Maintaining Good Credit

[BJ@LW&WW]

So I've read from a few online sources that the major credit raters doc off points if you spend money on your card till you've reached your credit limit. They suggest you always float around a certain percentage (say 25%) of your credit limit to avoid this.

I was wondering, if I pay off my credit line earlier than it's due date, is it safe to keep spending up to 25% multiple times a month? Or should I only spend 25% of my credit line per month, regardless of if I've paid it off or not.

I know the credit bureaus don't release their methods so no one really knows for sure. Just trying to see if there's a consensus out there.

 

[Irving]

Running up 25% of your credit limit, then paying it off, then doing that again multiple times in one month will not hurt your credit score.

 

[bad seed]

I like getting new credit cards when they offer it interest free for a year. So I put all my bigger purchases on that, and pay off minimums while keeping a balance and then pay it all off before the interest free period is over.

Is that going to hurt my credit rating?

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

From what I understand, applying for a large number of credit cards alone hurts your credit rating. If these purchases you speak of raise you above ~25% of your credit limit, then yes that also hurts you as well.

 

[WinterSoldier]

I keep my cards at 20% maximum and pays all my bills because an old utility or cable bill shows up as a minus on your credit.

 

[HereticBD]

If you want to be safe, don't spend what you can't pay off at the end of the month(if you can, obviously). I've paid my credit card debt off at the end of every month for years. I don't know what my rating is, but it must be alright, 'cause they keep approving me for bigger limits, and I now have a credit card that is worth more than I make in a year.

It's like the bank is just tempting me to fuck up.

 

[Oblivian]

I'll admit that I don't know the complete ins and out anymore, but I'll tell you my experience since we had our credit pulled twice recently. We pay off 100% of our balance every month, but we use our cards for almost everything. It's been this way for us for the past few years. The debt we carry is our mortgage and student loans (we just paid my wife's off though). Our credit ratings were just under 800. For reference, we've had our cards for quite a while too so our credit limit is lulzy high.

 

[44nutman]

Late payment hangs onto your score for 5 years. Keep your balance below 10%. 10 years ago I had shitty credit and it takes a while to get it back up. So don't charge what you can not pay off. I use my credit card for weekly dinner out with the fam and anytime I hit happy hour with the boys. Get the bill and pay it off.

 

[Soma]

I have great credit (790). I use anywhere from 25 - 70% of my credit line each month on two different cards and pay them off completely each month. No problema's here.

 

[JuliaB4GSP]

If you pay off your cards every month and rarely carry a balance the whole 75/25% stuff is irrelevant. Credit card companies make money the more you use your card, regardless if you ever pay interest on a month to month basis. Having a bunch of cards that you rarely use will do next to nothing to your rating if you use one or two monthly. Switching balances from card to card will harm your score though, you only build credit on month to month payments.

You don't have to worry about your credit score in your life if you've never missed a payment for anything, rarely carry a balance month to month and have an auto loan or two paid off. I assume you're thinking about buying a house? Since that is the ultimate goal of 'building' your credit score. Hopefully if you get a mortgage with someone else their score isn't miserable because it makes yours worthless too.

 

[KingMellow]

Man how much bullshit is credit? Everyone will have to use it at some point. Whether it's applying for a car loan, house loan, or job, your credit can be used for or against you. Oh but god forbid you actually want to see your credit score for free. No no no. Oh so you want to pay off your loan early? That'll cost you 50 points. Want to close down that old credit credit card you don't use anymore? Go ahead see how much that drops your credit!

"But but buut i pay off my credit card every month so it's basically a free loan" Really it is? Every time you use your card, the retail outlet is charged a transaction fee from the credit card company. Do you think that cost doesn't get passed onto the consumer? Do you fuck face?

What a load of shit. I play the game, and I play to win... but let's not pretend this whole system isn't designed to fuck us.

 

[SevenSamurai]

I read a different story every year about what is best -and it is never the same from year to year.

