What is your absolute worst mistake with credit cards?

[Callandra]

Honestly for me, waiting so long to start building my history. I started with a car loan (co-signed with my Dad) in April of 2013 at the ripe old age of 28. I've been lucky to be able to get good cards on my own but I wish I hadn't waited so long. I wish I had started back in college but all I cared about back then was moving to Japan so never bothered. Then it was pointless to try to build history there and I never really thought about it (although I did wind up getting a Japan based card for convenience reasons) until I moved back. 

Get started early and get started right! 

[SOGGIE]

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@Callandra wrote:

Honestly for me, waiting so long to start building my history. I started with a car loan (co-signed with my Dad) in April of 2013 at the ripe old age of 28. I've been lucky to be able to get good cards on my own but I wish I hadn't waited so long. I wish I had started back in college but all I cared about back then was moving to Japan so never bothered. Then it was pointless to try to build history there and I never really thought about it (although I did wind up getting a Japan based card for convenience reasons) until I moved back. 

Get started early and get started right! 

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Not too bad of a mistake Callandra. Yes...this is good advice to others. Thanks for sharing!

[Anonymous]

My father died when i was 22 (8years ago), and he had a 20-25 year old Amex (cant remember exactly) with a huge cl. They offered me or my brother the opportunity to take over the card, if we paid his balance. Think it was around a few thousand or so. Both of us regret not taking it when we had the chance, as we've both become myfico'ers and now know the AAOA wouldve been amazzing for our credit! Oh well... Hoping now that ive crossed 660-670s on all three, ill soon get in on my own, for a much smaller limit of course.

Thats just one of my credit regrets.. Another is opening too many (3) sct cards.

[SOGGIE]

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@Anonymous wrote:
My father died when i was 22 (8years ago), and he had a 20-25 year old Amex (cant remember exactly) with a huge cl. They offered me or my brother the opportunity to take over the card, if we paid his balance. Think it was around a few thousand or so. Both of us regret not taking it when we had the chance, as we've both become myfico'ers and now know the AAOA wouldve been amazzing for our credit! Oh well... Hoping now that ive crossed 660-670s on all three, ill soon get in on my own, for a much smaller limit of course.

Thats just one of my credit regrets.. Another is opening too many (3) sct cards.

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Ouch! Yes that is a bummer. Well that's to bad you didn't app for an Amex before they ceased backdating the Member Since date. Thanks for sharing and I wish you the best of luck when you app for the Amex card!

[Anonymous]

Biggest mistake I ever made was letting my oldest tradeline card go stagnant and getting closed by Bank of America. I was incredibly lucky though, that I noticed the issue and called them. They were able to reinstate the account, which is totally unusual for any provider to do. Granted I had to escalate to a manager to do it, but they did it.

It also took disputing separately with all three bureaus to get them to report the account as "open" again, but it now shows as open on all 3 with my original open date. I'm lucky!

Outside of that, I'd say probably waiting too long to snag some good rewards/travel cards. I wasted a few years putting spend on Amex Blue Cash even as their once-great rewards structure started to decline. Not only did this impact me financially but it also dragged down my AAoA, as I wisened up and started app'ing for some good cards only in the past couple of years. I'm trying to open up as little as possible now so that my AAOA can improve and I can solidly score 800+ on all three bureaus.

[Anonymous]

I made a few mistakes just days before finding MyFico. This whole thing started when I got a prequal for WalMart store card in the mail. I apped and got it. Then I apped for Amazon store card, because I didn't think that I would qualify for any major cards. I got it. Then I apped for the Chase Amazon card and got denied. Then I apped for QS1 (via CK) and got it. Then I really started researching and decided that I needed a few more bank cards to round out my history. I apped for the Cap One Platinum and got it. If I had it to do all over again, I would not have wasted the pulls on WalMart, Amazon, or Chase Amazon, and I would have apped back to back for the Cap One cards to use the same HPs. If I had found MF a few days sooner, I would not have these store cards that I don't need, and I would have less inquiries. Dang it.

[SOGGIE]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Biggest mistake I ever made was letting my oldest tradeline card go stagnant and getting closed by Bank of America. I was incredibly lucky though, that I noticed the issue and called them. They were able to reinstate the account, which is totally unusual for any provider to do. Granted I had to escalate to a manager to do it, but they did it.

It also took disputing separately with all three bureaus to get them to report the account as "open" again, but it now shows as open on all 3 with my original open date. I'm lucky!

Outside of that, I'd say probably waiting too long to snag some good rewards/travel cards. I wasted a few years putting spend on Amex Blue Cash even as their once-great rewards structure started to decline. Not only did this impact me financially but it also dragged down my AAoA, as I wisened up and started app'ing for some good cards only in the past couple of years. I'm trying to open up as little as possible now so that my AAOA can improve and I can solidly score 800+ on all three bureaus.

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Thanks for sharing! Luckily you were able to get the BOA account reinstated. Now others can be informed that they may possibly have this option as well.

[Anonymous]

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@SOGGIE wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Biggest mistake I ever made was letting my oldest tradeline card go stagnant and getting closed by Bank of America. I was incredibly lucky though, that I noticed the issue and called them. They were able to reinstate the account, which is totally unusual for any provider to do. Granted I had to escalate to a manager to do it, but they did it.

It also took disputing separately with all three bureaus to get them to report the account as "open" again, but it now shows as open on all 3 with my original open date. I'm lucky!

Outside of that, I'd say probably waiting too long to snag some good rewards/travel cards. I wasted a few years putting spend on Amex Blue Cash even as their once-great rewards structure started to decline. Not only did this impact me financially but it also dragged down my AAoA, as I wisened up and started app'ing for some good cards only in the past couple of years. I'm trying to open up as little as possible now so that my AAOA can improve and I can solidly score 800+ on all three bureaus.

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Thanks for sharing! Luckily you were able to get the BOA account reinstated. Now others can be informed that they may possibly have this option as well.

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Yep, very lucky. I think they have a 60-day, or maybe 90-day, can't remember, window where they will allow re-instatements. I was about 7 days outside their window, and the frontline CSR said that because of the CARD Act terms, basically they couldn't reinstate my card because there are new terms associatd with CARD Act and my old card was grandfathered in, I guess some kind of liability thing. When I went up to the manager, she read me the new terms and I said "OK" to them, and she also informed me that using the card once yearly is sufficient. I was honest with her and said that it's my oldest tradeline and I didn't want to lose it, and wanted to remain a customer.

It actually ended up being a good business decision for them too, as I now actually use the card regularly, just for gas at the 3% payout rate, before I wasn't using it as I hadn't wisened up to the benefits on the card :-)

[jetsfan2013]

Being too prideful to call my credit card companies years back when I was laid off to ask for payment arrangements to avoid 30 day lates.

[SOGGIE]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I made a few mistakes just days before finding MyFico. This whole thing started when I got a prequal for WalMart store card in the mail. I apped and got it. Then I apped for Amazon store card, because I didn't think that I would qualify for any major cards. I got it. Then I apped for the Chase Amazon card and got denied. Then I apped for QS1 (via CK) and got it. Then I really started researching and decided that I needed a few more bank cards to round out my history. I apped for the Cap One Platinum and got it. If I had it to do all over again, I would have wasted the pulls on WalMart, Amazon, or Chase Amazon, and I would have apped back to back for the Cap One cards to use the same HPs. If I had found MF a few days sooner, I would not have these store cards that I don't need, and I would have less inquiries. Dang it.

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Not too bad Annipoo. Yes...Goes without argument that MyFICO Forums are a powerful--with the enormous wealth of knowledge floating around in the threads. Glad you shared this with us. Thanks!