Random thoughts thread

[Grishbok]

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys, fortunately im young, and unfortunately, im young however i have enough of crap like this to write a book about it. Still waiting to get my car back.

It gets better, as a result of her first accident, which totalled one of my other cars, she filed a lawsuit which will result in a large settlement. That settlement, should have gone to me, which would have negated the credit card debt, however, the overbearing evil wench has decided to keep it. Id be more upset about it, but im so unbelievably happy to have the demon spawn out of my life, its pretty easy to get past.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by ayau

If you have little to no credit history, credit card companies will usually offer you a $1,000 credit line. At 10%, that's $100 to spend each month, which is not even enough to cover gas.

If you want to build credit, use your card for your everyday purchases, but make sure to pay the balance due each month. Do this for about 6 months and your credit card company should automatically increase your line of credit. If not, call them and request for a line increase.

When you have a large credit limit, it can be very convenient. I view it as insurance for when I have to make an "emergency" purchase, such as, an unexpected medical bill. You obviously want to avoid financing with credit card companies due to their high interest rates, but the interest won't be that much if it's only for a short period of time. In fact, if you pay within the billing cycle, you're not charged any interest.

Exactly, I only got a 700 dollar credit line (no credit history) which got maxed out pretty easily. Heck, I checked and I hit 260 dollars (well over 30%) the other day, the only thing I can do about it is to pay it off completely before the deadline.

[ayau]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Exactly, I only got a 700 dollar credit line (no credit history) which got maxed out pretty easily. Heck, I checked and I hit 260 dollars (well over 30%) the other day, the only thing I can do about it is to pay it off completely before the deadline.

If you've had the card for a couple of months already and have paid all your bills on time, then you can call and request for a line increase. More than likely, they'll grant the request.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by ayau

If you've had the card for a couple of months already and have paid all your bills on time, then you can call and request for a line increase. More than likely, they'll grant the request.

How many months? I don't actually see this being useful since at this point I don't drop >500 bucks at a time on anything period (which would make that 700 dollar cap really annoying), but since it's a BoA card I can transfer money to the card any day and get my full 700 spending limit back in 3 days.

[serialk11r]

Oh, by the way the best credit card for cash rewards I believe is Bank of America Cash Rewards Priveliges, it's also 1, 2, 3% back on everything, groceries, gas, but then you get 50% bonus cash for depositing it into a BoA account (my card is 10% bonus), so it's 1.5%, 3%, 4.5% :O

75 dollar a year fee though, unless you have 50k in a BoA account, in which case 0 fee!

Some of those travel rewards cards might be better if you actually travel a lot though, and if you eat out a lot then there are cards that give higher rewards on restaurants like Amex.

[ayau]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

How many months? I don't actually see this being useful since at this point I don't drop 500 bucks at a time on anything period (which would make that 700 dollar cap really annoying), but since it's a BoA card I can transfer money to the card any day and get my full 700 spending limit back in 3 days.

There isn't an exact number. I'd probably say 4. Just be aware that getting a line increase will cause a "hard pull" on your credit report. They evaluate your current credit score in order to determine whether or not you're worthy of a credit line increase. You don't want too many pulls in a year.

If I were you, I'd look at other cards that can net you better rewards. The cards with sign up bonuses are usually the best ones. For example, spend $3k within 3 months will net you basically a free international plane ticket, or $500 cash back. This should be relatively easy if you have to pay for tuition/books (assuming your school allows tuition paid by credit cards). There are also other ways to hit the $3k goal and cost you very little out of your pocket. Hint: they involve buying gift cards or reload cards.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by ayau

There isn't an exact number. I'd probably say 4. Just be aware that getting a line increase will cause a "hard pull" on your credit report. They evaluate your current credit score in order to determine whether or not you're worthy of a credit line increase. You don't want too many pulls in a year.

If I were you, I'd look at other cards that can net you better rewards. The cards with sign up bonuses are usually the best ones. For example, spend $3k within 3 months will net you basically a free international plane ticket, or $500 cash back. This should be relatively easy if you have to pay for tuition/books (assuming your school allows tuition paid by credit cards). There are also other ways to hit the $3k goal and cost you very little out of your pocket. Hint: they involve buying gift cards or reload cards.

I've only had my card for 2 months.

3k??? Where?? I looked through cards recently and it seems like the only ones I found with sign up bonuses required excellent credit :/

I do want a card with a signup bonus since I am getting that new watch and some clothes soon (decided to stop being cheap and cough up some money to get clothes that fit better), which will burn through 500 dollars really easy. My parents pay tuition so I can't really hit 3k.

