Hello My dilemma is basically should I apply for a bad credit card just to temporarily build credit until I get a good credit card. I just turned 18 and I have an online tutoring job and a dining hall job at my University. My parents are also willing to provide me with lots of money. Anyways I applied for some good cards like discover student card and capitalone student card and was rejected from both. I’m still waiting on the reason why. I also applied for secumd student card and I recieved notice that I’m preapproved. Anyways I’m not sure if I should just get the secumd credit card and build credit until I can get a better card. The reviews for secumd are terrible and I’ve had terrible experiences with them involving my bank account. It legitimately took 2 weeks to get my account open to get a $50 bonus for opening it. The online site is almost always down. Based on these reasons, I don’t really trust secumd and I have my suspicions that I was accepted only because no one else would apply for their credit card. So basically I can either not get the secumd card and wait for a pay raise before applying for trustworthy student credit cards or I can try to build credit with secumd credit card then cancel the card when I am accepted for a better card. Under no circumstancce am I willing to sustain a lifetime usage of secumd services. I’m very certain once I get a better card, I’m no longer going to have any dealings with secumd. However I’m worried that if I cancel my secumd credit card, that would drastically hurt my credit score. I researched the consequences and found that apparently cancelling a credit card reduces your credit level by however much credit the credit card you cancelled would have given you. Also, the average amount of time of your credit decreases if you cancel a card you’ve had relatively longer than your other cards. From my understanding it would mean if I got a secumd credit card and I cancelled it, I would only lose whatever I gained from it like the increased credit level it provided and the earlier time history it would provide. Since I’m only losing what I gained, that means it would be wise get the secumd credit card temporarily. I just want people experienced with credit cards to provide some advice of whether or not I sohuld temporarily get this secumd credit card.
Bank of America? Does your bank offer any credit cards if not BofA?
Join a credit union and apply for a credit card there. Then, charge a little bit every month and pay it off Credit unions want to do business with you.
Don’t get cards and cancel them as that negatively dings your credit rating. I did that once and it was bad. If you don’t want to use a high interest credit card anymore, just stop using it. I have a couple of cards that were used specifically for large purchases - the kind issued by the store to finance where you pay no interest if you pay the total off within a set time. I paid it off and just kept the card open. I doubt I will ever use it again but formally closing it will bang my credit rating.
Get in the habit of running your credit regularly. I have a free account with one of the services (not sure if I can mention it on here) that updates my credit monthly. Some of the credit cards also offer this service. I do not pay for credit monitoring, you can do that yourself. The service I used help me challenge some negative comments that were put on my report by a medical provider that claimed I owed it money my insurance company said I didn’t.
Consider taking a class in personal finance.
If you have a job, set up a Roth IRA to start saving for retirement.
No bank of America ATMS at UMD
secumd is a credit union. Yeah I might apply for secured card.