One of the myths of having a good credit score is that you must carry a balance on your debt every month. This simply is not true. In fact, if you read on you’ll learn more about how we continue to maintain an 800 credit score despite being completely debt free for two years.
My first credit card was a company card from Circuit City. My parents co-signed and I ended up buying a $1,200 television on credit. It was a 32” HD television that today could be bought for about $150 brand new.
My next step was to open a credit card at my bank. Once I had established some credit, my bank was willing to give me a card with a $500 limit. I used this card exclusively for buying gas for my car for about two or three years.
We were paying all kinds of bills to pay back our debt. Creditors loved us because we had a lot of debt and were good at paying it back. It may be obvious but going into debt for the sole purpose of building a credit score is foolish.
We’ve done this by continuing to use our credit cards and paying them off at the end of every month. This allows us to avoid revolving debt while maintaining our high credit scores.
I’ll close by saying this about credit cards: they are a tool that can provide a number of benefits to users. Convenience, cashback and travel reward bonuses, use in emergency situations, and the ability to build a credit score to name a few.
On the other hand, credit cards can be a financial disaster for many families. The double-digit interest rates that come with many cards can be crippling. The stats show that a high percentage of credit card holders end up carrying a balance and paying that high-interest rate.