How to use credit cards for the sole purpose of building credit

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Are you familiar with CCT at all and their trials?  They literally don't even promote their "real" product, just the trials.  Go to CCT.com and the first thing you see is the $1 trial membership offer.  The second your trial is over and you log into your account, you are not prompted with an offer for a "real" membership; you are given the statement "you are eligible for another $1 trial!" - it's literally all you see.  I don't understand how you can say that this isn't the intended use of their product as they actually make it more difficult for you NOT to just use the trials, lol.

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Now suppose you don't cancel (as might be normal after a trial and you decide you like the product).  According to the website then you are automatically enrolled for a "real" membership so I don't think you can argue it's more difficult NOT to use the trial....

[Anonymous]

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@jg1983 wrote:

Stupid question but how does a balance transfer work?

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Give them a call - I believe it's just a cash advance with better terms

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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Now suppose you don't cancel (as might be normal after a trial and you decide you like the product).  According to the website then you are automatically enrolled for a "real" membership so I don't think you can argue it's more difficult NOT to use the trial....

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So have you actually done trials yourself or did you just go to the website when I mentioned it a few posts back and read that fine print?

If you cancel a trial with them, you are targeted with a "click here for another $1 trial" on their web site.

You are NOT targeted with a "click here for a monthly membership following your previous trial."

If they really wanted you to not do multiple trials, why wouldn't they target you with a "real" monthly membership on their site when you log in following a trial cancellation?  Instead they target you with their $1 trial again, which you seem to have a problem with people taking advantage of [more than once]?

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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Now suppose you don't cancel (as might be normal after a trial and you decide you like the product).  According to the website then you are automatically enrolled for a "real" membership so I don't think you can argue it's more difficult NOT to use the trial....

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So have you actually done trials yourself or did you just go to the website when I mentioned it a few posts back and read that fine print?

If you cancel a trial with them, you are targeted with a "click here for another $1 trial" on their web site.

You are NOT targeted with a "click here for a monthly membership following your previous trial."

If they really wanted you to not do multiple trials, why wouldn't they target you with a "real" monthly membership on their site when you log in following a trial cancellation?  Instead they target you with their $1 trial again, which you seem to have a problem with people taking advantage of [more than once]?

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Actually, I have no problem with that, as I said I have no problem with doing MS.  But I do understand why some people might have a problem with it, and not sure you do.   

Re cancelling:  it's sort of reasonable that if you cancel, you are not so likely to be tempted by an offer to pay the full price, so offering another trial is some way of maybe hoping to do better the next time.   But, again, for some, deliberately cancelling KNOWING that you intend to get another trial, rather than continuing the subscription, is wrong for some.   Very similar to getting the sign up bonus on a credit card, cancelling and then reapplying to get another bonus (less possible now, but used to be a big thing....)

[Anonymous]

You're correct, I do not understand why anyone would have a problem with it.  The only people I feel would have a problem with it are those that are paying for a full monthly membership.  And, the reason they likely have a problem with it is because they're upset they didn't just stick with the $1 trials as they can see people getting 4X the material for less than 7X the price; They are upset because they are paying more for the same thing, or less in this particular example.

As I stated earlier, CCT creates this issue by devaluing their product.  If they would simply allow those with "real" memberships to get weekly 3B reports instead of monthly and weekly 3B FICO 08 scores instead of monthly, you'd probably see a lot of people sign up for real memberships as true memberships would then at least be able to access as much material as those doing 2 trials.

I wrote about this in another thread once.  I used to work for restaurant chain that charged X for a certain product in house.  People were content with paying X for that product.  The company decided to then offer product X at a significant discount (like 66% off) if it were purchased to-go.  Once dine-in guests caught wind of this, they were pissed and no longer wanted to pay X for a product that they were perfectly willing to pay X for prior.  Why?  Because the company devalued their product by offering it at a crazy discount with restrictions.  Sales suffered on product X in house as a result.  If CCT keeps up their system the way it is now, they are going to lose sales of their regular product, "real" monthly memberships.  You can't blame people for going after the product via $1 trials though as you are getting the same thing (or 4X more in fact) for less, the same way product X at the restaurant had soaring sales, but only to-go.  We placed signs and marketing around the restaurant too promoting product X to-go, the same way CCT has their $1 trials in your face at all times.

