topic Re: If you knew then what you know now? in General Credit Topics

If you knew then what you know now?

masscredit — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 06:46:28 GMT

A lot of us are more knowledgeable about credit than we were years ago. I knew some of the general stuff but not all of the fine details. Now I can quickly list a bunch of dos and don'ts. It pretty much comes nature because it live it daily. At one time I'd fill out a credit app just to get the gift. Now I only take a HP if it's really needed for something that's important to me. I'd also let every card I had report whatever the balance was. Didn't matter how high. Then I would get loans for cars and jet skis and not even know that I should try to maximize my scores before I did that. And finally I'd top that off with a mortgage. It was credit here, there and everywhere. Funny thing is I'd get approved for everything. Now I'd make sure I have the best score possible before submitting an app. It was easier to get credit 10-15 years ago too. Now banks want to see good scores and low inquiries before they approve a loan.

One other thing I wish I would have done was keep track of my scores. I don't even know what they were. The only thing I cared about was getting approved when I wanted more credit. Now I have an ongoing list that shows everytime one of my scores go up or down. I've been doing that for the last few years.

What would you have done different?

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

dt3813 — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:19:44 GMT

I would have done a ton of things differently...TON!! The list is tooooo long.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

JcT21 — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 23:44:22 GMT

everything would be different. back in the day in my teens / twenties i didnt have a clue about anything. i didnt know what an inquiry was. i had no clue what a credit score was or that they even existed. didnt even know that collections hurt my chances of getting credit. creditors would call me and threaten to report adverse actions to the credit bureaus and that meant nothing to me. i just didnt understand how all this worked and didnt care. wasnt unitl i was in my late twenties, when i needed a mortgage, that i finally figured out how incredibly important good credit is and how stupid stupid stupid i had been when i was younger. my daughter is still too young to understand, but my son is now 21yrs old and i think ive done a good job teaching him how important it is to maintain a good credit rating. so far he is off to a great start. after a TON of work i am now exactly where i want/need to be as far as having good credit. for the first time in my life i can see a score of 790-800+ in my future. i just wish i had understood all this 25 years ago. one thing for sure my kids will understand how all this works and hopefully not make the same idiot mistakes i did.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

UncleB — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 00:05:55 GMT

Oh wow... where to start!

When I was young, I paid the minimum monthly payment on many of my cards, and I even knew just how far I could run them up before the payment changed. I practically 'accepted' that I would always have a payment - it was simply worked into my budget, without any consideration to the amount of interest I was paying (which was considerable).

Now, instead of me paying monthly interest, I PIF and the cards pay me monthly in cash rewards. I currently earn around $50 each month in cash rewards, which while not Earth-shattering it a far cry from paying hundreds a month in interest! Actually, the thought of paying even a few dollars in interest is so unsavory I'll go to great lengths not to do so (sometimes nearly to the point of being absurd, but it works for me).

During my recent rebuild I didn't know what 'gardening' was, but I was doing so unintentionally. Had I known then what I know now, I would have started trying to get new credit much earlier than I did. I erroneously thought that I didn't have any chances of getting credit, so I simply didn't try. Had I started earlier, it would have made my "come back" quite a bit faster.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 01:52:41 GMT

If I knew then what I know now...

1) I would have got credit a lot sooner. Instead I had to fight against the "credit is bad" mentality I was raised with and still surrounded with. They all told me if I got a credit card I would sink myself into a hole of debt. I proved them wrong. But it would have been a whole lot easier to prove them wrong if I hadn't waited until I direly needed credit before getting it. As it stands, my oldest card is still under 2yrs.

2) I would have requested a much higher starting limit. $750 is really quite low, as it turns out.

3) I would have apped more carefully. I had no concept of what a hard pull was, or the fact that just becuase I had a credit card didn't necessarily mean I had a credit score yet. I couldn't understand why I was being turned down for having no credit score, and why I was turned down for a CLI when I needed it (three tires blown in two months, plus 4 major emergency mechanical repairs...last winter was stupid rough).

4) I would have actually watched my utilization. I didn't realize it mattered! I thought that as long as I paid it off they would have no reason to care. I was constantly at 90+% UTI. I only ever paid interest twice, and kept on top of my finances, but not in a way that paid any attention to UTI. Once I began watching that my score shot up brilliantly from the low 600's to the 700's over the course of like 2 months.

5) I would have used bank loans rather than undocumented personal loans.

I am SO freakin' relieved to be on the right track, and it's all thanks to the smart folks here willing to share their knowledge and experiences. After a lot of research I apped smartly for one card and got it with a 15K SL, and the bonuses and 0% APR helped me save money in other ways. Which means now within a couple months or so I'll have saved up enough to take out a savings secured loan so that I have more of a mix than just the three credit cards, and then it'll be garden time.

I cannot begin to describe how good it feels to be so on top of things. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm homeless and live off of $733/month income. Seeing my score increase now through the 700's is a way of proving to myself that I'm doing a damn fine job of making life work. I love it!!

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

live-n-learn — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 04:44:17 GMT

I wouldn't have paid my cards late. It never really registered to me just how much damage late payments did to my credit. Just figured a 30 day late here and there was no biggie as long as it got paid off in the end. SMH... very immature of me . Even if the affects ware off you still have to look at them for 7 years and when a creditor reviews your credit profile they always manage to mention the past late payments.

