For 25 years I’ve only carried a debt on my credit card one time, and that was for a few months under special circumstances. I have a top credit score.
It’s a stupid game, but it’s easy to play.
Why do Americans think you need to carry a debt to build credit? That is the opposite.
I put EVERYTHING on credit card, and pay everything off on time. Never missed a payment. My credit score was the highest it can be by the time I turned 21. I’ve never paid a penny in fees or interest.
Holy hell they sure do. A lot of Americans don’t even understand you don’t immediately start accruing interest. You clearly have not witnessed the absolute insanity of Americans saying that they use a debit card because they “don’t want to pay interest” or they “only spend money they have”.
Also the comment you’re replying to was likely in agreement with the premise established by the person they were replying to.
I arrived to the US less than 5 years ago and I have top credit score. I never carry a balance, open credit cards that offer a lot of credit, benefits and bonus to increase my available credit (I have about 6 or 7 cards at the moment) and just wait. In less than a year I already had 740 which was enough to get a car loan with 1.9% apr (lowest offered was 1.85%)
Care to elaborate on why not?
Just so I know. I’m not saying you’re wrong.
I understand what survivorship bias is, I just don’t see how it applies here. Could you explain?
That just because you managed to do that doesn’t make it the norm.
You could argue that that simply isn’t an option for many people. If you can live life without using a credit card implies you have not struggled for that extra cash, whereas some people simply don’t make enough to not use it.
Most people don’t realize that having a credit card doesn’t mean that you have to go into debt. You can always treat it like your debit card and rack up thousands of dollars in reward points. Besides, if you do need to go into a small amount of debt due to an emergency then you can.