Bart

Just paid off my last CC and was wondered when everyone here got their first one. I was 18. smile.gif Racked up alot of debt over the years so it feels good to have everything completely paid off now.

03-accent-03

17. Never have a balance. Never a late payment.

Bommello

22 and have never had one. Waiting till I get out of school to get one.

majik

15. I got it for emergencies and in my name through Bank of America, and it helped me establish credit.

I've had a balance ONE TIME, and once I saw how much interest I had to pay, I've never had a balance since. I'm now 27, and I put every possible transaction on my credit card. I don't use cash at all unless I'm paying for parking or a cover charge to get in somewhere.

Credit cards, if used properly, can be great. It saved me $1600 on airfare for my Honeymoon, and next year I hope to spend 7 nights at a Marriott in the Carribbean for free (first class airfare and hotel). All thanks to my credit cards. smile.gif

edit: of course I have a balance every month, but I always pay it off before it's due. I think what I wrote above was misleading.

majik

I'd suggest grabbing a credit score/report for free, just to see what your status is. You don't want to be surprised when you graduate and try to buy a house.

I use www.FreeCreditReport.com - just cancel before the month is over. They offered me $7/mo. charge if I kept it open, and I took it. Otherwise I think it's $20/mo.

Length of account history is a big factor in calculating your credit score. Having an account open for 10 years is much better than 1 year, even if you've never had a balance.

edit: I just logged in to view my FreeCreditReport.com report, and it says my oldest account is 9.0 years old, and my average age of accounts is 4.2 years (i open a CC every year or two). The only negative factor is shows is "too many installment loans" - which I only have 3 of

UrS0NvS

i just used freescore.com and was able to get all three reports for free. freecreditreport.com only gives you one ad then they want you to pay for teh other two.

they ask a shitton of questions but i eventually got the info i wanted.

faithofadragon

i got my first when i was 16, went ape sh*t a little on it after i blew up a transmission a few years back (1200 bux between clutch, flywheel, transmission, and starter) paid it off a few years ago, then when the wife was in school racked it up again payin bills and sh*t

between the 2 of us we are at 6k in CC debt, should have it paid off by this time next year

majik

Does freescore.com give you the credit scores, or just the reports?

03-accent-03

http://www.ftc.gov/freereports FREE report each year. ONLY one really free...

UrS0NvS

gives both, impressive layout once yu get passed all the security jazz.