[maddy42]

Originally Posted by K.S.

Another Phoenician!! Wow. Do we have any t-bhp meet ups in PHX?

You happen to be the first person!

[mazda4life]

Originally Posted by maddy42

You happen to be the first person!

Guys, I am in Phoenix as well ...

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by mazda4life

Guys, I am in Phoenix as well ...

Hmmm and something tells me that you drive a Mazda

I guess I am the only T-BHPian up in the north eastern part of this country. The part from where everything else is far far away.

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Hmmm and something tells me that you drive a Mazda

I guess I am the only T-BHPian up in the north eastern part of this country. The part from where everything else is far far away.

I used to be up there in Rhode Island till July.. moved to Chicago area after that..

[Technocrat]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Hmmm and something tells me that you drive a Mazda

I guess I am the only T-BHPian up in the north eastern part of this country. The part from where everything else is far far away.

Oye you forgot me

Btw all this talk about Loan is making me wonder if I was Stupid to buy my car in Cash

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

I used to be up there in Rhode Island till July.. moved to Chicago area after that..

RI is a nice place too, though i have not explored it beyond the Cliff Walk.

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Oye you forgot me

No man I didnt forget you and that is because you are four hours closer to everywhere else than me!

And regarding buying car in cash. That is the best thing to do!! The feeling of being debt free in this country is priceless!

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Turns out the BofA secured credit card that had 300 USD limit really dinged my score because almost every two-three weeks i was using it upto 250-280 USD and then paying it off. Just the fact that i was reaching the credit limit so regularly (even though it is ridiculously low) affected my score.

Anyway, lesson learnt!

I keep hearing about Secured Credit Card. Why do people go for it and how does it compare to regular credit card?

What you did with secured CC, i do the same with regular CC though i don't reach maximum limit. I think having a secured CC with lower limit is more of a con than a pro.

Please through light on this.

thanks

Originally Posted by maddy42

They asked me if i want to check with another agency coz they could offer a rate of 1.99% and i was just 10 points away. Did accept and they got back to me in a min and said i am approved at 1.99% if i make a direct deposit to dcu or 2.4% if i dont.

Accepted the offer. Now i have transferred to DCU and they will be paying off my amount due with my previous agency.

That's a great rate for a used car.

Originally Posted by maddy42

I am currently in the process of getting my loan via dcu. It is a refinance as the dealer killed me with 10% rate. Last i tried like a year back and was told by DCU to apply after a year or after building some history.

What was mentioned is absolutely true. If your willing to wait build a score and then buy or else you would be taking a hit financially.

In past month, due to Corvette, my credit have been through 3-4 banks for the loan. I think i am gonna take a break and build up credit for a year and refinance again since i already refinanced it in <30 days. Since its over 30 days, if i do it again, it will be a fresh hit on credit thereby lowering it even more than it currently is.

[Technocrat]

Originally Posted by chevelle

I keep hearing about Secured Credit Card. Why do people go for it and how does it compare to regular credit card?

I got a Secured Credit car from BofA in the initial days, I could have got a non secured one too but that would not have helped in building a Credit score. So used this one much below the limit($500) & after a year or so I was eligible for a regular credit card as I had some decent Score, so cancelled the secured card & got the new one.

So that's how it helped me build some score & get a regular credit card, thinking of doing the same for my Wife, unless there is another simple way to do this.

[kraft.wagen]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Hmmm and something tells me that you drive a Mazda

I guess I am the only T-BHPian up in the north eastern part of this country. The part from where everything else is far far away.

I work from Boston for the next month

Originally Posted by chevelle

I keep hearing about Secured Credit Card. Why do people go for it and how does it compare to regular credit card?

What you did with secured CC, i do the same with regular CC though i don't reach maximum limit. I think having a secured CC with lower limit is more of a con than a pro.

When you are new in US with no credit history, Secure CC is the way to start off. You can pay BoFA any amount and get a card for that value. Apparently it builds your score if you make on time payments. And I guess you cannot get a regular CC until you've a score on your history, so this Secure CC is a great wat to start. It did for me

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by kraft.wagen

When you are new in US with no credit history, Secure CC is the way to start off. You can pay BoFA any amount and get a card for that value. Apparently it builds your score if you make on time payments. And I guess you cannot get a regular CC until you've a score on your history, so this Secure CC is a great wat to start. It did for me

Originally Posted by Technocrat

I got a Secured Credit car from BofA in the initial days, I could have got a non secured one too but that would not have helped in building a Credit score. So used this one much below the limit($500) & after a year or so I was eligible for a regular credit card as I had some decent Score, so cancelled the secured card & got the new one.

So that's how it helped me build some score & get a regular credit card, thinking of doing the same for my Wife, unless there is another simple way to do this.

5 years back, when i went to BofA to open a checking's account, i also applied for unsecured, regular credit card. I was new with no history, not even a ssn which i got 5 months later. They approved my application based on passport and i-20 with a starting credit of $700 and no interest for 6 months. I did the same for my wife 3 years back.

At that time, i had no idea of secured credit card. Also, for 3 years, i never checked my credit history but i kept applying various credit cards from AX and other store credit cards. When i did see my history for first time - 3 yrs later, i was surprised it was above 700 considering i had so many cards(5) in < 1 yr since i was in USA and all of them were used regularly and paid off before due date.

It would be a great idea to compare a credit history with a secured credit card and one without. That would be a good way to know which one works better.

