credit report

I remember fondly my days before I found my way onto the grid. The grid is a weird, weird thing.

Ooooooooh. Not to be seen as lecturing or anything, but I agree that it wouldn’t hurt to pick up a credit card and pay it off every month (without incurring interest). However, if you ever decide to buy a house, some lenders will accept alternate credit - like cell phone bills, rent, electric payments, etc. But seriously, just one card is not a bad idea.

I didn’t have much credit when I bought my house, so the bounced 14 dollar check I’d written to Papa Johns five years before that had been submitted to a collection agency was glaringly obvious on my report.

I know people that are in the same boat as you, and some have a credit card that they just pay their monthly bills with. So those all get paid automatically, and then you just write one check to the CC company and BAM! instant credit on stuff you’d be paying anyway. And with more credit, the less glaring the bounced pizza checks.

An old roommate of mine bounced a check to Pizza Hut 18 years ago. I’ve moved three toimes since then, but kept the same phone number.

Thanks to the joys of technology and caller ID, Pizza Hut still won’t take my check.

Fuggem.

When I got my first mortgage (back in the late 18th century) my agent told me, “Sometimes having no credit is worse than having bad credit.” Take care of it now. Later on, you’ll be glad you did.

stay off the grid! Really that’s my two cents. I’ve used credit cards, done fine with them, and then decided they weren’t worth it. Then months later someone steals my identity, pain in the butt. If your thinking about buying a house or car some day, do it with cash, then you never need “the grid”

Credit is overrated. My buddy and his wife just bought a house w/ zero credit. They had to take the extra step of getting letters from utility companies, but that was about it.