[ayau]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Oh, by the way the best credit card for cash rewards I believe is Bank of America Cash Rewards Priveliges, it's also 1, 2, 3% back on everything, groceries, gas, but then you get 50% bonus cash for depositing it into a BoA account (my card is 10% bonus), so it's 1.5%, 3%, 4.5% :O

75 dollar a year fee though, unless you have 50k in a BoA account, in which case 0 fee!

Some of those travel rewards cards might be better if you actually travel a lot though, and if you eat out a lot then there are cards that give higher rewards on restaurants like Amex.

Yeah, it all depends on your lifestyle. Certain cards will offer better rewards depending on what you like purchasing. For example, Chase Freedom gives has a cash back program that changes every quarter. For Jan-March, it's 5% cash back on Starbucks, gas, and drug stores. 5% rewards is usually the highest out of all the credit cards out there. There's no annual fee for the Freedom card either.

[Giccin]

I started off with $500... Then after a month they gave me $800. After that month I ended up with $1500. Which isn't bad but its not a good thing either.

If you don't spend AT LEAST 30% of your credit line your credit score goes down (I had mine checked recently). For a month I nearly starved because my checking account only had $300 left and I had only spent a measly 50$ that month. It hit my credit score for a good 5 points. Its not much but its also relatively hard to build credit. :/

And you can't get any good loans if you don't have awesome credit.

[ayau]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

I've only had my card for 2 months.

3k??? Where?? I looked through cards recently and it seems like the only ones I found with sign up bonuses required excellent credit :/

I do want a card with a signup bonus since I am getting that new watch and some clothes soon (decided to stop being cheap and cough up some money to get clothes that fit better), which will burn through 500 dollars really easy. My parents pay tuition so I can't really hit 3k.

Chase Sapphire offers it, but you do need upper tier credit score as far as I know. First year annual fee is waived. I don't currently use this card though because the rewards aren't as good as the Freedom card.

https://creditcards.chase.com/credit...red-card4.aspx

An even better card is the Chase Ink Plus, but you'll need to spend $5k in 3 months (not hard if you buy Vanilla reload cards).

[ayau]

Originally Posted by Giccin

I started off with $500... Then after a month they gave me $800. After that month I ended up with $1500. Which isn't bad but its not a good thing either.

If you don't spend AT LEAST 30% of your credit line your credit score goes down (I had mine checked recently). For a month I nearly starved because my checking account only had $300 left and I had only spent a measly 50$ that month. It hit my credit score for a good 5 points. Its not much but its also relatively hard to build credit. :/

And you can't get any good loans if you don't have awesome credit.

There are other factors that go into your credit score. Credit rating agencies don't release the formula to the public because people would be able to game the system. While I can't prove that it didn't lower your score, I will say that majority of the people won't hit 30% of their credit line. We're talking about people who have $20-30k credit lines. It's not reasonable for an average person to have $9k in credit card expenses each month. You may say that a person with a 20-30k credit line will an annual income of 100k+, but in reality, a lot of credit card companies don't verify your income and it's completely possible for someone who makes 30k to have a large credit line.

5 points isn't a big deal if you're already above 720. At that range, you should be able to qualify for the lowest interest rates from most financial firms.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by ayau

Yeah, it all depends on your lifestyle. Certain cards will offer better rewards depending on what you like purchasing. For example, Chase Freedom gives has a cash back program that changes every quarter. For Jan-March, it's 5% cash back on Starbucks, gas, and drug stores. 5% rewards is usually the highest out of all the credit cards out there. There's no annual fee for the Freedom card either.

That card would be only used on the 5% cash back categories though, since the 1% reward sucks compared to BoA's Priveliges 1.5% or Cap1 Cash Rewards 1.5%. Still gotta get the good credit rating of course.

Man, I hate my school's Career Center thing. Their online system isn't letting me submit an application to BlackRock because it says my graduation date isn't in the specified range, even though it is. Stupid piece of crap.

[wrxgoose]

Originally Posted by Grishbok

congrats on the credit card, though be careful, 10% is a good rule to live by, you can go up to 30% but thats only in emergency situations, like an ER visit. My ex decided to leave me with 10k in credit card debt as a final F-U to me, as if I deserved that and the wrecked FRS. women are just evil. Luckily im young enough I should be able to recover relatively quick, but its still an unbelievable account of pure female maliciousness.

is there anything you can do about that? small claims court or anything?

[Grishbok]

Originally Posted by wrxgoose

is there anything you can do about that? small claims court or anything?

Well, it would be a very thin case seeing as how we were together, and i have no documented evidence of the expenses being labelled as a loan.

The thing about small claims court and suing people like her, is that the court can rule in your favor but the court can not make her pay. Even if you win the case, there is absolutely nothing you can do to enforce the ruling.