Credit cards - it takes time to build a solid portfolio

[webhopper]

---

@tonyaether wrote:

Yes!  Every little bit helps. Sometimes they take it in better when someone else tells them:-)  She is still at the "Mom doesn't know what she is talking about stage."  Hopefully though through time and experience she will learn.  I was never talked to about credit or credit responsibility. I learned from gathering information a piece at a time from others, like in this forum!  So I try to talk to her. I just really appreciate your contributions here from the gardening posts to the other insight you provide.  It's invaluable whether you know it or not.

---

I'm in the same boat... my parents never talked to me about credit...  All I knew was that my mom was real bad with her CCs and at one point they owed more on CCs than my dad made in a yr... Luckily they made it through that time, no BK... they just paid it all back.  Both mom and dad have scores in the 780 range.. but they don't really groom their credit...  my mom is real bad about forgetting to pay things when she travels a lot during the summer... In 2008 I had to teach her about how Automatic BillPay at Chase works great for when you're on the road... 

 It was only 30-day lates, but if you have quite a few of those on different tradelines, it just doesn't look that great!!   Ever since I introduced her to that feature, she's been killing it   hasn't been late on a payment in a long long time!  I don't think my parents knew enough about credit and managing credit to really teach me anything.  My dad's parents never used credit, they paid cash for everything.   My mom's dad was bad about buying things on credit that he couldn't afford and then losing them.   They both had examples to follow on both spectrums that didn't really allow for much learning about good habits to take place.  I like to use credit for convenience. But I'm more and more of a cash sort of person these days... I like not having payments...   I've only got one left and I just refinanced it and cut a yr off the loan

[Creditdreamer]

Great post tinuviel! I'm in the process of rebuilding and recently graduated from college. I have done all I can for the most part to fix my credit, now I just have to wait and let things age. That's the hard part for me.