@rootpooty wrote:
Please note im still new to plastic and what not being for the past 12 years since I turned 18 lived on cash only purchases. How is it bad to use your debit card for purchases?
You need to gain positive history with credit cards and show usage in order for your credit to imporve.
@LS2982 wrote:
@rootpooty wrote:
Please note im still new to plastic and what not being for the past 12 years since I turned 18 lived on cash only purchases. How is it bad to use your debit card for purchases?You need to gain positive history with credit cards and show usage in order for your credit to imporve.
+ 1.. +ve history...history..history
@Odiseous wrote:
@LS2982 wrote:
@rootpooty wrote:
Please note im still new to plastic and what not being for the past 12 years since I turned 18 lived on cash only purchases. How is it bad to use your debit card for purchases?You need to gain positive history with credit cards and show usage in order for your credit to imporve.
+1
You can buy your way into a car loan, with a large enough down payment (and outrageous APR).
But, when it comes to getting a mortgage, you *have* to have credit history.
+1
You can buy your way into a car loan, with a large enough down payment (and outrageous APR).
But, when it comes to getting a mortgage, you *have* to have credit history.
That's actually not true... if you have 3-20% down (depending on your program), you can finance a house @ normal rates w/ a ZERO credit score / history. I, unfortunatley have a BK on my report, which is decidedly NOT a zero, so I have to rebuild to get a home loan. Else, I wouldn't use credit. Ever. (See "Total Money Makeover")
There's nothing wrong w/ using debit to pay for everything. In fact, if you lack the disaprin, it might be the best choice.
@SoulMaster wrote:+1
You can buy your way into a car loan, with a large enough down payment (and outrageous APR).
But, when it comes to getting a mortgage, you *have* to have credit history.
@Anonymous's actually not true... if you have 3-20% down (depending on your program), you can finance a house @ normal rates w/ a ZERO credit score / history. I, unfortunatley have a BK on my report, which is decidedly NOT a zero, so I have to rebuild to get a home loan. Else, I wouldn't use credit. Ever. (See "Total Money Makeover")
There's nothing wrong w/ using debit to pay for everything. In fact, if you lack the disaprin, it might be the best choice.
Nein, take it from a reformed cash-based existance person: stop using that debit card except in emergencies. Carry a credit card (whichever one you're running your life through currently) and twenty bucks and see how long you can keep that $20 in your pocket for. Two cards if one is an Amex charge card, YMMV.
Sure, you can get various first-time buyer loans with a thin file, but it's a massive hassle (paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork), but when you want to go buy a car, sigh. Unless you can float the 25k+ for a "nice" new family sedan OTD, go build a credit rating somehow. I was in that position back in 2000 where I just threw cash at an Acura TL, but I'm not there now, not by a long shot.
Sure, I never worried about things, and still really don't: my income today outstrips by spending by several thousand dollars post-tax every month, because I don't have anything expensive in my life, but let's look at where things went wrong:
1) It's harder for me to get a job with crappy credit history. I don't quite know how I got my current one at a financial services firm (auto loans) recognized the world over, but I did. I got flat out denied elsewhere in part by the credit history... and even got letters to that effect afterwards as mandated by Federal law.
2) Auto insurance is more expensive, by like double, maybe triple. Personally I suspect I'd save around $500+ a year on insurance with a good credit history.
3) It's one of the most humiliating things in the world to try to rent a crappy appartment that you could write the rent for 7 years in advance out of your checking account, and have the landlord look at your report, start shaking his (or her in my case) head, mumbling I don't know... regardless of offering to pay a year in advance right then and there, or even offering to go right down the street to get a cashiers check.
Sure owning a home can be done, especially in the current economic environment where government and charitable assistance abound, but there's no guaruntee those are going to be there in even 5 years.
Credit scores, right wrong or indifferent, are going to become increasingly common to judge people by: I say this as a reformed cash (debit) user whose numbers on his debit card are rubbed down to the base - do yourself and any future family you have a favor, and show the bureaucrats what they're looking to see - a good credit score, and it's a path to a lot more income stability and other benefits later. All it takes is a minor change in your habits and acting responsibly with it.
I almost agree with you 100%. I said it was possible... I didn't say it was easy.
-SM
@SoulMaster wrote:<snip> I said it was possible... I didn't say it was easy.
-SM
Quoted for truth! I wouldn't wish that difficulty on anyone though.