For most of my life I never cared to get a credit card. Everyone around me always insisted that I get one to simply boost my credit score. However, NO ONE wanted to cover the worst parts about having one and closing one. There are people who say to leave the credit card open and never use it. This does not boost your score, if it does, it is very slowly because you are not “showing” how well you spend and pay back enough. There are people who say only use it for major purchases that way you are paying off your purchase and not your credit card bill, per se. There are other apps like Affirm that is better than a credit card.
My wife and I decided to get a Capital One credit card. At first, I played with it. I had to learn. We went to the bar one time and Capital One declined it in front of everyone. They do not want you to spend money in a bar which tells me they can control any of my purchases. Hence the reason they send you an "approval" message after whatever you used the card for. If I am paying it back, why is it up to them where I spend the money? If at first it was their money, from first signing up, I spend it and pay it back with my own money which replaces "their money" then they should no longer have control over where I spend my money and should not be able to deny it especially when there is money to cover it on there. I can understand if the funds were getting ‘too’ low as if I were purchasing something for five dollars and I only had a dollar. That would be understandable. No, there were over a hundred on there and they declined it.
After that we decided to only use the card for strict emergencies. Before getting into this aspect of it, keep in mind that many would say that if we never had the credit card then we would not have had the money for whatever we were spending it on. When we were still “going without” because we have a lot of repairs on the house and our taxes and stimulus was always gone to paying off the credit cards and other debts when we could have used that for the repairs and been better off. Yes, of course it boosted our credit score because the balances were paid in full, but at what cost? That same money we were giving back to the credit card, just to turn around and use it again. We could have just used the money how it was.
So, we honestly thought about all this. We realized there was no point in keeping the credit cards, let alone any credit card. My wife is in school and working while I am a stay-at-home Writer, helping to raise our son. We, for the last time, used all our taxes this year (2022) to pay off all the credit cards and cancelled the accounts PAID IN FULL MIGHT I ADD!
My credit score was 660 and my wife’s was 750 something, and as soon as we cancelled them, our scores
D
R
O
P
P
E
D
Yep, they dropped our score, me down to 591 and my wife to 630 something. Now, of course I was ticked. We busted our asses and used all our money that could have been used to replace our stove, walls that have water damage, etc. just to have it plummet our credit score. If we were to go trade in the car for a bigger one, we would be punished with a higher down payment, etc. See how annoying and inconvenient this is.
We did not close the account on any outstanding balances. That was paid off in full. So why were we punished when there are millions of people who have had to go bankrupt to pay off credit cards and we paid ours all off in full and closed the account? Why is having a credit card the only way to “boost” your credit. ANYTHING paid in full whether it is closed or not should not change your credit in any way but a positive way.
Thinking about this on a much deeper level makes me question why have credit at all? Why is it important? Why do we need to have a credit check to get something we will have to pay for anyway? IF we knew we could not afford that car, why get the car?
As usual, its importance is to let these businesses, that you're setting up payment arrangements off the bat to pay for the damn merchandise, know how well you make payments. Are you an on-time client or are you going to be calling saying your low on cash and it will be late?
Thinking about this even more, if these businesses cared that much about my credit, then why do they ignore you when you tell them what you can afford? They push you to get the highest monthly payment because the more you pay, the more that business makes!! That is what their only concern is. They have no concern that you were homeless and had no car but got a job and now you're purchasing your first car working at a taco bueno. You tell them you can only afford 180 a month with no issue, they will push you to get a 300 a month loan and then wonder why you're calling to report an overdue payment. They might have thought that people would lie about what they can afford to get the cheaper payment. Unfortunately, my friend, is not your place or call. They care more about revenue than the ease of steady payments……. Mind blowing isn’t it.
Since I am opening these worms, let's open the maggots as well, which is every time you have a credit check done, it also goes on your credit. It can be negative. Just for checking it can lower your credit. Again, why have credit?
If there is no getting rid of it, then changes need to happen in these exact areas. All outcomes and processes need to be flipped. There would have been no reason to invent the Experian Credit Boost.
Therefore, it was invented when it all could have been AVOIDED.
For anyone out there with no knowledge of this, use precautions when getting a credit card. Make sure you read this and other things to help you decide. Not everyone out there has had experiences like this out there. But this is to let you know that we have experienced it and know this is wrong on all levels. They still say to stand up for what is wrong. Well, this was horribly wrong.
I did try to contact credit karma and of course nothing. Next will be calling the credit bureau to see about getting our points back.
Until then, think of all options before deciding. Do not allow these places to ruin your credit anymore.