What credit card should I get as my first?

[mapen]

Re: What credit card should I get as my first?

zff, no worry, sounds like you are doing it right. Paying the bill every month is the most important thing you can do to keep your score healthy.

The only thing that might be lowering your score is if you routinely exceed 50% of your total credit line. For example, if you have a $8000 credit line, and you are routinely charging over $4000 every month, or are owing more than $4000, then you might be lowering your credit score a bit. But going over 50% is a small ding compared to many other much more damaging things you could do, like maxing out the line or missing a payment.

The most important thing to keep your score up is to pay at least the minimum payment every month on schedule.

[alohakat]

Re: What credit card should I get as my first?

zff, as maypen said, probably no worries. If you want to be certain, get your card to increase your available credit to 2x what you normally charge per month, which they should be happy to do with such a good customer. But you probably have an excellent score if the reporting is hitting correctly. If you have a friend who's in the lending biz, have them pull your report for you even if they need to pass on their $15-20 charge, to see your true scores. Just make sure you can see the physical report & scores. A mortgage inquiry will hardly touch your score.

[Miulang]

Re: What credit card should I get as my first?

This is kinda scary: The Advertiser reported today that Alaska and Hawai'i consumers have more credit card debt racked up on their cards than consumers anywhere else in the country.

Experian said 17.4 percent of Hawai'i and Alaska residents use more than half of the credit available to them. The national average is 14.3 percent.

The study also found that Hawai'i consumers on average carry about 4.3 credit cards, or slightly more than the national average of 4.

"My concern is how much of this is just people scrambling trying to keep up with their daily lives," said Wendy Burkholder, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Hawaii executive director.

Burkholder said the average client comes in to her offices with about $18,000 of credit card debt. That's up from $12,000 to $14,000 a year and a half ago.

"That's a problem," she said.

....Other Experian data show Hawai'i consumers may be better than those nationally when it comes to managing their finances. The overall score for Hawai'i residents in its index assessing creditworthiness is 691. That compares with the average score of 673 for the nation as a whole.

Still, Burkholder said people need to be careful when it comes to credit cards and living in a culture that encourages people to "borrow and borrow and borrow."

Miulang

[Leo Lakio]

Re: What credit card should I get as my first?

This is kinda scary: The Advertiser reported today that Alaska and Hawai'i consumers have more credit card debt racked up on their cards than consumers anywhere else in the country.

Heh - send that to all the posters who ask about the costs of living in Hawai`i...

[craigwatanabe]

Re: What credit card should I get as my first?

This is kinda scary: The Advertiser reported today that Alaska and Hawai'i consumers have more credit card debt racked up on their cards than consumers anywhere else in the country.



Miulang

That is why I use Consumer Credit spending as my indicator as to how well our economy is doing. If credit spending tops out you'll see it by a gradual decline. When I see that reversal in credit spending trends, it usually means cards are tapped out and the robust economy starts to decline.

With more stringent bancruptcy laws in effect the ability to steer clear of forclosures and protecting assets become harder and harder. That can result in homelessness (which is what we're seeing now) but more likely a sharp drop in big ticket spending.

A sales associate at Sears Hilo told me their flat panel TV's didn't sell well prior to the Super Bowl or Christmas. At Home Depot we sold HD Plasmas in the 42-50" range and had a surplus after the holidays.

Home sales are flattening out and so are car sales. I think it's happening. Consumer credit lines are tapping out as inflation is still on the rise. Not a good mix of indicators here.