Good way to improve your credit score.
 

Found this out recently regarding revolving credit (credit cards other than American Express). Credit agencies give you a nice bump if your revolving debt is less than 30% of your credit limit.

I have two Visa cards with a total credit limit of $21,500. After selling the house I paid them both down quite a bit. I currently owe $4,547 on them which is 21% of my credit limit.

My Fico score went up almost 40 points just by getting below 30%!

Sorry man, but if I hadn't seen it was you who started this thread I would have thought "SPAM!" right away....

A better way to improve your credit score:
https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/ima...ult_mobile.jpg

If you have a lot of debts and aren't sure about how to pay them down fast: https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/get-...-snowball-plan

I think Fight Club had this covered.

You don’t you just pay them off completely?

Actually it's better to have some debt and pay it off monthly, on time. Weird but true. Never being late on a payment is a huge factor in your credit rating.

Not weird that capitalism rewards you for being subservient.

You should already have a pretty lengthy history of that with your mortgage payments and previous payments. Paying them down but keeping them open so that you have a few credit lines open will accomplish the same thing and similarly decrease your DTI.

You sign up for a card and agree to the terms. They let you spend money you don't have. You just have to pay them back on time. Pretty simple actually.

Stop using big words. It doesn't suit you.

At this point why pay interest on money that should be earning interest?

Hmm. Good point. Gotta think on this one. Financially, sometimes I think I'm still 30.

As far as I ever see credit cards are either a way to exploit people desperate enough to put life expenses on a credit card even if they can't afford it or a way to facilitate conspicuous consumption.

Nice big words there Mr. Smarty Pants.

Tha nks, dud e.

I shop Amazon a lot. I have an Amazon CC which makes it easy.

Agree though. Walk through any college and every bulletin board will have CC offers. Kids aren't even making money yet and the vultures want to reel them in. It's an epidemic. That's why we need banking regulations.

Unfortunately the politician's won't allow it cause..

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I'd be curious to find out what percentage of credit card company money comes from responsible, financially stable people who don't get caught up in a spiral of debt and how much comes from the people who get screwed.

And when they do allow it, it's incoherent and ends up ****ing over the consumer because they let their lobbyist buddies have a swipe at it first.

10% - responsible
90% - irresponsible

Handing an in debt person free money is like handing a junkie a free hit.

Been there, done that.

Fortunately as you get older, and hopefully clean up your act, the interest rates on CC's come way down. Those college offers are going to be well over 20%. I'm paying about 5% on both of my cards.

It's basically a loan shark scheme. Instead of getting your legs broken if you don't pay on time, your ability to buy a home, rent a place, get a car, etc. gets its ass broken.

Where's Elliot Ness when you need him.

Why is it the company's fault if youre irresponsible with money?

Poorly disclosed terms?

The point is the companies shouldn't be able to entice young, naive, financially inexperienced, and stupid people, by waving a cash carrot in front of their noses.

There should be some regulations in regard to the CC pimping.

Can you be more specific? What do you think needs to be better clarified or explained in their term agreements?

So how do you feel about sugary cereal on the low shelves and McDonalds commercials?

Where the cardholder doesn't understand the terms of their agreement. A couple of examples would be adjustable rates and mandatory spending terms. Then there's deceptive practice such as "innovative" APR calculations that leave out fees because they've outsourced those fees to a 3rd party (who the CC company pays on your behalf, of course).

Credit card companies aren't traditionally the most transparent businesses. They'll push an excited kid through a contract that they know they don't entirely understand. It's manipulative.

Neither will someday impact my ability to buy a home.

So you think if you sign up for something you don't understand, that you should be removed of responsibility?

Sounds a lot like the people who got fat from eating McDonalds because they didn't understand that consuming a big mac for every meal was bad for your health. Why do you feel that CCs deserve some sort of exceptional treatment?

Most marketing is manipulative, their motivation is to sell.

I'd argue that health costs and the general terrible health of the American population is as big if not a bigger concern than owning your own home.

