Woo hoo!

[jobell]

For the first time in YEARS my bank-issued Visa has more money available than due. This was supposed to only be used for books in college, but the past two years were a bit tight on money so I would pay the minimum and then charge things to the card again to almost max it out. But now I have a steady income and can afford slightly larger payments

Comments

[wepeel]

If I may give some totally unsolicited advice? Since we got our mortgage through a state program we had to take a mandatory credit course (despite having excellent credit. Blah, whatever.) Anyway, once you pay the card off, don't close it out. Just hide it from yourself and don't use it. Cancelling it will shorten your credit history and that will hurt your FICO score. A longer history increases your score. In fact, the credit counselor said the best thing to do for your credit is to purchase one small thing a month and pay it off right away. It will continue to increase your credit score.

Anyway, that counts for cards held with a bank, anyway. They said store cards don't matter that much.

So, sorry if that was obnoxious and preachy. I just thought I'd pass along the info in case you didn't know and it effects your decision. :) I'm still paying off my wedding four months later, so I'm not exactly one to preach!

[jobell]

I was thinking of that, but I'm also considering changing banks (I'm currently with a credit union and I'd rather be with a bank that gives me something back for using them). We'll see what happens.....maybe I'll keep it for a bit longer just for that and only charge gas or something on it. I just have such bad credit already because my mom nicely had me as a co-signer on several cards she didn't pay the bill on!! So anything to help bring that up is what I'm goin for.