Just got our credit scores

[disneysteve]

I finally got around to applying to refinance our mortgage. I just got off the phone with the rep. He pulled up our credit reports while I was speaking with him and gave me our scores.

Me: 815
Wife: 802

Must be doing something right.

[Ima saver]

Good scores!!

[JoshuaHeckathorn]

Nice...your wife must be jealous of your superior credit worthiness :-).

[minnie1928]

We're doing the same thing (refinancing) and we just got our scores. My husband got a kick out of the fact that his score is 10 points higher than mine.

[littleroc02us]

expand a little so we can all learn what you have done.

[disneysteve]

expand a little so we can all learn what you have done.

No big secrets. We pay all of our bills in full and on time every month. No late payments. No credit card balances. Any loans we've ever had were paid off early. We keep our credit card utilization at about 3-4% typically. We don't apply for a dozen different cards just to save $5 on a store purchase.

[Broken Arrow]

Wow, that is excellent!

[littleroc02us]

Excellent, see I'm a little bit torn in many ways. I do everything you do, but my wife who is the queen of frugalness likes to keep one credit card (oxymoron) around for Gas and Groceries and we pay it off each month. We don't have any debt, we paid for our cars with cash and are paying off are mortgage as we speak. The problem is that I am a huge David Ramsey fan and I agree with most everything he says except the one credit card idea thing, mostly because it's my wives idea. In 2003 I nearly went bankrupt and my credit score was down to like 498. I have built it back up to 740 and my wife has around 830. I am personally trying to develop my own philosphy and ideas but have strong influence from David Ramsey. The hardest part is deciding between having a credit score and not, because he has proven you don't need one. The only reason I'm struggling is because I don't believe in anything the FICO score stands for. We all know how the credit score worked in determining a consumers ability to buy a house and pay the mortgage. Hence the record foreclosures. Plus I plan on one day paying for a house in cash. So, it's a work in progress for me.

[GREENBACK]

No big secrets. We pay all of our bills in full and on time every month. No late payments. No credit card balances. Any loans we've ever had were paid off early. We keep our credit card utilization at about 3-4% typically. We don't apply for a dozen different cards just to save $5 on a store purchase.

It's amazing how being responsible and taking care of bills will jack up your credit score

[disneysteve]

my wife who is the queen of frugalness likes to keep one credit card (oxymoron) around for Gas and Groceries and we pay it off each month.

I am a huge David Ramsey fan and I agree with most everything he says except the one credit card idea thing

Why is being frugal and having a credit card an oxymoron? If you only use the card for purchases that you can afford and would make anyway and you pay the bill in full every month, I see no problem with that.

I have also become a Dave Ramsey fan in recent months and listen to his podcast every day. Like you, I disagree on the credit card issue. If you can't control yourself and use the card to buy things you don't need and can't afford, that's one thing. If, however, you are like me and you and only use the card to make purchase that you would make anyway, like gas and groceries, why not have the consumer protection, rewards and safety of not carrying lots of cash?

[minnie1928]

Why is being frugal and having a credit card an oxymoron? If you only use the card for purchases that you can afford and would make anyway and you pay the bill in full every month, I see no problem with that.

I have also become a Dave Ramsey fan in recent months and listen to his podcast every day. Like you, I disagree on the credit card issue. If you can't control yourself and use the card to buy things you don't need and can't afford, that's one thing. If, however, you are like me and you and only use the card to make purchase that you would make anyway, like gas and groceries, why not have the consumer protection, rewards and safety of not carrying lots of cash?

Totally agree! I love my credit card rewards and my fabulous credit score. But, I'm also frugal. But some of the hard core DR fans just dig in and won't relent on the whole "credit cards are evil" mindset. Cards aren't evil...they are simply another financial tool. They can't do anything without your permission.

[littleroc02us]

Because the idea of using credit cards is saying that you are borrowing someone else's money and then paying it back, whereas I use my Visa Check Card, which has all the same protections as a regular credit card and it immediately deducts it from my checking account but doesn't bump up my FICO score. I don't carry cash around except for when we use the envelope system, but they are in a safe in our house. It's not that I can't control my spending habits, I can, we have a budget that we follow strictly and I know where the majority of it goes. The risk of credit cards are things like forgetting to make payment, or you do, but somehow the cc company messes up the online payment. Maybe you forget to look at the fine print and suddenly they start charging a yearly fee for it. In fact right now my wives Discover card had fraud on it, they cancelled the card, it took a week to get another and then we are still waiting a month later for them to figure it all out. With my bankcard if they make a mistake, it has been fixed immediately. Plus with cash, I don't have problems with fraud.

[GREENBACK]

Credit cards are "evil" for those who can't control their spending. I've used them for a long time and have benefitted from it. D.R. is talking to the financially irresponsible who need to get their financial life in order. He knows his audience and that's who he's speaking to. I wish I had come up with the idea first.

[littleroc02us]

Credit cards are "evil" for those who can't control their spending. I've used them for a long time and have benefitted from it. D.R. is talking to the financially irresponsible who need to get their financial life in order. He knows his audience and that's who he's speaking to. I wish I had come up with the idea first.

He didn't come up with most of his ideas. Alot of them are biblical and from old school mentality, where if you don't have the money for something you don't buy it. Then credit cards came along and have been the demise of many. I too believe you can use them responsibly, but they are just to easy and are harder to track spending habits. An interesting question to those who enjoy using credit cards is "Do you write down and track all your spenditures from your credit card purchases or do you just spend as much as you want and then pay whatever that amount off is?" To me that would not sound like budgeting or knowing where your money is going if you don't track your usage and have a spending limit.

What we do is set put a limit on are spending with our Discover card of $250 Groceries and $200 for gas for the month and that is what we are budgeted.

[GREENBACK]

He didn't come up with most of his ideas. Alot of them are biblical and from old school mentality, where if you don't have the money for something you don't buy it. Then credit cards came along and have been the demise of many. I too believe you can use them responsibly, but they are just to easy and are harder to track spending habits. An interesting question to those who enjoy using credit cards is "Do you write down and track all your spenditures from your credit card purchases or do you just spend as much as you want and then pay whatever that amount off is?" To me that would not sound like budgeting or knowing where your money is going if you don't track your usage and have a spending limit.

What we do is set put a limit on are spending with our Discover card of $250 Groceries and $200 for gas for the month and that is what we are budgeted.

You're correct but CC's are a financial tool and it's up to the individual to properly handle the inherent risk involved. I get the biblical message from D.R. but a little plastic card isn't the reason most people get in trouble financially. It wasn't years ago and it isn't now. "old school" is paying your bills ontime regardless of how they were created.