During lunchtime yesterday, at a Capital One Bank up the road from my job, I became the proud owner of an official, ready-to-use Capital One credit card!!! (Excuse me while I do my Happy Dance right quick!) (Okay, I’m back.)
So it all started when I went home for Easter and found a brand new credit card from Capital One in the humungous pile of mail that my parents had saved for me. I was absolutely elated and figured that the credit card I had applied for during the previous holiday season had finally came through. I got back up to DC and tried to activate the card but, both unfortunately and fortunately for me, found out that I was being forwarded to the Fraud Department for further “verification”. After a minor bitchfit from me, I found out that the card had NOT been the one I had applied for during the holidays and that that particular card had been opened fraudulently under my name. That’s right; I had been a victim of identity theft.
The agent on the phone told me that identify theft had been on a huge rise in the South Florida area and I found out that, although the Thief had used my real (parents’) address on the original application, that he/she had gone back and requested the address be changed to some location in North Miami, shortly after the credit card had been approved back in February. Of course, when I called two, or three months later to activate the card using my original (parents’) address, after the Thief had requested the address be changed to another one, this sparked the interest of the folks down in the fraud department. Long story short, the card was never activated and I thanked the Lord that no debt had been fraudulently incurred under my name and went on about my business.
But then I began thinking to myself, if this Thief could open a credit card using my name then, 1. My credit may not be as bad as I thought it was and 2. Maybe I should apply and get one for myself so that I can finally start building my credit back up.
I was unemployed for eight months and it wreaked utter chaos on my credit report. I had had four credit cards and I owed less than $1500 on all four of them combined. Nonetheless, I only managed to settle one and just gave up on the other three. With those kinds of negatives on my credit score, even after I had started working again and could afford to have a credit card, I just opted not to. Every purchase I made, bill I paid, vacation I took, etc. was paid for using money that came straight out of my pocket (via my debit card). So, like, from 2009 up until last Tuesday, I had been credit-card free.
But I had been yearning for another opportunity, chance, if you will, to prove myself to Uncle Sam and FICO. And so, a month after the fraudulent credit card fiasco with Capital One, I called back and applied for a credit card with them – this time as the REAL me. I panicked the day after and called back to apply for a secured credit card because I thought I would be denied for the regular credit card. This, along with the fraudulent activity from just a couple of month before and my recent move to DC, caused some serious setbacks and frustratingly long “verification” periods (which is why I had to go into an actual Capital One Bank near my job to actually prove that I was really who I said I was). But alas, two months later, I was the proud owner of a brand-spanking-new, official, Capital One credit card.
I call it my lunch money. I’ve been doing a lot of research on credit card best practices and read that you should not carry a balance on your credit card that is more than 30% of the limit, which was a bummer for me because I had thought it was 50%. Anyway, since my limit is $500 – which is more than enough for me! – I don’t plan on ever carrying a balance of more than $150. Which means that I’ll use it to splurge on lunch whenever I’m too lazy to bring it from home. I might use it for spontaneous purchases (i.e. that bag or pair of shoes from TJ Maxx that I HAVE to have, a sudden craving for a steak dinner, that amazing special for wine-assisted cooking/painting class on Living Social, etc.) and then just make sure to pay off the balance when the next bill is due.
Anyway, I am as absolutely elated as a pig in mud. I pay my car note late so often that I don’t think my credit score is going to improve even after I pay it off next year. So this credit card will be an easier way for me to build my credit back up. I don’t plan on buying a house or anything anytime soon, but as I am approaching my thirties, I want to be more “settled”, credit and finances has a lot to do with.
As I mentioned earlier, I have been doing a lot of research and if you want to do some, too, just check out the following links:
As I mentioned earlier, I have been doing a lot of research and if you want to do some, too, just check out the following links:
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