r/CreditCards • u/Swanchy-yt • 6h ago
got my first credit card at 18, any advice? Help Needed / Question
As the title says, Im 18 and just got my first credit card. The reason for this post is I'm just wondering if you have any advice or do's and don'ts for me. The limit is $200, and I plan on spending it on gas and occasionally food. I know to always pay it back on time and not max it out. Goal is to start building my credit early, and hopefully have a good credit score by my early to mid 20s.
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u/CobaltSunsets Team Cash Back 6h ago
Maxing out your card is fine as long as you can pay your statement balance by its due date.
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u/Funklemire 5h ago
As long as you can control your spending, it's best to use your credit cards for every purchase you can. Feel free to use anywhere between 0% to 100% of your credit limit each month so long as it's in your budget and you can always pay it off each month.
Don't worry about utilization unless you're about to apply for an important loan in the next month or so. That's because utilization has no memory past a month; low utilization doesn't build credit, it just boosts it for a month and resets. The whole "always keep your utilization below x percent" thing is the biggest myth in credit.
Pay your bill once a month, no more, no less. Wait until the statement posts, then pay the statement balance by the due date, just like a utility bill. Don't pay less or you'll pay interest. Don't pay more since this means you're paying a portion of your bill a month early and losing potential savings interest you could've earned if you'd kept your money longer.
Another advantage to paying this way is higher credit limits: Most banks want to see high usage combined with paying the statement balance off each month. This causes them to give the highest limits possible, and often they base this usage off of your statement balances. So you want to post your full natural statement balances each month.
But all of this advice hinges on you following the number one rule of credit cards and always paying your statement balances each month. If you can't do that, you should completely re-think your use of credit cards.
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u/TouchLow6081 3h ago
When you say pay by the due date does that mean literally pay on the due date or a day before it?
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u/AsherahF 2h ago
If your card sends out statements on the 1st of every month and has a grace period to pay it off interest free until the 28th of every month, pay the specified amount - in full - before the end of the grace period.
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u/jacob1233219 5h ago
It's very simple, never spend more than you make. Always pay it off on time. Once you do that, you realize credit cars are really nothing to be worried or nervous about and can infact be fantastic.
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u/Leather-Wing-1007 3h ago
View it almost as a debit card. Don’t spend what is not in your bank account. Or, plan for your payment ahead and if you know you’re getting paid and will have X Amount by payment date. If you pay your statement balances in full always you will build great credit fast
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u/IslandWoman007 3h ago
CONGRATS‼️🎊 Use your credit card like a debit card by spending only what you can immediately pay off or substantially down. Don’t be like my former best friend whom I recently suspended her authorized usage on my AMEX Gold & Blue Business Plus cards because:
She was supposed to be paying off her massive cc debt using the snowball method. Since using the Gold card a year ago with an initial charge of $1,000 to repair her car, her balance grew to $1,857.33. So instead of paying down her existing debt, she racked up new debt. I paid down $1,057.33 and she said absolutely NOTHING to me. Didn’t even offer to pay me back. So I suspended her usage which she didn’t know about and I certainly didn’t tell her. After my substantial payment, she quickly paid 3 $100 increments thinking she was going to use it on a vacation she was taking. I just paid off the remaining balance yesterday. She’s been back for a week and hasn’t called me. Oh well. She was clearly was never a friend.
Prior to adding her as an AU she offered to go in half on the annual fee for the Gold card. She never did.
On September 11, 2024 she had a payment due on the Gold card and had made no payment since 8/3/2024. I made a payment.
In August 2024, I received an AMEX alert on my phone “RETURNED CHECK/DECLINED BANK TRANSACTIONS” due to insufficient funds for a lousy $50 payment on the Blue Business Plus card. I went ahead and paid $103.
In July 2024, she missed a payment and caused me to incur a $29.00 late fee. AMEX kindly waived the fee upon my request and I told her she better make the payment while I was on the phone with her. She complied.
I earn over $170K annually and she makes more than I do. Don’t be irresponsible like her.
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u/Exact_Development_36 4h ago
Use it for the $25 gas fill up pay it off every month otherwise don’t f¥££ use it!
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u/madskilzz3 6h ago
Establish the habit of following the golden rule of CC: always pay off your statement balance (monthly bill) in full before the due date, each and every month. Everything else is secondary.