financial bricks

I am not alone one this one my credit at one time or another possibly now is NOT GOOD and I am being generous. I have never filed for b-rupcy, but I pay more interest on my car than most people do on a credit card. That is some personal information but still. I have been working on a plan for the past four years. I have not owned a credit card since 2001 due to my complusive shopping nature and lack of understanding on how to use one well i created all these money problems for myself and I decided to sentence myself to abot five years of no credit. I am in my fourth year and apparently the credit card companies are willing to let me off early for good behavior. Normally I ignore credit card adds but capital one was sending me two letters a day. I do my little application and they give me a small credit line.

This is my financial brick after almost ten years of mismanaging my finances I am going to attempt to use this card as one of the building blocks of my financial future. Credit is so important in this world it can mean the difference in getting to work or not or buying a home or not and I am nto tryin to be one of the "or not" people anymore.

Anyone else been rebuilding credit or just beging building their credit?

[Cheese Biscuit]

M_I_M, I have good credit but need to contact two or three credit card companies and have them officially close my account. I have cards that I have never used.

Even when you decide that you're never going to use the card etc., the credit card company should be asked to close the account so that the credit reporting companies can code your credit report accordingly. It looks better when the account is closed at the request of the customer. If the account isn't closed by the customer, I believe it's still considered an open account even if you've never used the card or the card has expired. I'm not ready to get my free credit reports yet.



I'm happy that you have straightened out your credit. Maybe you can talk to some of the younger people that you are in contact with and encourage them to learn money management. I've been told that people mess up their credit while in college. Those credit card offers just won't stop. The credit card companies send just about everybody credit card offers. People mess up their credit and will turn around and use the name of a minor child and mess things up for the child too.

[saraphen]

My youngest son, aged 26, has absolutely horrendous credit. He probably owes money to every telephone company, video store, electric or gas utility in the state. About 18 months ago he started working for a mortgage company, and got his state license as a loan officer about a year ago. I never thought anybody would grant him that license, given his credit history...and they do check it.

But it has meant a real turn-around for him. Suddenly all my preaching to him over the years is starting to mean something. He had just about given up on himself due to his credit, but after seeing his own credit report (He owes about $3000, here and there), and then seeing the credit reports of people who are successfully buying houses, it has made him realize that his credit is not that bad after all. And he has started cleaning up his stuff and started building a good credit history.

He has even helped clients clean up their credit. (Surprised the stuff out of me) He sees people with over $10,000 in credit card debt who are able to get a mortgage, and he has set a goal to buy his first house within the next year.

[therealisticlady]

I do have a couple of credit cards but the trick with credit cards is to pay them off immediately. I always make sure that at the start of every monthly billing cycle my balance is zero. Credit cards are a good thing to have because in the future I think paper money will be just about extinct. Heck I found out the welfare benefits are now paid on debit cards. Go figure!

[Cheese Biscuit]

Money will probably never be extinct because there are too many people out there without a j-o-b. Without the existence of money, people employed in banks would also be without a job.

[Cheese Biscuit]

Saraphen, the story about your son brings a :) to my face.

[charliekilothree]

Originally Posted by saraphen

My youngest son, aged 26, has absolutely horrendous credit. He probably owes money to every telephone company, video store, electric or gas utility in the state. About 18 months ago he started working for a mortgage company, and got his state license as a loan officer about a year ago. I never thought anybody would grant him that license, given his credit history...and they do check it.

But it has meant a real turn-around for him. Suddenly all my preaching to him over the years is starting to mean something. He had just about given up on himself due to his credit, but after seeing his own credit report (He owes about $3000, here and there), and then seeing the credit reports of people who are successfully buying houses, it has made him realize that his credit is not that bad after all. And he has started cleaning up his stuff and started building a good credit history.

He has even helped clients clean up their credit. (Surprised the stuff out of me) He sees people with over $10,000 in credit card debt who are able to get a mortgage, and he has set a goal to buy his first house within the next year.

That's great what your son has done. $3000 was/is not really bad as far as debt is concerned. The main thing about people with poor or bad credit is they usually end up paying higher interest rates for loans and mortgages than people with good credit pay.

[saraphen]

One of the tricks to cleaning up debts is negotiating a lower payoff. A lot of people with no health insurance have outstanding medical bills, emergency room bills. The health provider sends them to a collection agency, then they write them off on their income taxes. So they have already gotten some benefit from the unpaid bill, and they are often willing to take a much smaller payoff.