Credit Cards, financial things, etc.

[Dyne]

get this in at least a money market account STAT

what is this MMA you speak of? i'm pretty much in the same situation (ie having a lot of money sitting in a low interest savings account GIVING the bank scads of cash off my money).

[stormy]

Alright, so, TNL advice thus far: charge often and pay it off in full by the end of the month, so I don't accumulate any interest to pay. Stick to 1 or 2 cards. Don't be dumb.

You want more cards than that. I recommend 3, and only really use 1. Your score and what loans you can get are determined by how many records you have, how long you've had them, and how much of the total credit you use (less is better), among other things.

[Dyne]

And Dyne, suck a dick. My credit and spending habits are so much better than ANY of my male friends. Psh, gender assumptions :P

goddamned potty mouth.

[Rich]

My bank accounts are pretty... not good. I have a standard checking without any rewards, but no overdraft charges (2 or 3 freebies a year, I've only overdrafted once) and a savings account with pretty horrible interest (2%?). Right now I have NO extra money and about 2k that sits in savings unless I need it, I don't keep much in my checking account ($100 at a time or so). So yeah, I make some interest on the savings account, but it isn't shit. That money sticks around until I need to live off of it this summer, which is why I haven't bothered looking into other investment options. A short term CD would work I suppose, but shit comes up a lot, so I wouldn't like having my money somewhere else at this point. I'm in a stable situation where I won't ever need to put bills on my credit card, but I don't have much going for me investment-wise. Just my savings account and a $2k mutual fund my father set up for me as a child. Planning on leaving that there until after I graduate.

Alright, so, TNL advice thus far: charge often and pay it off in full by the end of the month, so I don't accumulate any interest to pay. Stick to 1 or 2 cards. Don't be dumb.

So far, I've got all of those covered. This is nice to know that I've been doing it mostly right, I feel a lot better about them now. I just grew up knowing that my family was in massive debts so I always saw credit cards as the embodiment of evil, but still necessary for credit. I'm way too paranoid and uptight to go blow money at stores for shit I don't need so I think I'll be fine.

Thanks guys. It's nice having all this consolidated into one thread as opposed to the little exchanges from other Sound Off topics.

And Dyne, suck a dick. My credit and spending habits are so much better than ANY of my male friends. Psh, gender assumptions :P

This advice isn't very great right now since the Fed had lowered interest rates by ~2% in the last 6 months, but I recommend an online savings account at Citibank, ING or HSBC. They were giving over 5% interest last year and are still around 3.4-3.8% interest and, when connected to a checking account (which they have to be connected to an account anyway since you can only tansfer money online), offer pretty awesome risk-free investments.

Also, no reason to limit yourself to 1 or 2 credit cards. The more credit cards you have, the higher your credit line, the less of a percentage of credit your using, the more of a hardon the credit bureaus will have.

[Nomi]

You're missing one important thing: live within your means. if you can't afford it, don't buy it. I guess that might fall in the "Don't be dumb" part, but just thought I'd reiterate.

That's what I meant by don't be dumb, for sure. I own a 360 but it was agonizing for me to buy, and I had $150 off on it, only ever bought 2 games so far... I'm an uptight weenie when it comes to spending money even when I DO have it. There are things I probably should buy, but don't, simply because I like having the money there 'just in case' or something. Living within my means is one of the only criteria here I don't have any issues with.

[Opaque]

That's what I meant by don't be dumb, for sure. I own a 360 but it was agonizing for me to buy, and I had $150 off on it, only ever bought 2 games so far... I'm an uptight weenie when it comes to spending money even when I DO have it. There are things I probably should buy, but don't, simply because I like having the money there 'just in case' or something. Living within my means is one of the only criteria here I don't have any issues with.

I fucking love Nomi sometimes.

Like right now.

[burgundy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_market_mutual_fund

nomi - i guess maybe not if you need the full balance come may, but if you figure to be building savings after that, you should consider it.

dyne - i don't know what "a lot" of money means, but if you have more than a grand sitting in savings regularly you need to be doing something more with your money. at least a money market fund, if not something more aggressive.

[kingoffighters]

I think having less cards is more of a sanity thing, personally. I remember I had alot of cards at one point and I got very paranoid about losing my wallet and someone charging up a storm with them. So I got rid of a few I never use (mostly those store ones like Macy, or whatever) and only put one or two in my wallet.

[kingoffighters]

I fucking love Nomi sometimes.

Like right now.

Me 2!

[Thief Silver]

My dad suggested that with the 401k plans my company offers, I go with the more aggressive ones now, so I don't plan to put any money into a savings account. It either goes to my checking account, payments, or my 401k, at least that's my plan.

Also to Icarus about the retreating thing, I meant making these statements with simply the ignorance of your friends as proof.