roughly.

 

I don't keep them with me in my wallet, either, I have a separate wallet for them and my checkbook, so I only bring them with me if I'm going to go out to purposefully buy something, works well against impulse purchases.

 

One of the best tips I've learned about credit cards (and thus, building credit) is to only put on them what you can pay in full by the end of the month, or at worst, a couple months down the line. Also, to try to just get the cards that give you crap for charging stuff onto them (like frequent flyer miles or whatever). Then if you're financially responsible, you'll get free stuff and travel just for buying things as your normally would.

 

I don't get why you'd get a credit card with only a $300 limit. Why not just use a debit card for something that small?

More than likely, he's in the same boat that I'm in and has had crappy credit, so he can only get cards with smaller limits. Orchard Bank, First Premier, Applied Card, and sometimes Capital One are the ones that offer cards to people (for a price) to help rebuild their credit.

[Craig Th 0]

Yeah, Capital One and Aspire.

[Mik 0]

Am I the only one here with a lot of credit?

 

I have 3

 

Bank of America (Visa): 7.99% - $7500 limit

Bank of America (American Express): Also 7.99%- $1500 limit

Chase (Mastercard): 8.99% -$2000 limit

 

The credit card companies love me, I'm guessing, because I never miss or be late on a payment, always pay more then the minimum but I still owe them about $10k.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Citi (Mastercard): $3900 limit

Discover: $6500 limit

Chase (Visa): $6800 limit

Chase (Mastercard): $11,000 limit

 

Also have Kohls and Sears cards -- I have no idea what my limit on those are though and I'm too lazy to look.

[Black Lushus 0]

I have 2...that's after going deep in debt 6 years ago and filing bankruptcy (Chapter 13, the type you have to pay some back on)...I've used these cards sparingly, had them for about a year.

[Epic Reine 0]

I have two but mainly use only one.

[Scroby 0]

I have one at the moment, Capital one with a 650 limit. I think I may get a 2nd one as a emerancy card through, just in case my car breaks down or something happens where I need some money asap.

[Red Baron 0]

I worked for Capital One dealing with American cardholders.

 

Man, capital one is such a scam.

 

 

Therefore I do have a credit card. Its a GM TD Visa with a $6000 limit.

[Aero 0]

1st Financial Bank with an $1800 limit

Sears card with $1800 limit

Target Red Card with $200

 

I actually just got the Target card yesterday for the sole purpose of saving 10% off my purchase.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Man, capital one is such a scam.

Mind going into detail on this one?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I have 2 and I owe nothing on both of em (YAY for me or something..)

 

Best Buy - $3500 limit (I used it to buy my HDTV to get 2 years no interest and 12 months no interest on my HD-Tivo and had them both paid off well before the deadline of the no interest). Also, as side note in a little over 2 years I've spent almost $6000 at Best Buy according to my reward zone statement which I signed up for the day I got my BB Credit Card and bought my HD-TV.

 

Bank of America Visa - No idea what the limit is on it, I've used it once and paid it off about a week later.

 

I have a Bank of America Platinum Check Card (VISA) that I use for just about everything and with the money I have saved up in the bank (close to $7,500 now) It would have to be a huge emergency for me to need to use a credit card. I know how much trouble my mother got into with credit cards (eventually having to go through one of those debt management services to fix her credit and pay off all of her cards) so Im not really to big on having 50 credit cards.

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

0

And I never want to get one either.

[CanadianChris 0]

I have an CIBC Aeroplan Visa gold card with a $12,000 limit, and a TD GM Visa with a $9,000 limit that is unused. My wife has a Sears card with a $5,000 limit, I think.

 

Pretty much all our expenses go on the gold card, except for the mortgage and a few other bills that can't be paid by credit card. We just got two free airline tickets a couple of months ago, and thanks to the gold card, we've almost earned another pair. We get one point for every dollar spent -- it's awesome. It even makes the annual fee worthwhile. I've never missed paying off the balance completely in any month, either.

[Craig Th 0]

Some of you have amazing credit.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

If you just pay your bills and don't spend too much it's not that hard. I got up to something like a $5500 limit in a year on the one card I have. If you run into a rough patch, of course, that can f you in the a.

[Slayer 0]

Pretty much what Edwin said.

 

When I applied for my first CC in '00 I got approved for a scant $300, but by not going over the deep end, it only took a couple of years to obtain two cards with decent four-digit limits.

 

Don't forget income is a factor too. When you make the leap from retail wage-slave to "real world" job, that should help, unless you use all your extra disposable income on DVDs

[BruiserKC 0]

Chase Visa...$5000 credit limit (We froze it after they tried to up it to $15K)

Citibank Mastercard...$6000 credit limit (Again frozen)

Kohl's Charge...$2500 credit limit

Nebraska Furnituremart Charge...$5000 credit limit

 

The wife and I just finished cutting up about four credit cards we never used...Discover, Key Bank Visa, Wal-Mart Mastercard, and our JC Penney's card (we cancelled it after they sent us a JC Penney's Mastercard with a $20K credit limit and we know we're never going to use that much credit).

 

Something to be weary of (I work in the credit card industry)...it's nice to have that extra credit, but too many cards sitting idle with all that available credit can be as damaging to applying for extra credit as if you went crazy and charged everything up. With all of it sitting idle, they see you as potentially being able to get into that much trouble. So if you have 10 cards with a shitload of available credit, might be time to cut some of those cards out.

[Red Baron 0]

Indeed.

 

Also its easy to ask for an increase as well, which they shouldn't really be doing.

[CanadianChris 0]

A lot of credit card companies will just give you an increase without you asking for it, too, especially the high-interest charge cards. My HBC charge card started at a limit of $1,000, and got as high as $4,500 before I finally cancelled it.

[Red Baron 0]

That happened with me when I had a Future Shop card. It went from 1500 to 7000 in a year.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

0.00

[CanadianChris 0]

Having no credit is almost as bad as having too much credit.

[Red Baron 0]

Exactly.

 

Try getting a house, car, loan or even a good paying job without any credit.

[Guest Paul]

The first credit card I got, was from Citibank. It was for 1500.00. I had a few after that when I was married, but they are all paid off. I cut them up too. I still have my original Citibank card, and the limit is now 8500.00.

[Red Baron 0]

Well the scam with Capital One is basically if you were dumb enough to take their payment protection plan or their Credit Report. The Credit Report isnt much of a scam, but its near impossible to cancel it. The payment protection plan does work, if we approve of you.

[Craig Th 0]

Yeah, but I don't think I have that.

 

How is it impossible to cancel?