Just got approved for Cap1 CC!

[LSUTiger32]

that's a short-sighted view

credit also affects insurance rates...so someone that gets credit cards post-bk and is prudent with their usage will pay less for insurance than someone who doesn't get those cards to up their fico score

it also affects job opportunities, business loans, utility deposits, etc etc

car and home aren't the only thing one needs credit for; there are some things savings don't matter for

El wrongo. It MAY but it does not automatically.

My homeowners insurance: Never went up, but already insane due to living in Louisiana
My auto insurance: Went down.
My job: They don't care.
Business loans: HUH? Seriously? Were you going to get one anyway on the verge of BK?
Utility deposits: Most people should already have utilities and if you have a good history with them they aren't likely to care about a BK. Is getting a credit card today going to change your utility deposit today?

I mean all these misconceptions about needing credit are amazing. Does anyone actually look at their situation or does everyone just read this stuff and freak out?

[debtnomore]

i don't know if you personally can't handle ccs so you hate them so, but not having them and using them wisely does cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars. Responses in bold blue below.

El wrongo. It MAY but it does not automatically.

My homeowners insurance: Never went up, but already insane due to living in Louisiana
The point is that if you have a high credit score, you can qualify for insurance companies' best rates. So you are losing money every month for the rest of the life by paying higher
My auto insurance: Went down.
Same as above. You get better rates when you have great credit = more money down the drain the rest of your life because you didn't get ccs
My job: They don't care.
Many jobs do look at credit score, so unless you are going to be in the same job forever, it may matter
Business loans: HUH? Seriously? Were you going to get one anyway on the verge of BK?
we are talking about REBUILDING credit; who said on the verge of bk? if you rebuild your credit (this includes ccs) then you will be in a better position to get a sb loan in the future
Utility deposits: Most people should already have utilities and if you have a good history with them they aren't likely to care about a BK. Is getting a credit card today going to change your utility deposit today?
people do move; new utility companies do come into the area at potentially better rates than your existing provider. And who caresa about the deposit today? there is that short-sightedness again...we are talking about the long-run here...because this is a credit REBUILDING forum, which doesn't happen overnight

I mean all these misconceptions about needing credit are amazing. Does anyone actually look at their situation or does everyone just read this stuff and freak out?

you are the one with misconceptions, whether from ignorance or denial or because you know you can't handle ccs so aren't gonna get them so you tell yourself that getting them doesn't help

the facts are well-documented: having multiple ccs without abusing them will increase your FICO score. And the FICO score is well-documented to be used in insurance rate decisions, personal and business loan decisions, job decisions, utility decisions, etc

So if we know for a fact that a higher FICO score saves us thousands upon thousands of dollars over the next few decades, then why shouldn't we strive to get the highest FICO score we can? why are u against us getting ccs and paying them off each month so that we can build our FICO score and save money throughout our lives?

[debtnomore]

i see in your sig that you hate debt, and rightly so

however, having a credit card does not mean you have debt

i have 2 ccs with $2800 line open and no debt...i only have debt if I use them and don't pay them off immediately

heck, one card is firestone and i've never been there in my life...i'll likely never use it so will never have a chance to use it to get into debt...it's just sitting there open, raising my FICO score slowly but steadily over time

i also have a gas card separate from the 2 mentioned above from 9 years ago that is still active after bk...i've never used it either; but it's open and helping me with my score still today...i'll just leave it open forever so my 'history length' part of the score will be better than if it were closed

i hate debt as well, but I also love savings and the higher my score, the less I spend on cars, homes, insurance, etc which means more money in my pocket each month to save

[Amy26]

I just figured that more people on a BK forum would hate debt after what they just went through. Boy was I wrong.

I can't say I hate debt. I don't mind it for the right reasons. Call me wierd or let the flames begin, but I don't mind making payments on a car...even if it means I pay more for it in the long run. I also don't mind renting a home... technically that is debt as well since you sign a lease for a certain period and you have to pay a certain portion of that debt off every month. I boarded the "OMG you're throwing away money renting you should buy a house" train... and you know where it got me? Into bankruptcy. My finances were not crazy out of whack and I wasn't spending crazy money on things I didn't need and charging up a lot of debt. I mostly BK'd because of my stupid house....that and getting laid off for over 8 months with no income whatsoever. Sure, I had a reserve of money saved up to pay my bills...but surely not for 8+ months. Perhaps other people have this ...but I didn't. The day I filed I was not behind on any of my credit cards or loans... just my home.

I also don't mind charging some clothes for work and taking a few months to pay it off. I get to save more of my cash on a paycheck to paycheck basis and I get what I need now to look presentable instead of 3 months from now if I strictly saved up for it.

