Establishing A Credit History

You don't even need that many. You need to have credit with companies that report credit history, that is the big thing having credit is pointless if you don't get it reported. Paying your regular bills on time and making sure they don't report bad credit. Maybe a loan with your bank to secure credit history with them. The biggest mistake people make with credit is running out and getting a load of credit cards and then they can't pay them off. Simple is best when it comes to credit. We have one credit card with our bank and we have had several loans for different vehicles over the years with our bank. The last loan was just for the credit history, we had the money to by the van out right but took out the loan for several months before paying it off, just to add a little more good credit. A mortgage is a good way to get good credit, use a broker and get the best interest rate. When we bought our current house our credit was so good we didn't need to verify employment or income they gave us our mortgage on my husbands word alone.

My husband took out a personal line of credit at the bank. I balked at it but he said it was his and none of my business. But then we got in deep water and needed to extend the credit line. In order to do that we had to put the house up as collateral which meant I had to sign for it. So now my name is on there. I regretted it as soon as I did it. I thought, what the heck are we getting ourselves into? Debt we will never be able to pay off? Last month the statement came in and the minimum amount due was $34. My husband said he wasn't going to make a payment. I let it sit. My Mom gave me some money so I decided to go put some money on the Line of Credit. I was a day late but they were okay with that. They DID tell me that if we hadn't made a payment at all we would have risked our credit rating and possibly lost the line of credit altogether. Now why couldn't the guy come up with $34? I think the fewer credit "issues" you have, the better your credit rating will be. We have two major credit cards (well, I have one shared with DH and he has his own VISA) and two department store cards. That is plenty. Who needs all those bills coming in added to the hydro, phone bill, cable bill and heating bill? It's just too much to pay off and very overwhelming, especially when you don't have the money.

u don't need more than 2 credit cards, the more debt u have the worse it looks! then if u want to get a loan they look at things like ur income to debt ratio, and if u have too much debt it doesn't look good! but just b/c u open those cards doesn't mean anything, u have to use them and pay the bill on time so it shows on ur credit report!

I attempted to establish credit and ended up with bad credit. They say that having no credit is the same as having bad credit? That is a bold face lie, trust me. Be very careful.

Well sweetheart I really don't know much about establishing a credit history in the US but from what you say it sounds as though your credit history is good at the moment and I would agree with you that you needn't get in too deep - that will probably affect your credit rating negatively! Talk with your hubby and explain your fears and why you don't want to take too much on! xxx

I have a thing about credit cards, don't get any more though coz you will get yourself in to trouble if you have too many that need to be paid. Credit here in Oz does apply to credit cards but it also applies to other things - our credit history is looked at by things you hire purchase - as in, getting a fridge (for example) via hire purchase so you pay it off monthly until you pay it outright. You can also get a small personal loan & the ability to pay it back without any hiccups goes towards a credit history as well. It probably wouldn't hurt to have a 2nd car, get it on finance, that will help your credit rating as well. You don't need perfect credit history though, if you make a mistake, they do look past things like that after a certain amount of time. Why do you want a credit history anyway?

I'm not sure how the credit card system work in your country. But I'm very satisfied with using one credit card at the moment while having some other cards from various establishments where we earned points while purchasing their items. We can used the points earned in exchange for a nice rebates. I have friends who are holder of 4 or more credit cards. They told me that each credit card company have their own freebies being offered every once in a while and it actually help them save more.

One thing I have been told is not to have too many credit cards because that acutally hurts. What you can do is never carry a balance on your credit cards. Always pay it off as soon as you can, and that will help you greatly!

i wouldnt keep applying for them. actually, the more cards you have, the worse ur credit history is. every time you apply for a new card, you take a hit on your score. it is best to apply for all of the cards that you want to apply for within 7 days. for some reason you dont take as many hits on ur history.