If you have none, it can take a little while to establish credit. You may have to pay a deposit, but a cell phone can build your credit.
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Credit Check!!
- Thread starter Eric Noa
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If you have none, it can take a little while to establish credit. You may have to pay a deposit, but a cell phone can build your credit.
My advice:
1) Get only 1 credit card. No need for more. Most store cards aren't worth it. Get a chase visa or similar with a good point system for rewards.
2) pay off CC at the end of every month if possible.
3) Never miss any payments. If you're short one month, get someone to help you out and pay them back.
Some may argue that you build credit faster with a balance - not a high balance - but say you have $500 on your CC. If you pay it off slowly - like 1/2 at a time, it supposedly shows that you are responsible and can pay off loans if you don't have cash at that time. At one point when I was unemployed and had almost $2,000 on my card and thought i was going to have a heart attack
I just paid as much as I could , and then paid it off over time once I got another job.
I don't see how a cell phone bill will improve your credit - it won't. Run your credit through one of the 3 major corporations - I just checked mine yesterday as I do every year, and it shows every credit card and loan I've ever had. From my Express cc i got when i was 18, to the car loan I paid off, and my school loans. They don't show your cell phone history. They run your credit to see if you're likely to screw them over on payments within the next 2 years of your contract - that's all.
I've only been late on 1 payment ever - and it's on there. My car loan for $18k paid off in 5 years, and my CC have $0 balance monthly - I charge items, then pay them off in cash a couple days later via Chase's website.
My credit score is almost 800 and I'm only 25. It hasn't really gone up much in the past year either. I'm not THAT old. Just don't get in credit card debt like a lot of young kids do - I have my friends that are 25-30 years old and have $15k-$30k in cc debt (and a couple of them are buying the new iphone...why buy a $500 upgraded iPhone when you have $30,000 on your credit card?) MORONS
Credit builds with time. Just get a credit card and use it to buy stuff, then pay it off
1) Get only 1 credit card. No need for more. Most store cards aren't worth it. Get a chase visa or similar with a good point system for rewards.
2) pay off CC at the end of every month if possible.
3) Never miss any payments. If you're short one month, get someone to help you out and pay them back.
Some may argue that you build credit faster with a balance - not a high balance - but say you have $500 on your CC. If you pay it off slowly - like 1/2 at a time, it supposedly shows that you are responsible and can pay off loans if you don't have cash at that time. At one point when I was unemployed and had almost $2,000 on my card and thought i was going to have a heart attack
I just paid as much as I could , and then paid it off over time once I got another job. I don't see how a cell phone bill will improve your credit - it won't. Run your credit through one of the 3 major corporations - I just checked mine yesterday as I do every year, and it shows every credit card and loan I've ever had. From my Express cc i got when i was 18, to the car loan I paid off, and my school loans. They don't show your cell phone history. They run your credit to see if you're likely to screw them over on payments within the next 2 years of your contract - that's all.
I've only been late on 1 payment ever - and it's on there. My car loan for $18k paid off in 5 years, and my CC have $0 balance monthly - I charge items, then pay them off in cash a couple days later via Chase's website.
My credit score is almost 800 and I'm only 25. It hasn't really gone up much in the past year either. I'm not THAT old. Just don't get in credit card debt like a lot of young kids do - I have my friends that are 25-30 years old and have $15k-$30k in cc debt (and a couple of them are buying the new iphone...why buy a $500 upgraded iPhone when you have $30,000 on your credit card?) MORONS
Credit builds with time. Just get a credit card and use it to buy stuff, then pay it off
I called At&t about a week ago and they ran my credit. I wanted to make sure I was good to go. She said that they will run it again, but that they should hit on the fact she already checked it, and will not have to go through the whole process again. She said the second time they check should not affect my credit either.
They must have some weird sort of way of determining who needs a deposit and who doesnt. I have had credit for maybe 2 years, but its not great....and i called at&t to ask if they could try approving me for a plan to see if it would require a deposit. They did it and it came back with no deposit required. I was shocked. But glad. I never get approved for anything because im young and have little credit. I was scared it would be too good to be true when I tried to to order my iphone 4, but I got through apple.com and its being delivered and there wasn't an issue.
Companies report every 30 days. Unless your statement closes before the 25th, your score shouldn't be affected.
****! If I had known that they don't take action regarding deposits until you actually pick up the phone, I could have reserved one. What a bust.
No, they wanted me to pay for the phone and the deposit when I went to the store the other day for pre-ordering ($800) (ATT)
If you have no credit, then a deposit will be required. I'm in the same boat, a $500 boat that is
That's not true. I got one at 18 w/ no credit and no deposit.
Lucky you
Credit is hard to build and easy to flop on. I got a credit card at 18 and got my cell phone about a year later. Didn't need a deposit either. There is some back ground info that they look at for your credit to determine how "credit worthy" you are and i believe alot of it is run off of credit score.
Get a CC. Pay it off every month. Phone bills, electricity bills, and any other kind of bills will build credit since it proves that you can repay debt.
That's what I was told too. Can anyone else confirm this? Anyone reserve one last year?
Certainly makes sense. Would seem to cause a lot of problems if they waited until you pick up the phone and all of a sudden all of these phones were available because of bad credit.
Wouldn't you already have an ATT account for an upgrade? I don't think ATT cares about the phone, they are more concerned about the money for the plan.
Yes I do. But looking at my credit report a few days ago, I had an AT&T inquiry the past 2 June release dates.
No it won't. Mobile providers, just like utility companies only submit poor ratings when they are forced to send an account to collections.
I have had a cell phone for almost 15 years now, and never got a good report from any provider posted.
I had to put down a $500 deposit last year on my 3GS when I left my ex's family plan and began my own. Speaking of that, it was at the end of August. Haven't occurred a single late charge so that will be a nice payback in a couple months.
Blonde Buddhist
Blonde Buddhist
Question Related to Credit.
So I went into the AT&T store to pre-order mine (I've been a customer since 2007), and they said that they take your credit card, run it through, but the actual charge for the phone (in my situation it was $299) won't go through until it ships. What if for some random reason you reach your credit limit between now and then and then it gets declined? Can that happen? Or is it like pre-approved because they swiped my card and I got a receipt for $299 + whatever the tax was?
So I went into the AT&T store to pre-order mine (I've been a customer since 2007), and they said that they take your credit card, run it through, but the actual charge for the phone (in my situation it was $299) won't go through until it ships. What if for some random reason you reach your credit limit between now and then and then it gets declined? Can that happen? Or is it like pre-approved because they swiped my card and I got a receipt for $299 + whatever the tax was?
I talked to my mom about it and she said that I probably got the okay because she and my dad have AT&T accounts. We have TV & Internet with them too and we're not behind in payments.
It's kinda funny that we're not on a family plan, all of us pay it off on our own. I was a GoPhone customer, dropped them for T-Mobile, now coming back for Post-Paid.
It's kinda funny that we're not on a family plan, all of us pay it off on our own. I was a GoPhone customer, dropped them for T-Mobile, now coming back for Post-Paid.
Your giving bad advice !!!!!!!! Paying your balance in full every month is the worst thing to do on a CREDIT card. The credit card companies don't like you using their card as a convenience card. The best way is pay above the minimum on time each month.