And yes as someone else said, rebuilding credit is not just so you can get lots of credit cards again and just for buying houses... unfortunately credit flows over into our personal lives in other ways. IE: my car insurance went up by like 300 dollars a year just because I filed for bankruptcy. Which is just stupid... but my state allows for credit to influence insurance rates... it affects our abilities to get jobs and clearances... hell even utlity companies check your credit. You need good credit to get electric...

So, do I hate credit? yes. Do I need it? yes. Do I hate debt? Not within reason. Do I think less of myself because I don't mind paying interest on balances? no.... you may think its stupid and illogical... but to you. Do I know the consequences to carrying balances? yes. Do I accept them? yes.

Life is full of risk every day. Getting in your car is a terrible risk we take every day...yet, we accept it. Flying, deciding to call in sick to work when you're not, playing the stock market, 401k's, eating too much... everything we do is a risk. Its all about accepting the risk or not. Judging other people for it... not so much.

[CCsAreEvil]

Agree a lot with what Amy said. Unfortunately, credit is somewhat forced into our lives because of all those factors: insurance rates, buying a car, house, getting a job, security clearance, utilities. This may not be always the case, but it seems to happen more often than not. In a perfect world, "credit" probably wouldn't exist. I'm sure "credit" has been around as long as man has. "There's always someone who owes someone else something".

If credit did not exist, how would society function? Of course, individuals like some in this thread have made it somewhat of a "pact" to refrain from dealing with the "system" of credit (especially post-BK). That's fine if it works for you. It doesn't work for everyone (based on specific circumstance, job profession, location, etc).

Or maybe we need to start passing laws (I'm sure they exist in some states already anyways) that do not allow insurance companies, potential employers, etc, from using our credit checks as a factor for their decisions. Make national laws?

[LSUTiger32]

you are the one with misconceptions, whether from ignorance or denial or because you know you can't handle ccs so aren't gonna get them so you tell yourself that getting them doesn't help

the facts are well-documented: having multiple ccs without abusing them will increase your FICO score. And the FICO score is well-documented to be used in insurance rate decisions, personal and business loan decisions, job decisions, utility decisions, etc

So if we know for a fact that a higher FICO score saves us thousands upon thousands of dollars over the next few decades, then why shouldn't we strive to get the highest FICO score we can? why are u against us getting ccs and paying them off each month so that we can build our FICO score and save money throughout our lives?

Yeah I can't handle them, that's why. I backed my statements with FACTS that happened since I have filed. You back yours with what ifs. Enough said.

[LSUTiger32]

i see in your sig that you hate debt, and rightly so

however, having a credit card does not mean you have debt

i have 2 ccs with $2800 line open and no debt...i only have debt if I use them and don't pay them off immediately

heck, one card is firestone and i've never been there in my life...i'll likely never use it so will never have a chance to use it to get into debt...it's just sitting there open, raising my FICO score slowly but steadily over time

i also have a gas card separate from the 2 mentioned above from 9 years ago that is still active after bk...i've never used it either; but it's open and helping me with my score still today...i'll just leave it open forever so my 'history length' part of the score will be better than if it were closed

i hate debt as well, but I also love savings and the higher my score, the less I spend on cars, homes, insurance, etc which means more money in my pocket each month to save

Wow, there is so much in here that is just plain scary I don't know where to start.

1. Credit cards = debt. If you use them, you have debt. Whether it is for 10 days or 10 years it is debt. Good try though.

2. You hate debt but you are worried to death about your I LOVE DEBT score. Wow.

3. You love savings and you are paying enough interest to banks to service a third world country. Awesome. Good luck with that strategy.

[LSUTiger32]

I can't say I hate debt. I don't mind it for the right reasons. Call me wierd or let the flames begin, but I don't mind making payments on a car...even if it means I pay more for it in the long run. I also don't mind renting a home... technically that is debt as well since you sign a lease for a certain period and you have to pay a certain portion of that debt off every month. I boarded the "OMG you're throwing away money renting you should buy a house" train... and you know where it got me? Into bankruptcy. My finances were not crazy out of whack and I wasn't spending crazy money on things I didn't need and charging up a lot of debt. I mostly BK'd because of my stupid house....that and getting laid off for over 8 months with no income whatsoever. Sure, I had a reserve of money saved up to pay my bills...but surely not for 8+ months. Perhaps other people have this ...but I didn't. The day I filed I was not behind on any of my credit cards or loans... just my home.