So here is my cautionary tale.

At 17, I started buying recording equipment and musical instruments on credit -never paying it fully off instead buying better and better stuff to fuel my business and band. I had an insatiable appetite for wanting things now. I ended up being a debt slave for over 15 years just paying off the interest -paying over a hundreds thousand dollars in credit card interest. All wasted money. Once I started making great money I FINALLY paid off everything -but this was just very recently and honestly most people's situations would never allow them to recover like I did -as I have had a rare streak recently.

my advice -don't use credit cards for anything other than short term purchase to avoid using your debit (for security) and pay it off every month. A low interest home or business loan is the only kind of debt you want to fool with -avoid high interest liquid debt even if they are saying it will help your score -it's a fool's game.

Free yourself -people with debt cannot make decisions for themselves.

IT's MODERN DAY SLAVERY -DO NOT HELP THE SLAVE OWNERS.

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

Thanks for everyone w credit advice. just to be clear, i always pay my balance in full and never pay a dime in interest. I believe my credit score was about 785 or something the last I checked and the credit report said one of my negatives was too much spending. At the time, I was working a job where I had to purchase products and was reimbursed afterwards so my credit spending was high even though I always paid on time. I noticed someone said the % of ur credit limit u use doesnt matter so long as you pay on time. Well, according to the credit bureau it does.

Man how much bullshit is credit? Everyone will have to use it at some point. Whether it's applying for a car loan, house loan, or job, your credit can be used for or against you. Oh but god forbid you actually want to see your credit score for free. No no no. Oh so you want to pay off your loan early? That'll cost you 50 points. Want to close down that old credit credit card you don't use anymore? Go ahead see how much that drops your credit!

"But but buut i pay off my credit card every month so it's basically a free loan" Really it is? Every time you use your card, the retail outlet is charged a transaction fee from the credit card company. Do you think that cost doesn't get passed onto the consumer? Do you fuck face?

What a load of shit. I play the game, and I play to win... but let's not pretend this whole system isn't designed to fuck us.

a bit cynical, but i do agree with you. People overuse credit cards because of the benefits you get from it and people either 1. Don't realize they're getting charged for using the card in the long run. 2. They realize it and don't care because in a society where everyone's using credit cards, the ones who don't still pay their bill.

And you're allowed three free credit reports a year from the three big bureaus btw.

 

[TeTe]

I ran up a bunch of credit cards and every thing went to shit about ten years ago for me. Between the car being repossessed, collections, etc.. I was lucky I paid off that debt.

I haven't had a credit card in eight years and I honestly don't ever want to get one again. I don't give a fuck about the benefits. Paying back my school loans on time and waiting out the seven years where my credit has been fucked has actually already made my credit better.

 

[BoogerDawson]

I pay most of my items with my credit card, but ALWAYS pay the balance in full. I never will pay an annual fee. The cards I use get a minimum of 1% cash back (3% for gas, 5% for cable/internet/cell phone). I get some other benefits such as purchase protection, doubling of warranties, complimentary travel insurance, complimentary CWS when renting a car, etc. The credit card companies make a killing off those who are enslaved to debt. Just paying the minimum monthly amount will take forever to pay off.

At all costs, avoid bankruptcy or foreclosing on a house because that'll ruin a credit score. Don't cancel credit cards that are no longer used, because that can lower credit scores.

No late payments. I use autopayment on my accounts to minimize any late payments.

Check your credit score for errors, and get any errors rectified.

It sucks that some jobs will also check your credit as part of the application process.

Unfortunately, I know that creditors have to screen out people who are not likely to pay off their debts or more likely to fail. Having dealt with rental property, there are lots of scumbags that don't want to pay money that is owed to others. They'll do all sorts of things to fuck you over. I won a judgment against a tenant who trashed a property and the deposit wasn't enough to cover the damage. The asshole then filed bankruptcy to avoid paying, which was basically giving me the bird.

