credit, how does it work Options

[Toyoca]

I just got an amex credit card. im new to having my own credit card. always went through my parents card (but it had my name on it w/e that means). i just got it cause i wanted to start building my credit. i dont completely know what that entails but i got one anyway lol. i basically just figured to get a car or house in the future i need credit so ppl will approve me. so is credit just using your card and paying bills on time? and if you do, you get a good credit score? is that basically it.

btw i got credit $2000. that sounds like a large amount to me given that i dont have that much a month lol. esp since i dont work right now. but sounds good to me lol. i just found it interesting cause my friends all started out with around 500 and i clearly didnt lol.

[uberschall]

whoever originally said to buy something reasonably priced and pay it off bit by bit has the key. credit is all about demonstrating ability to make payments on stuff (yes, saleeka, it's uber-backwards)...not just pay your card off every month.

there's no sense checking your credit score now. if this is your first cc, you have no credit. i've had a credit card for two years, have taken and paid off several loans, and even with my other payments...i still don't have sufficient credit to get a "good" rate on a car, let alone a house.

the best thing to do is set a monthly limit and stick to it. for a while, i only used my card for gas....which for most people is a solid, predictable monthly expenditure.

don't go nuts, pay it off, and close it. credit isn't really about good things, it's about bad things. instead of looking at it from a "how will this improve my credit" perspective, you just need to look at it from a "how could this negatively affect my credit" standpoint.