[Appleman]

If you do a balance transfer they will ask for a credit card number to transfer the balance from (make a payment to basically). Some lenders will let you do a balance transfer and use it like a cash advance (meaning you can deposit it in your checking account), I am not sure this is true with NFCU.

For many on the boards they will use (USAA, PenFEd, NFCU) to do a credit card cash advance. These have no cash advance fees and for many have decent APRs. Also, these three lenders don't seem to mind the occasional cash advance. (Don't try that with Barclay!). Once there is a balance on their NFCU card they will take advantage of a 0% BT offer from another card issuer (say BOFA, Cap1 or Discover), occasionally with no fees. 

[Anonymous]

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@Appleman wrote:

If you do a balance transfer they will ask for a credit card number to transfer the balance from (make a payment to basically). Some lenders will let you do a balance transfer and use it like a cash advance (meaning you can deposit it in your checking account), I am not sure this is true with NFCU.

For many on the boards they will use (USAA, PenFEd, NFCU) to do a credit card cash advance. These have no cash advance fees and for many have decent APRs. Also, these three lenders don't seem to mind the occasional cash advance. (Don't try that with Barclay!). Once there is a balance on their NFCU card they will take advantage of a 0% BT offer from another card issuer (say BOFA, Cap1 or Discover), occasionally with no fees. 

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You could do this a couple of ways in your current situation:

A. You can BT your car payment to the NFCU card - this would allow you to use that money for your immediate needs.  If DCU will allow you to pay the loan ahead (make a 2-3 month payment and not have a payment due for 2-3 months), this would be an excellent way to free up immediate cash - but at the very least you could do 1 month.

B. You can BT from the NFCU card to the DCU card, and spend the resulting credit balance on the DCU card - again this frees up the money otherwise spent on those expenses.

you can likely do both, but I'd recommend if you can putting most of the amount through option A, as it will draw fewer red flags (zero), than option B

As always, best of luck!

[Credit_hawk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would use the NFCU card like a debit card - put as much of your regular spend through it as you can and enjoy 1.5% cashback (more if you use the Member Mall) - just be certain to pay it down under 10% before the statement cuts and you're golden.  As for DCU, I'd put something small like a Netflix sub on it, put it on autopay and otherwise leave it alone.

Do this for about 4-6 months and you'll be in good position for massive increase from NFCU, which in turn will help you qualify for other things

Good Luck!

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Jesus TH, how did you get such a high limit on your NFCU compared to your others? haha

[Credit_hawk]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
For me one of the most important things you can do to build credit is just use your cards you have and make sure to pay on time each month. Though it may seem slow making ontime payments helps establish good credit habits and shows good responsibilty with limits you are given. Perhaps my favorite advise ive picked up from here, though not always easy, is to try not to spend more than you think can pay back by end of the month. This is good in that if we can train ourselves to think that way, it msy help not to overspend and make sure wirh atay the path. I fsll off every once in awhile but that little mantra is always in back of my head thanks to my fellow Ficoers

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AJ preaching from the good book! Lol

[Anonymous]

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@Credit_hawk wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would use the NFCU card like a debit card - put as much of your regular spend through it as you can and enjoy 1.5% cashback (more if you use the Member Mall) - just be certain to pay it down under 10% before the statement cuts and you're golden.  As for DCU, I'd put something small like a Netflix sub on it, put it on autopay and otherwise leave it alone.

Do this for about 4-6 months and you'll be in good position for massive increase from NFCU, which in turn will help you qualify for other things

Good Luck!

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Jesus TH, how did you get such a high limit on your NFCU compared to your others? haha

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Pretty much exactly as I described above, more or less - Navy is good to you if you're good to them

p.s. - it's not THAT much higher than my QS, you know