I wish they'd denied him a credit card

[Argus]

The trick is to only use it when you have the cash and pay it right after you order.

I've only had to pay credit card interest once in my life. (I think I misplaced the bill that month.)

[Racket_Man]

If you buy stuff online it never hurts to have a credit card to use instead of your debit. Makes sure in case of fraud all your cash isnt gone while the bank investigates.

The trick is to only use it when you have the cash and pay it right after you order.

this is what I do. for most purchases I make in town, I use my Debt card. for on-line stuff ALWAYS use a CC

[Nunavut Pants]

Are you sure it is still a $1500 limit?

Oh, it eventually went up. I never asked for it to, so I didn't keep track of that. Didn't charge much on it for a long while. Eventually closed it because I started using airline miles cards.

My limits definitely got slashed when I had to walk away from a mortgage, though. The housing bubble pop was a stressful and difficult time for me...

[EricKei]

...And yet, one of the major factors affecting your credit score is what percentage of your total limit (across ALL of your CC's (and other lines of credit??)) you are using; under 30% is the general idea, preferably lower than that. Having a much higher limit than you actually need helps with this, but it has the major problem of simply being there, encouraging people to use it when not needed. Note that one possible solution is multiple cards with the (low) limit that you actually want, and just rotate which one you use/keep in your wallet (change it every month) so they don't just cancel on you. Naturally, pay off the one you're using 100% every single month.

[ReverendBSB]

I've only had to pay credit card interest once in my life. (I think I misplaced the bill that month.)

When I had some trouble with alcohol a few years ago I managed to run up several cards and got in a big hole. Was paying massive amounts of interest. Finally we put a mortgage on the house (paid cash for) and paid it off. Since then we still have some high limit cards but they are paid off every month. And the wife and I both hover around an 800 score.

[RealUnimportant]

I made the mistake of letting them up my limit, then assuming that this must mean I was good for it, that some calculations had shown that my incomings and outgoings would balance out. Hah, oh poor naive fool. Last time I consolidated everything I also intended to reduce my limit, and as it happened they requested doing that as a condition of issuing the consolidation, so we were both happy. They've not offered me an increase since, and I've not gotten anywhere near the limit again, so everyone has remained happy - for the first time since receiving my first card, I have more in saved balances than in owing balances, and unless I somehow manage to get a mortgage to buy somewhere it should stay that way!

[taxguykarl]

This sounds like Mrs. TGK's BK with her ex-h. He confused credit with income and proceeded to max out every credit line they had. When I was cleaning out our safe, I found her BK court papers. If she and her ex were willing to tighten their belts, they could have easily paid those debts off.
I pay off my balances now. I had problems before.
As for the OP, I suspect that the custy may have recently came off a bankruptcy; thus, the decision makers knew that they could overcharge him for several years. Cash advances typically have a higher interest than purchases.

[Buzzard]

There's also the bit about not being able to declare another bankruptcy for ...7 years, I believe, which is a LONG time that he's on the hook. It's higher-risk lending, so the rates are even higher.

[Bandit]

I've got one low-limit CC that I almost never use, and one higher limit one that I use for - well - just about everything because it gives me (basically) free food when I'm out on the road for business.

It gets paid off the day that I get paid after a job, and sets me up for more free food for the next trip.

I got caught in the CC/payday trap once. Never again.

B

[skeptic53]

Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I was in college, you had to have worked full-time for a year to get a credit card. I never qualified, not even for a gasoline company card. I served 2 years in Peace Corps, didn't count. When I got into med school, I was turned down for a Guaranteed Student Loan (Guaranteed! By the feds!). I had to get my parents to cosign. THEY were turned down, because the only debt they had was a tiny mortgage. They had to get a letter of credit from their bank. Then, the issuing bank took a $500 "loan origination" fee out of the $5000 loan. So I owed $5000 but only had the use of $4500. I had absolute fits financing med school and almost joined the military in my last year, but I lucked into a scholarship.

I graduated, started internship in Connecticut. I had a housemate who had found a fabulous house to rent, I felt indebted to him for inviting me to be a housemate. He wanted to go halves on the purchase of a sailboat. I figured I'd humor him and apply for a boat loan, no way I'd get a freaking boat loan, I'd only been working 1 month. But now I had MD after my name and it was a local bank, bada-bing, bada-boom I was half owner of a sailboat for which I had no free time to sail. I also got my first credit card, the first time I used it was to pay for a restaurant meal. The waiter copied down the number, someone used it to buy $5000 worth of electronics from Crazy Eddy in New York, had it shipped to a vacant house. So my first charge ever I ended up having to dispute. It took months, the card company rejected the police report as insufficient, I was able to get the restaurant owner to corroborate the theft (he had fired the waiter).

