Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. I think we will keep the long-standing CitiAA card open, but just pay it down to a couple of hundred. We’ve had that one forever. We only had the Amazon card for a few years. We also have a Discover card we’re paying off, and I think two is enough. (Besides we have Lowes, Home Depot, Penneys, etc.)
I know all too well how the credit rating affects us in other areas. I just wonder how much longer it will be a viable assessment of people’s ‘character’. Remember after the oil and gas and saving and loan crashes, nearly everyone had declared bankruptcy or had credit problems. Most lenders were understanding and forgiving of those problems in light of the economic melt down. And today, with jobs tough to come by, and with the current economic situation, if employers continue to use credit ratings/bankruptcy etc as factors for hiring/not hiring, it’ll be the same thing as it was then—almost everyone was in the same boat in some hard-hit regions, and if they wanted to stay in business, they had to break down and hire some of those people.
I know times are much different now, but frankly, this whole country needed to get off of credit, and this will probably be a good thing for people in the long run. Seriously, when you are forced to find other ways to come up with the money you need in emergencies, or (heaven forbid) have to SAVE UP for something you want to buy, you’re much better off. I think this is all good.
Thanks again for the advice.
Thanks for your very kind reply. You got the right strategy here.
As for the encroaching of credit scores on an assessment of character, employability, trust, risk, etc., I couldn’t agree more. I think there’s two things that contribute to it: we have become a nation of creditors and debtors, we have become a large impersonal, digital world.
You spoke well to both those conditions, and I hope with you that we learn and begin turning back from this future.
thanks very much for your posts..