I also wouldn't have closed all my credit cards when I decided to get serious about my credit. I was under the impression that in order get on track I needed to pay them off and cut them up.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

live-n-learn — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 04:47:46 GMT

@Batsy,

Your #5) I would have used bank loans rather than undocumented personal loans.

can you elaborate???

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 05:18:49 GMT

@live-n-learn wrote:
@Anonymous,

Your #5) I would have used bank loans rather than undocumented personal loans.

can you elaborate???

I've now had three loans that never reported, because they were all done informally, just friends/family loaning me money to get me out of a jam. The awesome thing about this is that they are easygoing about paying it back and aren't charging me interest. The less-than-awesome thing about it is as far as FICO is concerned I have zero history with loans.

In my particular situation, I suffered severe neurological disability for several years that rendered me incapable of handling any finances, so that task was delegated to my primary caregiver, who so happened to be my mother. Without my knowledge she overspent by compensating with her money under the assumption I would pay them back, so that when my health recovered enough to manage my own finances again I was told I was over $2,000 in debt to my parents.

The living situation with my parents went sideways when they had to adjust to me being capable of thinking for myself, worsening to the point that escape became imperative, even though I was still too disabled to work and couldn't afford to live elsewhere. Three friends of mine pooled together to loan me $5K, which I used to purchase a van, deck it out with some living essentials (e.g. fridge), and repay my parents right before jetting off to start a new life for myself on the streets--struggling, but free.

I'm not getting any love from FICO on any of these loans, because aside from a note in Social Security's records there's no documentation that the loans actually exist(ed). So now while I work on obtaining a credit-building installment loan, I'm simultaneously planning out how to pay back the 5K loans and just wishing I was getting some credit (heh) for doing so.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

live-n-learn — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 05:38:26 GMT

Wow, best of luck to you @Basty.

I was thinking you were referring to peer to peer loans being undocumented. "Well I guess in a sense your situation is still peer to peer". I understand now.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 05:58:10 GMT

@live-n-learn wrote:
@Anonymous, best of luck to you @Basty.
I was thinking you were referring to peer to peer loans being undocumented. "Well I guess in a sense your situation is still peer to peer". I understand now.

Thanks! Yes, it sounds like that's the terminology I was looking for. Still a bit new to this, sorry!

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 06:11:16 GMT

I wish the Internet existed when I was 18.

I realize what I was working against this Thanksgiving. My Mother announces at the table, "I've earned (several) hundred from my cash back card!" Oh really, how's that so? Delves the Bu Yao. "I've got that US Bank Card." What card is that, Ma? "I get ONE PERCENT cash back!" She beams.

Of course I was a #%^* child and replied "Ma, your scores and history can get better rewards than THAT!" And listed a slew of 1.5-5% cards we all know about here.

I wish the Internet existed when I was 18. It is my source to a cacophony of information outside my surroundings. I love my Ma, and I wish I would have studied FINANCE.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

mitchblue — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:41:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I wish the Internet existed when I was 18.

I realize what I was working against this Thanksgiving. My Mother announces at the table, "I've earned (several) hundred from my cash back card!" Oh really, how's that so? Delves the Bu Yao. "I've got that US Bank Card." What card is that, Ma? "I get ONE PERCENT cash back!" She beams.

Of course I was a #%^* child and replied "Ma, your scores and history can get better rewards than THAT!" And listed a slew of 1.5-5% cards we all know about here.

I wish the Internet existed when I was 18. It is my source to a cacophony of information outside my surroundings. I love my Ma, and I wish I would have studied FINANCE.

No doubt. Nothing to tell me applying for credit cards after credit cards and getting declined was bad for ya. I also wish there was someone who knew I had a card so they could tell me "You know you have to pay that back."

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 21:33:39 GMT

Depends on how far back "then" goes.....

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Grafton88 — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:06:47 GMT

#1 I wish MyFICO had been around when I was younger.

#2 I wish I had set up a financial plan when I was younger. When you set up a plan you have to set goals. Those goals help you focus on your real needs and not just some momentary got-to-have. Think of all the things you got that are now sitting in the closet.

One thing that I appreciate is that life sometimes gives you second chances. I am going to take that second chance and run with it.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 05:16:27 GMT

I definitely would have started building my credit earlier! I knew enough to get a credit card in college to start establishing history, but after an unpleasant situation with a relative stealing my identity, I decided the whole system was dangerous and evil, stopped using that card entirely, and didn't touch credit again for years--I wasn't entirely wrong there, but I was wrong to think I could opt out of that system without it being a problem down the road! It wasn't until 6 years later (less than 2 years ago) that I got a new credit card and started using it correctly. All in all it could have gone a lot worse, but if I'd had the foresight to open a few other accounts back then and keep them open, my AAoA would be much higher and more resilient than it is now.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

nawhop — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 06:56:43 GMT

OMG, UncleB, you sounded just like me. That's exactly how I was before and that now I am also almost obsessed with PIF and collecting cash backs and rebates. Also started gardening before going for a CC app spreed as well. LOL. I just started to rebuild my credit scores recently when I tried to get a mortgage and had a horrible experience with it. Wished I learned about this site earlier.

Re: If you knew then what you know now?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 21:08:08 GMT

GOOD for you and keep up the good work!!