I got railroaded hard in the recession by unscrupulous rates and fees and ended up getting my credit card discharged.
It took FOREVER for me to get a new job and get my money right and by the time I was back on a path of stability I was done done with credit cards
It wasn’t until I had some medical issue and credit was mentioned that I started to monitor my credit score and it was shit
Paying bills on time was fine. But I had zero credit available. Zero
So after researching I used the shopping cart trick to get a credit line from wayfair (whatever site recommend it) I think I got about $2000 off rip. From there my score went up and I got a capital one card for 5k.
And boom 7k of credit and minimal usage, my credit score jumped through the roof
Fast forward to just last year and while my credit score was doing just fine I noticed that it could be better. The dreaded need more credit popped up again in credit karma
But then I came across an article about lifetime value score. And how certain credit cards don’t look so great
Basically a capitol one card is like having an Altima for credit purposes
It’s not bad, just ubiquitous
So I made the leap to get an Amex card, more “prestige” and sure enough, between that and now more credit ... score went up again.
I barely use ether of them. Airlines, hotels, rental cars, pay off at the end of the month
Bank the points to the balance and it’s been solid
Recent ally Amex doubled my credit limit.
Odd I thought for a country about to hit a recession
So my 2008 brain kicked in. And I started to spend even less and payoff more (Amex I have a year of zero interest)
I didn’t want a company extending me credit, again, that I couldn’t pay off (recession) and I figure that’s the hustle. They give you more than you can handle to later hang you with.