I've been lurking on this forum since Oct 06 and have finally decided to start posting.
I'm nineteen years old and have been building my credit history as soon as I gained legal authority to do so on my eighteenth birthday. The first credit card I applied for was...a little shady, I was duped into signing up for like most kids are on campus at college. They lured me into signing up because they were giving away free meals at Subway if you sign up. Now...luckily the card that I got was from Chase Visa had no annual fee, 0% interest for six months, online bill pay is free, etc. etc... It was just overall a good card with a pretty low $500 limit. But for someone with no credit history, this was a good thing.
I then proceeded to go to open a checking account as well as apply for a credit card at my credit union and was originally solicited for a $500 limit again...however I declined and asked for a $200 limit as I wanted to only use this card for gas. I then started reading these forums and researching credit and later went back to them and had them give me the $500 limit about six months later. About the same time my Chase Visa was approved for a $800 limit systematically. I also had my uncle add me on as an authorized user on his 10,000 limit BOA card...now it wasn't to establish payment history it was so I would have accountability for paying the account because we used a convenience check to purchase my car. A word on this in a minute.
I did a really stupid thing though...I maxed out my cards pretty much to the cent at like 498/500 every month and would pay them off because I was working my ass off through three jobs. But of course...this is a TERRIBLE thing to do as I soon realized. It was about April of this year when I moved to Winston-Salem, NC for a great new job offer and put all of my moving expenses on my Chase...and you can fill in the blank with what you think happened. I paid my card to zero and guess what...they reduced my Chase from 800 to 600. Not as drastic as what could have happened like a 300 dollar or something, but this was kind of upsetting. I called them and their reasoning was that I was going over my limit consistently by like a $100 every month, but I was doing it before the cycle closed so I didn't think it mattered, and I wasn't even being assessed an overlimit fee because I was paying it off so much before they got a chance. But nonetheless, they referenced my BOA card being maxed out and my overlimit status and my high utilization. They told me to call back in six months for review...I reluctantly decided to call them six months later.
Now, I figured because I've been handling my cards for exactly a year, the end of last month I applied for Cap One, HSBC, and Washington Mutual and got limits 1000, 750, and 1300. I was pretty excited that there was at least some sort of an increase in the limits they were willing to extend. So now to work on my Chase because I love the fact they were willing to help me out when I had no credit whatsoever. I called them up today and was connected to their adverse action department and they gave me the run around about high utilization and blah blah blah...and I cut him off and was like, "I understand about my high utlization but if you look at the payments coming in on my Chase account you will see what my financial capabilities are, keep in my mind that I'm still paying rent, phone, utilities, etc and STILL managing to pay over a 1,000 towards this card by playing this game of charging and paying it off. I'm not aggressively seeking credit or attempting a credit bustout or trying to max these cards out and never pay them again. I'm nineteen and need you to take a chance on me. My probability of defaulting may appear high to your system however you took a chance by giving me $500 and I really appreciate that but other lenders have approved me over $1,000 recently and this is a much more acceptable range of a credit limit for now." And the guy was like, "Wow, you really did your research...considering the circumstances we wouldn't normally allow you to change your limit because of what your cbr is at now, but I can change it to a $1,000 because it sounds like you know what you're doing, if you need more just ask customer service." I was like, "woohoo! Nah, I won't be greedy!"
And so now I'm going to call my credit union back from Wisconsin and get my limit to $1,000. Oh and about that $10,000 limit BOA. My car was 7,000, I had 2,000 saved and my uncle did 9,800 balance transfer check and gave me the 5,000 and I paid for the car after adding me on as an authorized user. Now with the difference of 4,800, he put it in a High yield savings account for the six months because we had zero percent interest, and he just made the 4800 payment and my balance is not at like 4200/10000, so now I feel really good!
Although I just moved to Greensboro, NC and put my moving expenses on my Washington Mutual and now that's at like 400 something. I need to control my spending! help! lol
Oh, one complaint. The HSBC people were sooo vague and misleading and didn't tell me about the annual fee even after I asked. It's a $39 annual fee and I DO NOT want to pay it. I just wanna cancel it but I'm worried about that affecting my credit. Can I beat it before it reports? It hasn't even been activated...Or is it worth it just to suck up the fee and buy a meal at McDonalds once a month and pay it in full until my credit is a lot better? Or should I picky? I do have Chase, RCU, Cap One, Wamu already...do I need HSBC? Or would it be worth it to keep it? Help me decide...can I negotiate for a waived membership fee for the first year or half the fee? I'll do whatever you experts say!