P.S: I didn't have a car then which worked in my favor i guess. I did pay other bills on time to avoid any black marks on history. I do have one when i failed to pay $0.32 before due date which always shows up in my history and one that i will regret for long time.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by chevelle

I keep hearing about Secured Credit Card. Why do people go for it and how does it compare to regular credit card?

What you did with secured CC, i do the same with regular CC though i don't reach maximum limit. I think having a secured CC with lower limit is more of a con than a pro.

Please through light on this.

The only difference between secured CC and unsecured one is that you have a higher credit limit on an unsecured card whereas on a secured one, it is as much as you put up initially as security.

Both are equally good for building credit as long as you keep your spending on each card below 60-70% of the total limit, even if you are paying off regularly.

I had to go for a secure credit card because that is what BofA would let me have. Later on DCU gave me an unsecured one as well.

Originally Posted by Technocrat

I got a Secured Credit car from BofA in the initial days, I could have got a non secured one too but that would not have helped in building a Credit score. So used this one much below the limit($500) & after a year or so I was eligible for a regular credit card as I had some decent Score, so cancelled the secured card & got the new one.

So that's how it helped me build some score & get a regular credit card, thinking of doing the same for my Wife, unless there is another simple way to do this.

A simpler way to build credit is to get a car loan in your wife's name Put the cash amount in a savings account and set up regular automatic loan payments from that account.

You did the wise thing of using your secured card much below the limit.

Originally Posted by kraft.wagen

I work from Boston for the next month

Nice! Boston is a nice small metro. Where are you right now?

[Gandhi]

Do you guys use any website to keep track of your credit score? I use creditkarma.com and it's pretty good. It may not show the same score as used by some agencies but it gives you a very good idea. You can see patterns of how the score gets affected by your actions like new credit card, spending ratio to credit limit, on-time payments etc.

Another thing to remember is your employer matters a lot when applying for credit card, loan etc. If you work for a big gun, things can be way more easier. For example, I got a unsecured credit card from BoA on the day 1 with 10k credit limit, just because I work for this company. Same goes for my loan from TechCU. So find out about the employer and tie-ups they have with different banks, financial institutes.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Do you guys use any website to keep track of your credit score? I use creditkarma.com and it's pretty good. It may not show the same score as used by some agencies but it gives you a very good idea. You can see patterns of how the score gets affected by your actions like new credit card, spending ratio to credit limit, on-time payments etc.

Another thing to remember is your employer matters a lot when applying for credit card, loan etc. If you work for a big gun, things can be way more easier. For example, I got a unsecured credit card from BoA on the day 1 with 10k credit limit, just because I work for this company. Same goes for my loan from TechCU. So find out about the employer and tie-ups they have with different banks, financial institutes.

I used Creditkarma for a little while. But it gave me absurdly low score compared to what was showing on experian and other 2 websites. I also didn't hear favorable reviews for that website many citing concerns about the website asking to pay to continue and all that stuff. So i closed it.

I think we are eligible for a free credit score once a year from any of the 3 credit score company. When you open a bank account, you can request a free credit check. In Dec 2012, Wells Fargo had this offer of giving free credit score code for all customers provided by Experian.

Yes, employers does play a big role in how much credit limit you get. It is also based on the annual salary and rent/mortgage that you put in credit card application.

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by amitoj

RI is a nice place too, though i have not explored it beyond the Cliff Walk.

You should visit in Spring/Summer. The mansions of newport and the river fire festival etc. are good times to visit the area. Newport and the surrounding areas are good little day trips for you from NH.

[Technocrat]

Originally Posted by chevelle

5 years back, when i went to BofA to open a checking's account, i also applied for unsecured, regular credit card. I was new with no history, not even a ssn which i got 5 months later. They approved my application based on passport and i-20 with a starting credit of $700 and no interest for 6 months. I did the same for my wife 3 years back.

Originally Posted by amitoj

The only difference between secured CC and unsecured one is that you have a higher credit limit on an unsecured card whereas on a secured one, it is as much as you put up initially as security.

Both are equally good for building credit as long as you keep your spending on each card below 60-70% of the total limit, even if you are paying off regularly.

You did the wise thing of using your secured card much below the limit.

From what I have been Told, the unsecured ones dont have any impact on your credit score & hence wont let you build a Credit History. So it was probably your lease agreement or something else which helped you build your credit history.

My Advisory was good, she asked me what is it that I am looking for in a Credit Card, I told her that I dont want it for getting a credit but for building up a good credit score, that's when she suggested me the secured one & told me not to use the full limit. also asked me to check with her after a year to switch to a regular card with better limit. I did exactly that & I think I am good.

I have so far applied for only 3 credit cards so far & have 2 of them with me. I am not much of a fan of credit cards with huge limit, I only yes them to get cash back & to schedule my monthly outflows in one shot. Any other advantages are pure bonus.

Originally Posted by amitoj

A simpler way to build credit is to get a car loan in your wife's name Put the cash amount in a savings account and set up regular automatic loan payments from that account.

I would be lying if I say that thought didn't occur to me But the very thought of additional Insurance premium scares me as I already pay a hell lot already, new driver + NJ. Besides my car is there for my wife to drive anytime she wants to (She is yet to get a license but that is another story, hopefully this should happen soon). I commute using public transport so the car is at home all day, another car would be an overkill but maybe once my premium is at more sane levels, I might get tempted for a nice little coupe

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

You should visit in Spring/Summer. The mansions of newport and the river fire festival etc. are good times to visit the area. Newport and the surrounding areas are good little day trips for you from NH.

Oh yes, the Newport mansions Especially the Vanderbilt Breaker's Mansion is worth visiting from any part of the world.