I also don't mind charging some clothes for work and taking a few months to pay it off. I get to save more of my cash on a paycheck to paycheck basis and I get what I need now to look presentable instead of 3 months from now if I strictly saved up for it.

And yes as someone else said, rebuilding credit is not just so you can get lots of credit cards again and just for buying houses... unfortunately credit flows over into our personal lives in other ways. IE: my car insurance went up by like 300 dollars a year just because I filed for bankruptcy. Which is just stupid... but my state allows for credit to influence insurance rates... it affects our abilities to get jobs and clearances... hell even utlity companies check your credit. You need good credit to get electric...

So, do I hate credit? yes. Do I need it? yes. Do I hate debt? Not within reason. Do I think less of myself because I don't mind paying interest on balances? no.... you may think its stupid and illogical... but to you. Do I know the consequences to carrying balances? yes. Do I accept them? yes.

Life is full of risk every day. Getting in your car is a terrible risk we take every day...yet, we accept it. Flying, deciding to call in sick to work when you're not, playing the stock market, 401k's, eating too much... everything we do is a risk. Its all about accepting the risk or not. Judging other people for it... not so much.

Amy, I don't want to argue with you. I am just dodging all the bullets here trying to at least help people understand where I am coming from. If you want to pay interest on everything because that is the way you think society works then I am not going to be mad at you. I just have learned that there is a better way.

I just don't need a credit card to survive. I now have $5,000 in the bank for an emergency. I am paying the debt I kept through the bankruptcy and the debt they forced me to keep (school loans) off at a pace that will make me completely debt free except for my house by next year.

Anyway, that's me and that's what I have decided to do. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do. Please understand this is not meant to be snide.....I simply challenge anyone that goes back into the credit card game and decides to finance new cars to put their finances up against mine one year from today. I guarantee you that I win.

[jadams]

This is a "Rebuilding Credit" subforum and a topic about Capital One approvals.

If you don't care to rebuild your credit, and wouldn't want to do business with Capital One because you think all credit cards are evil, might I suggest you try browsing one of the many other subforums for a different topic?

Stop thread crapping in this one.

[backtoschool]

Amy, I don't want to argue with you. I am just dodging all the bullets here trying to at least help people understand where I am coming from. If you want to pay interest on everything because that is the way you think society works then I am not going to be mad at you. I just have learned that there is a better way.

I just don't need a credit card to survive. I now have $5,000 in the bank for an emergency. I am paying the debt I kept through the bankruptcy and the debt they forced me to keep (school loans) off at a pace that will make me completely debt free except for my house by next year.

Anyway, that's me and that's what I have decided to do. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do. Please understand this is not meant to be snide.....I simply challenge anyone that goes back into the credit card game and decides to finance new cars to put their finances up against mine one year from today. I guarantee you that I win.

LSUTiger32, I have to wonder why you will not leave this thread alone. What is your point to being here at this point?

Here are my facts:

I am a woman in my mid-thirties that had a high income and high expenses. My credit card debt was all for exotic trips that I could not afford that I took to escape my very stressful Wall Street life. My expenses went up in nyc as my bonuses went down, when the market crashed, and suddenly I had balances on my cards. I lost my job, and suddenly I had no way to pay those balances. I moved to the midwest, went back to school, and declared bankruptcy so that I could earn a lower salary with lower stress moving forward. I am now employed full time and in school as well, and I want to buy a house. In nyc, buying an apartment was a million dollar commitment and although I qualified for the mortgage, I could never get over my fear of taking that on, so I never bought an apartment. The house I am planning to buy will be my first home owned.

Without re-establishing my credit, I would have to have my mortgage manually underwritten and would spend around 2-3% more in interest, which would add up to a huge amount of money over the term of the loan. By establishing several credit cards, and paying them off on time, and having a car loan, I will be able to qualify for an fha mortgage or other standard mortgages in 2-3 years. It's a no brainer for me.

What is really perplexing me, LSUTiger32, is that you seem to think that your lifestyle is the only right one, and that we all share your circumstances. You have a house that you reaffirmed. You have a car. Right now you do not need credit. Good for you. But that is not everyone's situation.

Your fear of credit is understandable, but it does not give you the right to repeatedly attack everyone in this thread in my opinion.

[jadams]

What is really perplexing me, LSUTiger32, is that you seem to think that your lifestyle is the only right one, and that we all share your circumstances.

LSU also seems to think all of us were charging plasma tvs and furs up until the day we filed. Many of us, myself included, made our last credit card charge years before filing.

I did the "cash only" thing for a minimum of two years before filing. I think I've made a very good effort to learn from the mistakes that lead me to filing bankruptcy. And yes, some lessons were best learnt by being forced to live on an entirely cash basis.

