Be careful with your credit

It makes sense that unless you've been taught about credit, you probably don't know a lot about it.

And who teaches us about credit?

I think I learned about credit mostly from reading the fine print of credit card applications and account statements. And who really ever reads those things that closely? (Score one for attention to detail, aka anal retentiveness.)

My family was always a cash family growing up. Using cash is a good thing in the sense that it prevents running up credit card debt. But, using cash can work against you in the sense that you don't build up a good credit history, which can make getting credit harder in the future.

Of course, while having credit and using it responsibly to build a good credit history, you can always err on the extreme of having too much credit. Too much credit liability (the amount, or credit line, that banks extend to you) is actually a bad thing because it means you present a risk of getting into more debt than you are actually able to handle. (For example, credit card companies will gladly extend you $8000 in credit even if you tell them you only make $10,000 a year.)

And, all debt is not created equal. Credit card debt is one of the worse kinds of debt to have, even if you keep up with payments and paying off your entire balance. Paying off student loans and car loans, on the other hand, work to better build your credit score by showing that you are capable of consistently making payments.

But, if you are going to have credit card debt, then for goodness sakes, don't have department store credit cards--go for visa, mastercard, discover, or american express. Store credit cards often seem like really good deals, especially when stores offer a 20% discount on the purchases you make the day you sign up for the card. But, their interest rates are often twice as much, and often even more, than non-store-affiliated cards. I used to think that I could just open a card at a department store to use the discount and then when I got the bill, pay it off and cancel the card. This strategy gets you a discount, but it also weakens your credit score because of the fleeting nature of your credit history. Staying with one or two companies for a longer amount of time is much better than getting new cards every year for building up good credit history.

And you all know that making the "minimum payment" required by companies will never get you out of credit card debt, right? The minimum payment just makes credit card companies richer because you pay them more interest. So, always pay off as much as you can, and ideally keep your balances at zero.

Okay, so why the rant about credit?

I was watching a couple of transguys videos on youtube.com and they were talking about putting their top surgery on their credit cards, and/or having such bad credit that they weren't able to.

I know plenty of guys who have done just this, and if that's your choice, then so be it. But, being an older transman, as much as I'd like surgery, I just can't put myself in that kind of risky financial position. I may be overly cautious here, or just too practically minded. I'm trying to find a balance, because I'm beginning to feel like people around me are wondering more and more why I haven't started taking hormones yet, and why I haven't set a surgery date. (I'm still trying to get the point across that there are many different ways of being trans, but it's VERY slow going.)

True, I could do like some other guys I know and stop going out, be really good about saving all my money, and get a second/third job to get enough cash together. From what they told me, it was hard, but they did it because they felt it would be worth it in the end. I like enjoying my present life, even though I'm looking forward to other things in the future, too. I just don't think I could give up that much now--reminds me of that story of how if you have one foot in the future, and one in the past, all you do is piss on the present. I love so many things about my present, and I want to enjoy it to the fullest, and that means spending some money now, even if that means I can't save as much as fast for later.

Who knows how I'll feel six months or a year from now, though...

In the mean time, if you are interested, go get your free credit report at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/, where it's actually free (instead of other websites that make you sign-up for stuff that isn't free to get your free credit report).