Fast forward to 7 years ago. I had divorced and remarried, we really stretched our budget to buy a house. Money was very tight, then the furnace died. We applied for a $10,000 home improvement loan to buy a heat pump. The credit union to which I had belonged for 28 years refused the loan. I could only reach the assistant loan officer, who for 8 weeks kept telling me the loan officer required a "document from the court" attesting that I was, in fact, paying the required alimony to my ex. First, the alimony payments were on autopay monthly FROM THAT CREDIT UNION. Second, the courts only get involved if you DON'T pay your alimony. The court clerk just laughed when I asked for the document the loan officer wanted. Could I talk to the loan officer? Could I email them? No and no. I sent a snail mail with copies of bank statements with the alimony checks highlighted, they finally waived the "document from the court" nonsense. Then, they noticed I was a partner in a medical practice. They wanted tax returns and financial statements from all 25 of my partners. For a $10K home improvement loan. I said no, we got the loan elsewhere.

I'm sorry, Ghel, but I'm not a fan of the financial industry...

[EricKei]

I had a gas card waaaay back in college. Very low limit - maybe enough to get a couple full tanks at any given time. Always kept up with it; canceled it after a couple years, as the local shops for them had shut down anyway. It was not only paid off, but I had over paid as of that time. I never had any luck getting the overage refunded (it was like $15, so nbd).

Fast forward five years, and they put a collections note on my credit report (...for the money they owed ME?!?), which I promptly and successfully disputed. Never heard from them again.

FWIW lads, lasses, and so on: Don't be afraid to file disputes if there's some bullshit on your account. It's on the CREDITOR to prove the legitimacy of the debt, generally speaking. Do it for all of the credit agencies, too (US: Experian, Transunion, Equifax). You can also correct details such as incorrect addresses and names on there, as well; I've had to do so.

[Ghel]

I'm sorry, Ghel, but I'm not a fan of the financial industry...

No need to apologize, I get it! There are some hinky lenders out there. I've gotten some of my best customers because they were screwed over by other banks.

FWIW lads, lasses, and so on: Don't be afraid to file disputes if there's some bullshit on your account. It's on the CREDITOR to prove the legitimacy of the debt, generally speaking. Do it for all of the credit agencies, too (US: Experian, Transunion, Equifax). You can also correct details such as incorrect addresses and names on there, as well; I've had to do so.

Yes, absolutely! And if you live in the US, be sure to get your free credit report once a year (annualcreditreport.com) and check for anything that doesn't look right. You'll be glad when you go to apply for a loan or credit card (or to rent an apartment, or anything else where they pull your credit).

[Sparklyturtle]

I got myself into trouble with credit cards, and got a second job to earn extra money. Paid the cards off and canceled most of them years ago.

[MadMike]

Don't be afraid to file disputes if there's some bullshit on your account.

I had to do that twice, but not for the reasons most people would have to.

The first one had to do with when I first bought my house. The mortgage was originated by one company and then immediately sold to another company. I didn't know this until I did a refinance, but both loans were showing up on my credit report. It wasn't causing any problems that I knew of, but I was concerned that it was showing me as being roughly in twice as much debt as I actually was. Problem was, by the time I found out, the original company had gone out of business and had been bought out by another company, who was later bought out by a third company. I tried calling them and explaining the situation, but no one there could find any record of my original loan. Eventually, I decided to attack it from the other end and file a dispute with the three credit bureaus. Within a couple weeks, I got a letter saying the original mortgage had been removed from my report.

The second one was much less interesting. I managed to get some things paid off and I refinanced my 30-year mortgage to a 15-year with a much lower rate. My credit report showed one of my previous addresses as a place I had never lived, but one of my friends did. The only thing I can think of was I let her use me as a reference awhile back, and her address at the time must have somehow gotten mixed up with my history. Since I wasn't disputing an actual debt, they removed that without any trouble. And I don't know what issues it would have caused me, if any, but since it was incorrect info, I wanted it removed.

[EricKei]

I find that the free service Credit Karma (for EF/TU) can be quite useful; experian has their own such site. They keep track of your score (for free, just ignore the ads begging you to sign up for paid services), as well as providing you with indications of what may be harming or helping your score.

IMPORTANT NOTE: CK uses the VantageScore to calculate your rating, rather than the more widely-used FICO score. None of these sites should be treated as the be-all and end-all, of course. Just use them as basic guidelines. Keep on snagging the yearly free full reports from each one while yer at it. If you can, ask a prospective lender which agency's score they use when checking your credit; more importantly, which ones they REPORT to. 5 solid years of "no missed payments" on a mortgage where your bank only reports the results to TU doesn't do a damn bit of good if you need to buy a used car and their lender only checks Experian.