Thread: Need advice, in deep sh!t. (Getting rid of credit cards...)

^If you never have any debt, you'll never build your credit score. Just get 1 or 2 cc's (preferably rewards cards, so you get something from them), don't treat them as extra money (only spend them on stuff you'd buy anyway), then pay them off at the end of each month (you don't pay interest that way).


Brian: I agree with just about everybody in the first page. Talk to your creditors and try to get your interest rates reduced. They want you to pay off your debt, not file bankruptcy, so they'll be willing to work with you if they see you're committed to paying it off but can't afford your current payments. Debt consolidation or home equity loans are also great ways to lower your payments, as long as you or your wife don't use the cards again afterwards.

Good luck, I hope everything works out.

Originally Posted by Warhellride

^If you never have any debt, you'll never build your credit score. Just get 1 or 2 cc's (preferably rewards cards, so you get something from them), don't treat them as extra money (only spend them on stuff you'd buy anyway), then pay them off at the end of each month (you don't pay interest that way).

Yup, this is the way to go. Get you a card that pays you some sort of percent based on the dollar amount you spend with your card. Its like free money. You can either cash out once or twice a year, or just let it sit there.

I used to have a Chase and a Bank of America card, but after Chase would wait to mail your statement till you only had 3 days to make payment due every month I closed my account. Bank of America, when they started offering cards to illegals with no social security number I said hell no, and closed my account with Bank of UnAmerica and told them as to why. Both cards would make me up to an additional $800.00 yearly sometimes just by using their card.

Currently I have a GM Flexible Earnings credit card and love it. It has a Pontiac arrow head on the front, pretty pimp.

Make sure if and when you decide to close a account with a credit card company you make sure to tell them to put "closed per customers request" as a comment and have them mail you a letter showing that the account was closed, and your comment is in there.

On your credit report, it will show every card you ever had, and currently have, and if they see closed, closed, closed, closed on a lot of cards, it does not look good. So having the comment in there as YOU requested that it be closed is a nice way to cover your butt, and make your credit report look good to who ever is reading it. Especially a future employer who pulls credit reports for potential employees, as a way to see if your trustworthy and responsible.

~F~

Originally Posted by Warhellride

^If you never have any debt, you'll never build your credit score. Just get 1 or 2 cc's (preferably rewards cards, so you get something from them), don't treat them as extra money (only spend them on stuff you'd buy anyway), then pay them off at the end of each month (you don't pay interest that way).

It is not about debt, it is about credit. Paying a card off every month, you still do not have any debt! That is a good thing, though. You want to have a credit card that has a reasonable limit on it for your income, and regularly keep the highest amount you have on it low. Also the longer you have a line of credit the better.