 

[Henry Swanson]

I'll admit that I don't know the complete ins and out anymore, but I'll tell you my experience since we had our credit pulled twice recently. We pay off 100% of our balance every month, but we use our cards for almost everything. It's been this way for us for the past few years. The debt we carry is our mortgage and student loans (we just paid my wife's off though). Our credit ratings were just under 800. For reference, we've had our cards for quite a while too so our credit limit is lulzy high.

This is what we do as well. But we only have 4 credit cards between the two of us. I like credit as a safer form of payment. Should my card ever get compromised, visa/MasterCard can figure it out. But if your debit card is ever skimmed and crooks clean out your account, there can sometimes be a 5 to 10 business day period where the bank investigates the fraud. That whole time you could be of pocket while you're waiting for the bank to get the missing funds back to you. I know this differs by bank though.

 

[Henry Swanson]

Man how much bullshit is credit? Everyone will have to use it at some point. Whether it's applying for a car loan, house loan, or job, your credit can be used for or against you. Oh but god forbid you actually want to see your credit score for free. No no no. Oh so you want to pay off your loan early? That'll cost you 50 points. Want to close down that old credit credit card you don't use anymore? Go ahead see how much that drops your credit!

"But but buut i pay off my credit card every month so it's basically a free loan" Really it is? Every time you use your card, the retail outlet is charged a transaction fee from the credit card company. Do you think that cost doesn't get passed onto the consumer? Do you fuck face?

What a load of shit. I play the game, and I play to win... but let's not pretend this whole system isn't designed to fuck us.

LMFAO!!!

Tell us how you really feel!

 

[Oblivian]

This is what we do as well. But we only have 4 credit cards between the two of us. I like credit as a safer form of payment. Should my card ever get compromised, visa/MasterCard can figure it out. But if your debit card is ever skimmed and crooks clean out your account, there can sometimes be a 5 to 10 business day period where the bank investigates the fraud. That whole time you could be of pocket while you're waiting for the bank to get the missing funds back to you. I know this differs by bank though.

Exactly the same as us - we use 4 cards too. Each of us use 2 cards - one for larger purchases and more along the lines of joint purchases and the other for the smaller purchases. Honestly, I think our credit limit between the 4 cards is well over $25k. It's absurd.

 

[SevenSamurai]

Man how much bullshit is credit? Everyone will have to use it at some point. Whether it's applying for a car loan, house loan, or job, your credit can be used for or against you. Oh but god forbid you actually want to see your credit score for free. No no no. Oh so you want to pay off your loan early? That'll cost you 50 points. Want to close down that old credit credit card you don't use anymore? Go ahead see how much that drops your credit!

"But but buut i pay off my credit card every month so it's basically a free loan" Really it is? Every time you use your card, the retail outlet is charged a transaction fee from the credit card company. Do you think that cost doesn't get passed onto the consumer? Do you fuck face?

What a load of shit. I play the game, and I play to win... but let's not pretend this whole system isn't designed to fuck us.

you can get your credit scroe from each agency free twice a year in most states.


still doesn't mean they aren't fucking you.

It's modern day slavery.

When they couldn't steal slaves from Africa for labor, put debtors in work camps, and push opium anymore they came up with new ways to enslave us -banking

 

[Henry Swanson]

Exactly the same as us - we use 4 cards too. Each of us use 2 cards - one for larger purchases and more along the lines of joint purchases and the other for the smaller purchases. Honestly, I think our credit limit between the 4 cards is well over $25k. It's absurd.

Our total available balance is also pretty high. Sometimes I feel like 4 cards may be too much but I like having some back up cards. Whenever we travel I bring an extra card and leave it In our hotel safe. Definitely glad I did that last summer in Hawaii because I lost my card on the second day of the trip.

That said, I used to read those Credit Forums and some of the people on there were rolling 20+ cards. They didn't carry any balances but holy shit, that's a lot of eye weal notices.