Ulan

So, what's the alternative? It generally looks pretty much like a race to the bottom. Let's see when the banks start charging for the privilege that you can foist your money on them.

If I would have to take a guess it's the relatively fresh mortgage and those installment accounts that look relatively new, too. You have relatively fixed obligations of $2,000 per month. I think those AU accounts are responsible for the fact that your credit scores are not completely shot.

I think the last bucket starts at 19 years, so "no effect" is the expected result.

Same here. I have two other debit cards, but never use them.

Let's hope you don't need to finance a new car in that month when you have an ugly score.

No, I don't. The main point I don't agree with is the one I left in the quote. I hate low limit cards that kill your score by high utilization if you forget to pay them off before they report. It's easy to lose 100 score points if you have $700 report on a $900 card if you do not have that $10k CU card that you hardly ever use save your hide.

Regarding the overhead, I don't think that's true. Most credit unions have significantly more overhead than banks, due to the small size of their customer base. There are only few exceptions, like, for example, Alliant. Of course, I agree regarding the loan products. Also, limits seem to be higher for people with average income.

822, up 17 points from last month, when I let my Amex report a substantial sum.

I don't want too many checking accounts, so I keep them to a minimum. Savings accounts usually need less attention.

I wasn't sure whether anyone already posted it, but here you are . It's a nice feature. At least my limits and balances are correct, the rest not so much.

That would be an interesting job application strategy.

Well, they start right with a non-bank institution . But it's a good choice, anyway. I'm thinking of completely switching there at the moment.

thank you, it felt kinda high. do you by chance know of any credit unions? do I go to credit unions here in my city? (once again, another subject I know nothing about---credit unions) I have always banked with PNC. Try this: http://www.findacreditunion.com/ (zip code is sufficient) You probably have to ask around which credit union will give you a secured card. Not all of them will.

Perversely enough, this makes a lot of sense.

As far as I understood it, it doesn't matter whether you use your debit card as debit or credit, it just matters that you use it for buying something to incur the fee. Anyway, I haven't used a debit card to buy something in years. And I have three of them.