But, in my opinion, part of learning from and recovering past bankruptcy is reestablishing *healthy* use of credit.

As one very recent example -- last week I bought a USB camera SD card reader for $0.89 with free shipping from Meritline. Meritline had a security breach (news posted on their site) and my card was compromised. There were a few hundred dollars in fraudulent charges.

I am confident I would have been credited had this happened on my debit card, but it's a matter of how quickly. I keep most of my money in savings -- a few hundred dollars of fraudulent activity could have caused overdrafts or bounced checks before I caught it, disputed it, and transferred some money while waiting for the bank to credit the fraud.

The credit card offered additional convenience and protection.

I pay the bill biweekly so it's always paid in full and there is no interest. And just yesterday I redeemed another $25 in cash back for using it for purchases I was making anyways (internet, cell phone, netflix, etc.).

My main reasons for wanting to reestablish my credit? Two things.

1- Despite what LSU said a few posts ago, my insurance DOES charge more based on credit score. In fact, under a certain cut off they refuse to underwrite the policy. Ask me how I know...

2- My business accepts credit cards for payment. Merchant accounts are credit based products and if you want to obtain good rates and quick funding (deposit in your bank account in 24 hours vs. a rolling reserve of a few months) you need to meet minimum credit criteria.

My merchant provider said my score was very borderline and risking non-renewal. After getting a secured card and a Cap1 and using and paying them for a few months, my score has gone up quite a bit and while not great according to the provider is now sufficient to ensure my agreement will be renewed.

I believe both of those reasons are legitimate, and don't represent some desire to raise my score so I can engage in risky behavior.

[lrprn]

Stop thread crapping in this one.

jadams, just because you don't like or disagree with what another member is posting does not give you the right to ask that member to move along. As long as the member does not name-call or break other forum rules, differing opinions are welcomed here. (And if you doubt that different opinions are welcome in the forums, take a look at the political threads in the General forum sometime! )

[jadams]

jadams, just because you don't like or disagree with what another member is posting does not give you the right to ask that member to move along. As long as the member does not name-call or break other forum rules, differing opinions are welcomed here. (And if you doubt that different opinions are welcome in the forums, take a look at the political threads in the General forum sometime! )

Forgive me. I was under the impression, based on a previous lashing I received by a moderator, that posts were supposed to be on topic to the thread they were in.

[LSUTiger32]

This is a "Rebuilding Credit" subforum and a topic about Capital One approvals.

If you don't care to rebuild your credit, and wouldn't want to do business with Capital One because you think all credit cards are evil, might I suggest you try browsing one of the many other subforums for a different topic?

Stop thread crapping in this one.

Wow, you are only the eighth unoriginal person to suggest this. Move to Cuba if you don't like free speech.

[LSUTiger32]

LSUTiger32, I have to wonder why you will not leave this thread alone. What is your point to being here at this point?

Here are my facts:

I am a woman in my mid-thirties that had a high income and high expenses. My credit card debt was all for exotic trips that I could not afford that I took to escape my very stressful Wall Street life. My expenses went up in nyc as my bonuses went down, when the market crashed, and suddenly I had balances on my cards. I lost my job, and suddenly I had no way to pay those balances.

Without re-establishing my credit, I would have to have my mortgage manually underwritten and would spend around 2-3% more in interest, which would add up to a huge amount of money over the term of the loan. By establishing several credit cards, and paying them off on time, and having a car loan, I will be able to qualify for an fha mortgage or other standard mortgages in 2-3 years. It's a no brainer for me.

What is really perplexing me, LSUTiger32, is that you seem to think that your lifestyle is the only right one, and that we all share your circumstances. You have a house that you reaffirmed. You have a car. Right now you do not need credit. Good for you. But that is not everyone's situation.

Your fear of credit is understandable, but it does not give you the right to repeatedly attack everyone in this thread in my opinion.

The first paragraph explains it all. You keep harping on this house thing like you are using it as an excuse to get credit. Who in the world told you manual underwriting would make a 2-3% higher rate? You got some horribly wrong info there. If you want credit cards, that's fine....knock yourself out, I ain't ya Daddy. Just don't be surprised if you wind up taking some nice vacations again.

I never said one time that my NEW lifestyle is the only right way. I just got finished doing it the credit card way. That didn't work so well, so I am trying something new. Do people read this stuff or do they see something, go crazy and then type. There is no (wait, let me get the color going) FEAR of credit. I am not scared of credit. I have a mortgage, I have student loans that I am still paying.....I am not scared of credit. I am not cowering in the corner because my home has a mortgage.