The Wong Ohana

Something else that will help you build your credit is to pay off your card completely periodically.

Credit Reporting Agencies look very favorably on you when you pay a card in full. One thing that I recommend in order to be able to take advantage of this is to get a gas card for your car. Its one of the easiest Credit Cards to get. Even a teenager just starting out with no credit at all will be able to qualify for a gas card. In fact that’s one of the things I recommended to my own kids to get started building their credit when they were teens. If you have a gas card and charge your gas, then pay it off every month, you’ll build credit a lot faster, and improve your score quicker than if you buy something large like a car and just keep paying the monthly payments.

If you are concerned about budgeting for this, then just start out using your card once a month. That way you’ll know that you’ll always have the money to pay it off when the bill comes in. Another easy way to budget for this is to make your purchase, then when you get home, take the cash you would have used, and put it into an envelope and seal it. Designate a drawer in your desk for these envelopes and then each time you use the card, repeat this and fill another envelope until your bill comes in the mail.

This just ensures that its not as easy to dip into that ready cash for incidentals when the wallet is empty. It has to be safe so that you’ll have money in the bank to pay your bill. So as stupid as you’ll feel - SEAL THAT ENVELOPE! Its not that you can’t get into it, but it should make you think twice before you attempt it!

You can do the same thing with a Department Store Credit Card like Target, JC Penny’s, Sears, etc. These are all very easy to qualify for. If you just buy some makeup, a new wallet, pair of socks, kleenex, toilet paper it won’t cost much. At Target you can even get a slice of pizza or hot pretzel - anything small so you’re not racking up debt (THIS IS THE KEY!!!). You have to be able to trust yourself not to use these cards for purchasing power, but just for helping to improve your credit. Make very small purchases, it doesn’t matter how little you spend as long as you pay it off each month.

By charging on a regular basis and paying the card off each time, you will be amazed how fast your Credit Score will start to rise. Its an easy and do-able trick for raising your Credit Score quickly.

Now, some Credit Card Companies will have a fee for exceeding a certain amount of payments per month.  SOME Credit Card Companies will do this, but not all. It only takes a phone call to ask if they report the Credit for all authorized names on the account. If they say they report on only the Primary on the account, you can REQUEST that they report for all authorized users.

Once again, its a question of knowing what you can request. Its really amazing. when I say that everything is negotiable, I really do mean EVERYTHING!

Did you know that you can also call and request that your annual fee be removed? They will be more apt to do this if you have been a member for a number of years in good standing. All you have to do is to tell them that you are getting multiple offers from other Credit Cards that don’t require an annual fee and that it certainly would make their card more enticing to keep if they could please remove the annual fee so you don’t have to transfer the funds to another company.

Now, you may have to ask for a Manager or Supervisor, but you should eventually get to the right person who will be happy to remove that $25 or $50 charge in order to keep your business. Now you might not think its worth it for a small amount like that, but if you keep that card for 15 or 20 years, do the math! It adds up. And if you think $25 is too small to make a phone call for, I’ll send you my eGold number and you can just transfer it to my account because I think $25 is a lot of money, and will make any number of calls to get it back if I think I’ve paid it unnecessarily.

If you think that there is ANYTHING different about your card that other cards offer or don’t offer, don’t automatically think, “Well MY card doesn’t do that”. CALL THEM UP AND ASK! I can’t stress this enough. There is very little that you can’t call and request a change on! And if you’re very FRIENDLY and NICE, they will typically be very friendly and nice back to you. Maybe the first person won’t help you, so go to the next one, and the next.

Treat this Credit Card Game just like being a teenager on the dance floor. Don’t go home just because the first girl won’t dance. You have to keep asking. You’ll eventually find one that will.

I helped a friend with her credit a number of years ago by putting her name on my card. Unfortunately she also had buying power and misused that power to the degree that I had to eventually call the Credit Card Company and tell them that she no longer was authorized to purchase, yet because I never closed the account and opened a new one, her name is still on the authorization form. To this day, 8-10 years later, she still benefits from the benefit of my excellent Credit Rating. I know this for a fact because she called me on the phone and asked why I had changed the lmit on my card, because this was affecting her credit. I had to explain to her in detail that what I had done was actually helping her credit and that it was her not paying her bills on time that was affecting it in a negative way. She won’t fully understand this until the day I get this card paid off in full and can close it completely. THAT day will be a rude awakening for her, to be sure because she will then have to rely on her own activity to establish her credit, which I know from her history will fall into a deep dark hole very quickly.

Every positive action on your credit card can counter a negative, so the benefit of all my good credit over the years on this card has helped her rating incredibly! She has since purchased a new car and gotten a nice apartment. Before I helped her out she couldn’t even get a gas card her credit was so bad, and she was living in a room in someone’s house because she couldn’t qualify for a rental agreement. Her car was repossessed due to non-payment, and she had NO Credit Cards at all because she couldn’t qualify. By just adding her name to one card, it made a big difference in a very short period of time.

All you have to do is to make a phone call and ask the Credit Card Company whose Credit Report will be affected by their reportings. I’ve found that very few these days only report to one authorized member. And if that is the case, ask them to change it - Its really that easy.

Filed under: Credit Card DOs and DON'Ts, FIX / REPAIR Your Credit, Personal Finances on January 11th, 2008