Curious what kinds of silly credit mistakes you guys have made before you knew as much about the ins and outs of credit as you know now.
I've got lots, but here's one of my, eermmm... "favorites".
Years ago, in the early 2010's, I used to take my paycheck into Chase every week to deposit it with a bank teller. Almost every time, they would tell me "Just to let you know, you're prequalified for such and such card if you're interested," and every time I would sigh at what I perceived to be an annoying sales pitch and would just say "No, just here to deposit my check, thanks."
Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k
Total SL: $78k
My by far biggest one is waaaay back when I got my first card after college. It was from a local CU (of which I'm still a member) for a small SL, and I didn't manage it very well. I would charge stuff to it, mostly little things, if I was short on funds with the idea that I would pay it back "later". I maxed it out after about two years of that, and it got closed a few months later for being overlimit. My State Farm agent upsold me on one of their cc's for a balance transfer, and I moved back in with my parents for about a year to pay it off. That taught me some big lessons about how to use credit, most especially that if you are going to carry a balance, you need a budget and a plan to pay it back. I've been a mostly strict transactor ever since.
My silly credit mistake (mostly ignorance) was that I thought if I paid the minimum balance, and didn't make any other purchases, I could pay off the balanced owed. My dad explained it would take many, many years because interest is added to the balance. It was later I realized he was correct. Now credit card statements show you how long it will take and how much interest you will pay. Didn't have that when I started my credit journey.
- After having my secured card for over a year, I applied for a gas station credit card thinking my scores wouldn't support a real credit card. In retrospect, I had scores and solid history, I probably could've skipped the gas card and apply for the Amex BCE that I got a whole year after that. Now the gas card is my oldest active account and it sits there unused almost always.
- Also, after 2 years of solid credit history, I app'd for 2 cards and waited another to add another card. In retrospect, I should have had 2 cards and a 1.5 years of AAOA, app'd for 3 cards, and then 6 months later app'd for 3 more.
- My strategy of waiting a long while in between apps is great for maximizing scores and SL's but is not great for building a strong root AAOA. I'm just now over 4 years AAOA after ~9 years of credit history. Had I applied for my entire profile by year 4, my AAOA would probably be over 6 years at this point.
Must garden until 2/1/2022 to hit my goal AAOA. 
@AZ-Jeff wrote:My silly credit mistake (mostly ignorance) was that I thought if I paid the minimum balance, and didn't make any other purchases, I could pay off the balanced owed. My dad explained it would take many, many years because interest is added to the balance. It was later I realized he was correct. Now credit card statements show you how long it will take and how much interest you will pay. Didn't have that when I started my credit journey.
20-30 years, in most cases 
@SecretAzure wrote:
- Also, after 2 years of solid credit history, I app'd for 2 cards and waited another to add another card. In retrospect, I should have had 2 cards and a 1.5 years of AAOA, app'd for 3 cards, and then 6 months later app'd for 3 more.
- My strategy of waiting a long while in between apps is great for maximizing scores and SL's but is not great for building a strong root AAOA. I'm just now over 4 years AAOA after ~9 years of credit history. Had I applied for my entire profile by year 4, my AAOA would probably be over 6 years at this point.
That's a great point. I used that strategy when I rebuilt my credit years ago, and it helped a lot with maintaining a long AAOA when applying for new cards. That actually brings me to another lesson I learned the hard way:
When I was younger, 20ish years old, I (like many of us) had poor credit habits, and eventually I just gave up on paying anything at all, and let everything default. That in and of itself is an obvious screw-up, but the biggest lesson I learned from that is that even if you have to fall behind and let stuff go into default, don't let everything go into default! Keep at least one or two accounts current - it makes rebuilding later MUCH EASIER.
When I screwed up my credit again about 4-5 years ago, I took that lesson to heart and kept my car and my Citi credit card current, while everything else went into default. Once I started rebuilding, it was sooooooooo much easier with already having 2 open, good-standing, aged accounts on my report. As soon as I paid off my last delinquent, I was able to completely skip the whole secured card / predatory lender phase of rebuilding, and go straight into Chase Sapphire territory. That strategy knocked YEARS off of how long it would've taken to rebuild.
I would have tried to get a credit card a little sooner and also use it more.
I didn't have any interest in a credit cards when I was young. I literally would go weekly to the ATM to get cash out after getting a job at 16. I got my first credit card when I was about 21 around 2006. Even after getting it (PNC Points) I would still not use it much and always get cash out. I don't even remember getting a SUB for it. I got it at the same time I signed a loan for a new car after the PNC loan person tried to tempt me into applying for a credit card. I told them I was denied previously a month or 2 ago, so they left the room and came back and said they got me approved.
Cut to around 2014ish, when I got my second credit card (BoA CR) and got a SUB, I realized I should always put everything on a credit card that I would have paid with cash. I always PIF, so it is free money back to me.
Nowadays, I carry a $20 bill for emergencies and very rarely go to an ATM. Pretty much straight credit card purchases.
