Was just talking to a new grad and realized this credit card and credit score thing is filled with disinformation and confusing… So if you are new to credit here are the three things to do to maximize your credit score
- Get free credit cards as soon as possible. I’d recommend in this order. Discover It, Chase Freedom and Amazon Prime Store Card. These are no fee and do them on the same day as you don’t want to generate too many “hard pulls” on your credit history. You want to start early because the average life of the cards is important to credit history. Discover student is a great way to start. And you can look at your actual FICO scores and know when ur at 750 plus.
- Pay off the cards every month one day before it is due. Basically you never want to get into debt so treat them like debit cards. Setup autopay from your checking account. And have it pay off just before the due date. Credit scores are based on regular payment and also how much free credit you have. Ironically they want you to pay off all the time and never use it.
- Rock the discounts. Since you have a card use the discounts. Discover gives you rotating 5% off and right now 10% off on any Apple Pay. That’s a huge discount considering credit card fees are 1-2% for a merchant. So 5% is money losing which means you at winning. Chase Freedom is the same way. Rotating 5%. Use cashbackrewardmonitor.com to see how to maximize things. Amazon gives you 5% off if you are a Prime member.
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