If I don't understand it on account of someone being intentionally deceptive or not making the whole contract transparent, then absolutely.

I get what you're trying to do. I'm looking at a single issue at the moment. It's way too easy to muddy the waters. Question: Should CC banks be allowed to advertise on college campuses?

Leave Big Macs out of your response please.

To be clear, I'm not sure I actually disagree, I just have trouble wrapping my head around why there should be an exception. My gut reaction is to revile any company that takes advantage of it's customers, but that'd be an emotional response and I ain't got time for that shit.

I think it's perfectly reasonable because I like logical consistency and the two are mostly analogous.

Edit: Yes, to your question.

I can appreciate this, I've never read the terms on my CCs to see if this kind of thing is happens. If it was actually clarified and transparent, do you think that the customer should than be wholly responsible?

Fair enough.

Are you equating logical consistency with every rule, every law, every crime, every sentence, every dictate, every mandate, everything?

Eating a Big Mac = ****ing over your financial future.

It's a fine analogy. Eating a big mac feels and tastes good when you do it initially but has bad long term repercussions. Spending irresponsibly with a credit card is fun initially until you reach the long term repercussions. Neither will do you in if you do them very rarely, but if you're dong it consistently then you're writing your death sentence.

No, the question is why one business is excused from selling things bad for their customers while the other isnt. Big macs **** over your future health, credit cards **** over your future finances.. Neither are good for you if youre not educated about what youre doing and yet the fast food and unhealthy food companies get a pass while CC companies do not (within the criticisms expressed in this thread), and both have savage advertising $.

There’s a long standing tradition of business ethics dating back to the Bible. Our bankers are very educated and know how laws have changed. They know what’s usury and predatory lending and they know that as bankers they have a responsibility to community members who are less educated or more prone to succumb to human nature and live irresponsibly for a time. They’re supposed to help communities build within reason not profiteer from endless cycles of debt that are very hard to escape.

That just seems like a bunch of expectations you place on them and not the reality of how they function. The only thing I expect from any company is for them to try and make money, rather their ethical or not is something you should probably consider before entering into a business deal with them.

Also, read the discussion since that post :D

You can’t file bankruptcy against diabetes and heart disease.

Fast food and sugar smacks do market themselves in an unethical manner but the framework for ethical lending goes back for centuries so we have agreed upon standards.

Not everybody is lucky enough to have your education.

Well dang you got me there. I guess credit cards are better than McDonald's because McDonald's doesn't have safeguards.

@Frown - It also bankrupts you with health expenses but lets ignore that for convenience sake.

@OH - Please show these agreed upon standards.

Also, I'm ignorant to finance and economics, my education would be useless to most in this dilemma. The point you were addressing was more of a street smarts assessment than book smarts.

:cool:

Count me in the latter category. But I'm not blaming anyone. I wasn't a teenager when I got a credit card (several, in the end) and I knew damn well what I was doing. The companies just make it seem easy by saying "oh you only have to pay back this (minimum) amount each month", which you do (or I did, anyway) and somehow the exorbitant interest gets all forgotten about, till suddenly your 500 euro bill is becoming 1000 and the monthly payments are getting larger, and then finally, they tell you they're through ****ing with you. You missed some payments, so hand it all over. How? Not their problem.

But, not their fault. If you get a c/c you HAVE to be aware of how it works, generally, and if, like me, you choose to ride the system to see how far you can get, you deserve all that happens to you. As I did.

Far, far, FAR worse are these ****ing Payday Loan companies, with their 1000 percent-plus APRs! ****s. Should be illegal. Talk about preying on the weak, stupid, those without any sense of foresight and, of course, the desperate. :mad:

OH seems to question it. It seems to be the keystone of his argument for why CC companies should get exceptional treatment relative to other businesses that equally fuck society with shady marketing tactics.

No one forces you to get a credit card. If "entering a business deal" is poor wording what would you suggest?