Thread: Best way for 19 year old w/ good credit score to make it better

Hi was wondering what you think and could give any advice. I have 1 credit card from my credit union (visa been open about 1.5y) with $1000 limit, also $500 line of credit also with them

i just recently got a card from best buy with a $1800 limit, don't know if that was a bad idea lol....last time i checked my credit score was 720 now with the best buy in there probably drop to 700

i have about 360,000 points on my Marriott rewards wondering if i should apply for their credit card ? any advice on what to do next to help my credit ? loan, certain credit card, increase credit line (banks max is 20k) i think im doing pretty good for my age 19 but i can always do better . thanks

Let's start from the beginning. congrats on your union visa card.. so you have something from best buy is that a store charge card or is it the mastercard?

you have 360,000 Marriott points. Normally I would say since you are 19 you probably don't travel on business so why would you want a business card. But if you stay at Marriott and you get this kind of points, go ahead and try applying. absolutely go for the card.

Never ask for credit increase if your union wants you only to have a 1,000 limit DO NOT ASK FOR A INCREASE. what you do is you go around from places you like and use your card little by little some months you spend 200 a month, some 350 a month,400 a month and sometimes even 100 a month. I'm going to assume since you are 19 you live at home with your parents so when you go out to dinner, let them use their card. If you have a significant other and you go to restaurants, go to chain restaurants like Fridays, Houghlahans etc.

once your credit card company sees you use very little on your card, they will increase your limit. But you have to pay your bill in full.

Thanks and the card from best buy i believe is a MC from HSBC, also i do not travel on business me and my family stay at Marriott from time to time that's why i have so many points.

my credit card is $1000 because at the time when i was 18 i got a secured visa from them after a year i requested to have it unsecured and they left me with that credit limit also at the same time they approved me for a line of credit on my debit card for $500 which i also requested (over draft is a killer lol) because of my checking account i use to leave everything in the money market. to me the LOC is like a small loan which i always pay off before the month is up. i use my credit card for my cell phone bill and shopping from time to time

I do events from time to time you think increasing the LOC would be in my best bet as a short loan i can always tap into instead of doing personal loans or securing loans there interest is 9% to 15%, interest on the LOC is at 6% which doesn't really matter because the debt wont be carried over to the next month

is there any card that has the best rewards for my use my visa gives me none , i was thinking amex later on

I see you have a union Visa credit card and a best buy Mastercard. A Marriott visa is very appropriate for somebody like you. since you don't travel on business except for the Marriott, we don't need to discuss airline or hotel credit cards.

I have an idea. why not keep both your union Visa and Best buy mastercard, try them out for a year and see how you like the cards. you mentioned that your union visa gives no rewards, that could be because you are 19 and just starting out and they want to see how you manage paying your bills or it could be your particular union offers no reward.

I can suggest some wonderful rewards cards just let me know if your looking for airline miles, cash back or if you want to stay put and try these 2 cards out for a year? Congrats on both your Visa and Mastercard.

Thank you, the kind of card im looking for is one that gives cash back

Discover is a wonderful card my membership on my card says 1998. you get 1% back on purchases. so let's say you go to your gap
and you spend on clothes 75.00 dollars you would get back 1% of that bill, of course your monthly statement is just your business.
they also have rotating categorys where you ge 5% back. But they have caps. sometimes they will have 5 percent back on clothing,
Hotels , drug stores , grocery stores, Home improvements , of course department stores. they usualy do 4 at a time.
so right now there doing theme parks, Hotels , movies and gas.
heres the catch there caps are low some times it can be up to 500 a month, some times 600 , 400 , right now were at 300 they usualy run
for 3 months.

heres the other situation Discover isn't as widley accepted as the other 3. If you do go for this card places you go to I would ask if they take Discover. I love my card.

another card is the Chase freedom, I had a Chase Platinum I came over from another bank called first card. they put my member since
on the card it was 1995, with the freedom they took it off and after writing a 3 page letter the'yre unable to do anything about it so I canceled my card. I do know a few things you do get back 1% on purchases, they also have rotating categorys there doing gas at this time of year like Discover. 5% however because Visa is more widley accepted they probably have larger caps.
acceptance with the freedom you won't have to worry about.

there are 2 cards with cash back.

Originally Posted by krazzieyez

Thank you, the kind of card im looking for is one that gives cash back

This might be helpful.

Best Cash Back Credit Cards For 2011

sorry for the late response been busy, thank you for your advice it was very helpful