Not So Fast – Store Credit May Still Have Its Uses

If you’re trying to build a credit history, you might have been told that store credit is not the way to go. With the sheer amount of interest that you’re going to have to pay once all of those nice perks go away… who would want them?

The truth is that when others aren’t offering credit, the department store could be your best option. They know that people want to have the best of everything — even if they can’t really afford it. Therefore they get aggressive about offering credit to just about anyone and everyone. If your credit isn’t totally trashed, you could pick up a store credit card.

However, there are a few things that you’re going to need to think about before you just dive in. You’re going to need to realize that you can’t just charge it up. This is a red flag to the credit card company, and they will end up cutting back on your credit. That’s definitely the last thing that you want, so it’s time to make sure that you don’t fall into that trap. What you also have to do is make sure that you’re thinking about handling it systematically. Do you want to pay it off every month? Certainly. You want to demonstrate that you can be responsible.

This is the one mistake that credit builders make over and over again, despite having all of the opportunity in the world to create something powerful for their own lives. Your credit rating is a “shortcut” for a glimpse into how you live your life. People make conclusions about you based on your credit score. There’s a lot of things wrong with that…but that’s the way society is. These days, you cannot even get a rental or apply for a job without having to sign a release that says that they can look up your credit report data.

Just as you want to build credit slowly and take care of it, you will also want to make sure that you’re looking at your credit rating itself. Is it accurate based on the information in the credit file? If not, then you really do need to correct those errors before you can really proceed. You might assume that you don’t have any errors, but you might be mistaken completely. There’s no time like the present to grab hold of your credit. You might think that it’s hopeless, but that’s not the case at all. Everyone can build their credit and move on. You just have to find the willingness to do so. That’s all! Good luck.