First responsible use credit card

[rmduhon]

You can ask for it as early as 1 month. And a CLI as early as 3 statement (this applies only to newly opened cards)

[MrDisco99]

Your due date is the 7th so expect your statement to cut on the 9th or 10th.  You'll want to pay your balance down as low as you can (but ABOVE $0) before that date.  That will optimize your utilization.  Do that every month.  Feel free to make as many payments as you want throughout the month to knock down the balance.  Make sure you cover the remaining balance before the due date so you don't carry a balance.  If you keep using the card and keep knocking down the balance regularly, you probably won't even need to think about that.  Keep that up and your scores will fly.

I usually pay down my cards every pay day and right before closing dates.

Just remember, if it's your only card, you do not want it to report a $0 (or credit) balance.  Lenders want to see that you're using your card responsibly and not just leaving it in the sock drawer.

[Anonymous]

Sorry I have two questions, what does PC mean and what does it mean for a statement to cut?

[rmduhon]

PC is Product Change and statement cut is the day that your statement is made.

[Cashbackjunky]

Don't be afraid to ask questions, this is how we learn 👍

PC means product change, which is the act of changing your current card to another card (within the same credit card company, obviously).

A statement cut is when all of your charges for a "cycle" (month) on the card are added up and your total balance and amount due/due date are released to you.

Also, one thing to keep in mind... Capital one has a weird new policy that restricts people from getting 2 capital one cards within 6 months... This means you won't be able to get another new card from them for 5 1/2 months (unless you PC your current card to the QS).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Congrats on taking the "credit game" serious. It is a LOT of fun, trust me... When you see your scores surpass 800 - it's exhilarating!!

Have fun, and over everything else, don't miss a payment! You may think "I paid already this month, so I don't have to pay again" - you may have already paid a balance, but that COULD have been before the statement cut, which means you paid before a payment was due. So you would still need to make a payment.

Have fun!
Cheers!

[DeeCorey]

I PC'd to a regular QS after a year with the Platinum. I probably could have done it earlier but I didn't. So far I'm LOVING my QS card. Feels great to be in rewards cards territory. 😀

[Anonymous]

@sapphireminer have no idea how I got $3000. I was surprised too. I don't really understand much about how credit cards work or are given. I have $150,000.00 in student loans and $10k left on my Toyota payments. I bought the Prius last November, I also had a loan from a Toyota I bought in 2012 but that's paid off. I have two charged off credit cards for about $7k between the two. I don't have any collections. I have 3 60 date payments reporting on each of my four private student loan accounts. The private loans total about $18k. And the rest are Federal loans with no late or derogatory payments except one 60 day late on a closed student loan that didn't make it into my federal consolidation, on the fault of the lender.

[Anonymous]

My TU score is 625, my EQ is 661, and my EX is 633 if that matters at all in credit approval line limits. That's with no revolving accounts, which I'm told is the main reason I have bad credit, besides the charge offs and late payments of coursd.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
My TU score is 625, my EQ is 661, and my EX is 633 if that matters at all in credit approval line limits. That's with no revolving accounts, which I'm told is the main reason I have bad credit, besides the charge offs and late payments of coursd.

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Welcome dharma. I haven't seen it mentioned, but I'd make sure to go ahead and sign up for automatic payments with that Journey card (and all others in the future). Capital One does it (as well as all major CC companies), and I'd recommend setting it up for "full statement balance" payments (as opposed to minimum).

This is an invaluable resource to protect you from forgetfullness. Like many here, I've made CC mistakes before making the decision to do it right, and often those mistakes came down to simple forgetfullness, and those autopayments are great for that.

Now, it doesn't sound like the autopayment would actually come into play for you, as you are making multiple payments throughout the month, which is good. I do the same thing, and then even make the final statement payment before the auto payment processes, but still, it's nice to have in place.