20 November 2007 One Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

If you look at my files, I have four credit cards. But you won’t find three of them in my wallet. My credit card situation only gets weirder from there.

I’m a big believer in not buying on credit, but I try to make at least one purchase each month on my main credit card. I pay off the balance each month, because the entire purpose of the purchase is to make sure that my credit score is nice and healthy (buying a house is a short-term goal).

But those other three cards — why do I have them floating around? Well, one of them I didn’t actually ask for. Towards the end of college, I found myself desperately in need of a computer. I decided to take advantage of my student discount with Apple and got my nice little Mactop. I made a conscious choice to pay on installments, and my computer has definitely served me well. But rather that running their own credit program, Apple’s turned it over to Juniper Visa, who issues anyone getting credit a credit card for the appropriate amount.

I hate this approach. In a way, I feel it’s just a way to lure consumers into even more spending. It’s one thing to hand out credit cards to people that ask for them, and theoretically know what they’re in for. But sending out cards to people who aren’t expecting them is like bribing college kids to sign up for cards with t-shirts. That card that Juniper Visa sent me? I never even activated it. I cut it half and got rid of it immediately. The account is still open, though.

It’s that whole credit score thing. I’ve done a fair chunk of reading about them, and conventional wisdom seems to be that closing an account will actually lower your score. So I’m waiting to close my Juniper Visa account, along with two others: the ridiculously high interest card that I got in college for emergencies and the slightly better one I was able to get after that.

I’m not planning to keep all this plastic floating around, though. As I gradually establish other credit, through buying a home and other financial obligations, I’m getting rid of nasty high-interest credit cards.

My entire approach to credit cards is pure paranoia, admittedly. I’ve seen so many examples of people who, with the best of intentions, wound up with credit card debt. I feel it’s justified paranoia, though. If I could figure out a way to build a good credit score, I’d get rid of them right now.