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Credit Worries
Apr. 9th, 2003 03:29 pmProbably not what most of you are thinking. Spare my life, ye with large credit card bills.
I am The Anti-Credit Card. I have no credit cards. I have never had a credit card. I encourage all my friends and family (especially those with credit problems) to pay off their cards and cut them up. Religiously. And there is not a problem with doing this in certain situations, and indeed it can be a vast improvement over the alternatives in many cases.
However, there are apparent problems when one is coming from a position of no credit and limited income. Certainly a better position that a person with bad credit and limited income, but seemingly not much better. Allen and I have been discussing this issue of late, and a post today by somebody today concering credit cards and scores spurred me to thinking about it again.
Basically the problem is that it is seemingly nigh impossible to get "credit" without having credit. For example, if Allen wanted to start up a side business that requires ordering goods, he'd likely have to pay cash up front, rather than being billed. And apparently the "only" real way to get credit is by having credit cards. So, we've been discussing the possibility of getting a couple of credit cards. Which I am loathe to do without at least very strict guidelines on when and how they are used. The only other option we can see is to save up the money beforehand.
But, we've also been questioning if there is another way to gain adequate credit to avoid this. Perhaps someone out there is more wise to the ways of the world than we?
I am The Anti-Credit Card. I have no credit cards. I have never had a credit card. I encourage all my friends and family (especially those with credit problems) to pay off their cards and cut them up. Religiously. And there is not a problem with doing this in certain situations, and indeed it can be a vast improvement over the alternatives in many cases.
However, there are apparent problems when one is coming from a position of no credit and limited income. Certainly a better position that a person with bad credit and limited income, but seemingly not much better. Allen and I have been discussing this issue of late, and a post today by somebody today concering credit cards and scores spurred me to thinking about it again.
Basically the problem is that it is seemingly nigh impossible to get "credit" without having credit. For example, if Allen wanted to start up a side business that requires ordering goods, he'd likely have to pay cash up front, rather than being billed. And apparently the "only" real way to get credit is by having credit cards. So, we've been discussing the possibility of getting a couple of credit cards. Which I am loathe to do without at least very strict guidelines on when and how they are used. The only other option we can see is to save up the money beforehand.
But, we've also been questioning if there is another way to gain adequate credit to avoid this. Perhaps someone out there is more wise to the ways of the world than we?
