California to make financial literacy classes a requirement to graduate high school
Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday an agreement that requires all California high school students to take a semester-long personal finance education course starting by the 2027-28 school year.
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We had to take that class on our senior year many, many, many moons ago. Back then they taught us that having a credit card was good though. LOL!
Having a credit card is still generally considered good.
Key word is "a", as in one.
Although you generally are solid in 2 to 4 range, the more important thing as it turns out is (aside from prompt payments) to make sure the credit limit is high. Those store cards with 300 limits are looked down upon.
A big ding to your credit score itself is actually a low amount of lines of credit, I think 10+ is considered "good" which is ridiculous
Apparently I was wrong, and learned something new today. Your score comes from:
35% - payment history (everything paid on time, etc)
30% - amount owed
15% - age of credit history
10% - how many new lines of credit
10% - credit mix (just credit cards vs credit cards, auto loans, etc)
Credit scores don't measure how responsible with your money you are. They measure how much you're willing to pay lenders.
In the US at least, this is false.
I have about 10 of them because cancelling is considered bad. I product change to another card when the annual fee hits to avoid it, and generally get a few cards a year to take advantage of bonuses.
They still keep giving me 5 figure credit limits on every one, for reasons I can't explain
I'm not aware of any harms from using a no-fee credit card that you pay off in full each month. You get 1% - 5% back, and it's easier to deal with fraudulent charges.
If you have a credit card with a $25,000 limit, that limit counts against your total even if you are not using it. For example, if it is determined that you can sustain mortgage debt of a maximum of $400,000 at current interest rates, you will not qualify for that amount because you also have an open credit card with an available balance of $25,000 at a significantly higher interest rate.
EDIT: You can only decrease what you owe on a loan but a credit card is an open line of credit that you can max out at any time. Because of this, the entire credit line counts against you when evaluating your debt.
Do you have a source for this? My understanding was only credit card balances mattered.
You can only decrease what you owe on a loan but a credit card is an open line of credit that you can max out at any time. Because of this, the entire credit line counts against you when evaluating your debt. If you have any questions, ask your local bank manager or financial advisor.
EDIT: By the way, most people also believe that only the outstanding balance is counted.
Then decrease your limit, LMAO. It's not that hard
You fully missed the point. If you read comments around credit cards you'll see that most people don't understand the impact of credit cards on their ability to borrow. Yes, if you do not need five cards or $25,000 credit limit (or both), then you should absolutely start closing cards and reducing limits. People don't understand that. They go buy a car and the loan rate is through the roof. They think that is how it is and never imagine that the rate might have been triggered by the three unused credit cards.
IMHO, you should always have one credit card with a limit just slightly higher than your monthly burn rate. You should use it instead of debit cards, and you should pay it off in full, automatically, every month well before it is due. Only one credit card. Again, just my opinion.
My teacher in 2019 tried to convey this to us in economics class too. But to this day I still refuse.
If you don't have self control, a credit card is a bad idea. If you do have self control, a credit card can make value for you just by spending on things you were already going to buy.
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