beth, everything is dependent on your FICO score, which looks at several factors: length of credit, ratio of outstanding debt to lines of credit, payment history (do you pay on time? do you pay more than the minimum? do you make extra payments even when there isn't a payment due?) and types of credit (house loans look better than revolving debt).

One of the pieces of advice I was given was not to jump from credit card to credit card. For example, people who take those 0% for a year cards and use them until the year is up and then close the accounts? They don't look so good on paper because they constanly have only "new" credit lines.

Now here's the trick with paying off your card every month. Your credit report doesn't immediately get updated when you pay something off. It can take up to 60 days for the credit bureaus to catch up to reality. (Longer if you're say...me, who battles with them often because I haven't lived in NY in six fucking YEARS, despite what they keep telling people.)

If you have a 6,000 line of credit and you use up 5,000 but you pay it off when the bill comes due? When they run your report, it could very well still show that you have a 5k balance.

It's all very complex and murky and tends to make my head hurt. Which is why I'm glad I have a card now that lets me monitor my credit score. Otherwise, I would have no flipping clue.

t points at (mostly) everyone in thread

All of you! All your faults! All of you! Your faults!

I DID NOT NEED ANOTHER TEEVEEE SHOW TO BE ADDICTED TO SPECIALLY WHEN NOW I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

Who has the first season of Lost I can borrow??

Also

Anyone know anyone who needs a fight picked?

I do not have a fight to pick but, if you were online right now, I had a funny picture to show you.

Jilli, in your position, here's what I would do. Get the card. Spend, say $100 on it. For the next few months, pay $25 or so on it. Repeat as necessary. What they want to see is a)regular payments and b)you not using all the credit you have available. It's really easy once you start putting a thing or two on credit to go overboard, so be careful. But you want to both be carrying credit and paying it off, credit score wise.

Does the "lalala, we got Aimee hooked, lalala" dance.

Why am I awake? Why am I awake and reading about cats?

Did you know there are other breeds of hairless cats besides the sphynx? One breed is the Don Sphynx, which originated in Russia and is genetically unrelated to the Sphynx. The Don Sphynx tends to have heavier bones than the Sphynx - this one [link] looks like it would totally kick your ass if you made fun of its lack of hair.

This is cool:

The Don Sphynx's paws are of distinctive shape. They have elongated fingers with webs and are able to seize things with fingers.

Just in case you are not satisfied with the amount of mischief a regular cat can get into - think of how much damage a cat could do if it could pick up stuff with its fingers.

[link]

Did you know there are other breeds of hairless cats besides the sphynx?

Not cats.

Aliens.

freak ass aliens.

kitties!