You've got to give me credit...

I have a new credit card, my second. This is a major milestone for a couple of reasons. As a divorced woman, I had to develop a credit rating separate from my ex-husband's. This took awhile. When I left my marriage for a "trial" separation, I had several department-store credit cards that I'd gotten when I was married. I could still use them to buy clothes for myself and the kids. My credit rating score showed that I was responsible for half the mortgage payment on the house we jointly owned, so I never met the qualifications for any major credit cards even though my ex picked up the tab for the whole thing.

One day I was in the Gap with my daughter, and I decided to see if I qualified for one of their credit cards. I was so tickled when I was approved! It was the first card I had ever gotten on my own. It's been easy to keep that one paid off; I have a great pair of Gap jeans, but let's face it, I'm a little old (not to mention a little large) for most of their fashions. Last summer my daughter got her own Gap card, so I haven't used mine at all recently.

Eventually my ex and I sold the house and I bought the place where I live now. I was able to get a mortgage, and I feel very lucky that I didn't let anybody talk me into an adjustable-rate mortgage! One realtor referred me to a mortgage company (I think it was Countrywide) where the guy did just that - told me he could get me a monthly payment about equal to the rent I was then paying. Uh, sure. What happens a few years down the road when the payment suddenly balloons? I went somewhere else and got a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at a rate which seems very low compared to what's out there today.

Anyway, the first time I applied for a credit card I was turned down; my debt-to-income ratio wasn't good enough.

Last summer, I was very close to paying off my car loan, so I applied online for a MasterCard and was approved! I was delighted. I promptly put a fairly large sum on it getting my car fixed up so that I could drive my daughter down to College Park, MD, where she's going to grad school. Our hotel bill went onto the card, too. I had to replace my computer last Christmas (life without a computer? Unimaginable!), and that went onto the MonsterCard (as I always call it, even though it probably isn't as funny as I like to think it is). Pretty soon I was a lot closer to the credit line than I wanted to be. I'm trying to pay it off, but it's not going to happen right away, and what if the bumper finished falling off my car, or the refrigerator quit? I wanted to have enough of a cushion to absorb any unpleasant surprises.

Applying for this second credit card was an outgrowth of the decision process about whether we should move, or I should buy a new car... that whole thing I discussed earlier in this blog. Once I had another car loan or a higher mortgage, my debt-to-income ratio would be out of whack again. So I decided to get a card now, while I still could.

I activated it this morning. It's still empty. I'll enjoy the feeling while I can.