Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
My advise to lower income people, especially those just starting out, would be:
1. Only have one credit card e.g. Visa or Mastercard, and make sure you pay off the balance every month.
2. Establish a long term relationship with one bank, and work on maintaining as high a credit rating as possible.
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I have not much to add to this thread, but I need to intervene here.
If you're low income, absolutely, positively, no way in god damned hell, should you use a credit card.
I don't care what lies you tell yourself about your self control, about your steadfast financial restraint, you long term planning ability, your rewards points/benefit value propositions.
You're low income. You're limited by that. The interest on a credit card puts you
one bad decision away from years upon years of a cascading debt load and further from any financial independence. Credit Card don't exist because people manage to actually pay them off every month. Debt load reporting proves this; those with no consumer debt are the exception, not the rule.
Secondly, low income, what kind of relationship are you going to get with your bank? Times have changed, they don't give a ####. The only relationship they want with your $50K salary is 19% on your mastercard. You don't need to worry much about a credit score, because if you're low income you shouldnt be buying anything on credit anyway.
Source? I'm in no way 'low income', and was sucked into the Credit Card trap because I convinced myself I could use my next paycheque to cover what I just did. In 5 years, from $0 to $20K in CC debt. I've been clawing my way out of it, paid off a $10K balance one card last month. Its hell, its embarrassing, and it's robbing my future self every day. All because 5 years ago I agreed to $15K credit card because 'Credit Score!'
Don't do it. Don't tell others to do it. If you did and never paid a dime in interest, you are the exception;