I am sick of people saying that. if a store refuses cash. Don't shop there. You don't need credit to buy a house. If you don't get in to debt to begin with you will save your money so quickly you can buy a house all at once. No debt what so ever.
shareYeah, I'd love to see what kind of house you buy with your handful of cash. Who has hundreds of thousands of dollars in CASH saved up in a bank? I'll give you a hint....not many.
You need credit in order to get a loan, mortgage, buy a car. Credit has become an essential function of purchasing goods and commodities. No one has that much expendable cash on hand unles they are extremely wealthy, or extremely ignorant.
JMitchell is correct. You DO need credit for all sorts of things and the easiest and best way to build credit is with credit CARDS!
Wish Dave Ramsey's blind followers would understand this.
Yes, available credit does not equal debt. Dave Ramsey serves a purpose for those who can't control their impulses.
Treat your credit card like you would your debit card. If you can't PIF (pay in full) at the due date, don't buy.
By using your credit card instead of your debit card you get to use the banks money for around 30-40 days interest free. You also get much better purchase protection (charge back if the merchant screws you or refuses to refund if it is defective). Much better Identity theft protection AND if you have a rewards/cashback card you get well, cashback/rewards.
Just use it as a debit card and ALWAYS pay in full (no interest).
"Ahh the internet. Where men are men, women are men, and children are cops!"
Wow! Perfect example of media brain washing!
shareSomething tells me kincaid doesn't even have a house.
shareI guess if I watched regular TV all the time like the rest of you and saw a visa commercial every 5 minutes I would probably think otherwise.
share"You don't need credit to buy a house."
OK, let's say you are 25 years old and you have like...nothing saved. Let's also say a house is $250,000 and you are a really good saver and you can put away enough to save $10,000 per year (including interest and losses). You will be able to buy that house outright in 25 years, when you are 50, if it stays at $250,000, which it probably won't. (Could easily double, even with what's happening today)
Even if it does stay at $250,000 you will still need someplace to live for 25 years, so you will pay rent instead of interest. Interest is just a kind of rent (rent of money, actually) so other than mortage interest being tax deductable it's basically the same thing.
-except rent will continually increase during the 25 years, but if you were paying a mortgage the whole time those payments would stay the same. Since you get paid a little more every year, the mortage payment seems like less.
So there is nothing wrong with borrowing money to buy a house. Even with the depressed real estate market if I sold my house right now I'd get every penny of down payment, mortgage payments and even taxes back. In a warped way of looking at it, this means I've lived here all these years for free!
It's just like everything else in life: you need to be honest with yourself and not get in over your head. That's the hard part, and the reason we have such a mess today.
I hear it all the time "You have to have a credit card." (as of yet anyway) there is no law that you need a credit card.
shareAt least in the US the law of the land is cash is good for everything: "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private".
It's just certain things like renting a car where it really makes sense they demand a credit card. Here you are working at the rent-a-car counter and the customer hands you two crisp 100 dollar bills, what do you give them in return? -a $25,000 automobile which you can do $5,000 damage to without even going too fast. Their right to demand a credit card isn't really supported by law, but it has a certain logic to it.
Personally I think that in the wrong hands credit cards are roughly the economic equivalent of a box of matches. It's so easy to just buy everything you want and be way over your head before you realize it. I have a nephew who got his card and found himself $5,000 behind buying video games on a salary not too much higher than minimum wage.
We have sex education and driver's education in School: both great ideas. When are we going to get our kids "Money Education"? The average person's ignorance of how credit works is playing a pretty heavy role in the mess we are in right now.
> Wow! Perfect example of media brain washing!
Either you are not reading what he wrote or not understanding.
The correct way to use credit cards is to pay off your balance in full every month. That way you pay no interest and no fees.
Zero.
Those credit card companies on TV are trying to get you to go OVER your limits so you cannot pay.
The folks in this thread are explaining how to do the opposite of what the credit card companies want you to do.
Opposite. Look up that word in a dictionary.
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What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?
You don't NEED a credit card.
There is a difference between credit and credit cards. You have to have credit. You don't have to have a credit card. You need credit for a mortgage or car loan. But there is NO reason you need a credit card!
shareThere is if you need to build a good credit rating
Blessed are the cheesemakers
Ah but therein lies the rub. Why do you need a credit card to have a good credit score? Doesn't anyone else see how messed up that is? With the advent of Debit cards and being able to use that in place of a credit card you don't need a credit card. You can build credit by paying your bills on time and taking out small loans and paying them back on time. That's how it should be. Your credit score shouldn't be dependant on your slavery to credit card companies and their abominable rates.
I just took out a small car loan and got 8.7% interest rate. My credit is in the fair to good score because I don't have credit cards and have a few small medical bills in collection.
"Do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else" -Whitman
Please explain to me how do you get a mortgage (with the exception of coming from wealth) without building a credit history? No one is going to lend money without a history. The only way to build a history is credit or maybe you know someting I dont. Now if you have a trust fund or rich relatives willing to back you then don't answer this question.
shareStudent loans, bank records, bill payment, responsible debit card use; lot's of things.
You can definitely buy a house without a credit card history, you just need a good credit history.
I love all these dorks saying you need credit to get a car. HOGWASH! You can get a quality auto for say 4 grand which is easy to save if you don't borrow money.
Drive the 4 grand car until you're ready to upgrade and pay CASH and cash only. Act your wage.
To have a half way decent FICO score, you need to have at least one underutilized revolving account.
share
There is a difference between credit and credit cards. You have to have credit. You don't have to have a credit card. You need credit for a mortgage or car loan. But there is NO reason you need a credit card!
"You do not need to buy a house. You can rent. You do not need to buy a car either. If you really want one, you can pay cash."
It's becoming increasingly common for landlords to run a credit check prior to signing a lease. My employer also runs credit checks as part of background checks and employment applications.
If you do not have a credit card, then you will not have any bad marks against your credit rating, assuming you did not make them before getting rid of all your cards.
My approach, or at least my ideal approach, is to have credit cards, but treat them like debit cards. In other words, not only pay off the statement balance every month, but also pay off charges not yet acknowledged by the statement.
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A dope trailer is no place for a kitty.
Why is every house 250,000 dollars to some people. After renting a house for just over 8 years(got the apartment when I was 18 and moved out of it when I was 26). When I moved out of the apartment I had saved just over 40 thousand. That was enough to buy a house. It was not a fancy house at all but it was a house and I payed in cash for it.
I was not rich nor was anyone in my family rich at all.
You man enough to back em' up with more than just a pie plate?
One of two things:
a.) It was a crappy house located in a not so good area
b.) You bought it at a time when the housing market was not crap.
THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR. COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS HERE!!!