You have missed 12.5% of your payments on your car. This will kill your credit score. No one wants to loan money and then not get paid. It shows your word is not much good if you agree to pay something and you don't do it. They do not care why you missed it. They just care that you did not make it. Sorry if that sounds rough but you asked and it is the truth. LLL

I have the Capital One with Cabelas. Maybe it's on my monthly statement. I'll have to czech.

I agree with Ed P here. In today's world you need good credit, whether you owe money or not and credit cards are handy. You can not reserve a hotel room without one. I pay them off every month as well.

I can do all these things with my debit card and I do not pay annual fees. LLL

Not all credit cards have yearly fees and actually my cards MAKE me money in points as I never carry a balance in the 20 yrs Ive had them and built me an 827 credit score.

You dont really owe anybody if you pay it off monthly,in fact it works in your favor. You can do a free credit check once a yr just ask it on the net. I check my credit constantly in my bank acct online. If you have capitol one they have a free credit check on your credit card. I have 2 capitol one cards. They are the least beneficial to me.

Credit cards can be harmful to someone like the OP. He does not make all his payments and to say you can build your credit to someone like this is possibly poor advice. I have a credit card also and have a 840 as well as my wife . We can handle credit. Some cannot. That was my point. LLL

Wolfie,go to your bank where you do business and tell them you want a credit card and they can set you up. When you recieve a low limit card and use it,and pay it ON TIME,after awhile you can get higher limits. I can buy a car with c.c. but most dealers dont like to do it.

agreed,,sounds like wolfie cant use one responsibly,,many cant,many can. Credit cards allow you to use opm as long as you pay them off monthly. In the 21 yrs Ive had them I have NEVER paid any interest.

X2 on all above.
Wolf dog, sign up for credit karma they will show you what you can do to increase your score and they will show you what cc you qualify for. That missed payment will be on your report for 7 years after the loan is paid off.
Keep in mind every hard credit check will drop your score. Wait at least 6 months between credit checks. Too many in a short time will pop a red flag too.

every , well almost every card is 0% interest if you pay your bill every month. they bank on you not paying every month.

your family is smart to be weary of credit or people offering it.

do you have a bank or credit union you might try and find a credit union , if there are non local or even if there are , look for a Army or US service personnel credit union , start an account put some money in checking and ask about a credit card.

when I was 19 my dad said you want to build credit and we went and visited my aunt at the bank set up a separate saving put 500 in it and then asked for a 500 dollar credit limit on a credit card they gave it too me no risk to them they had my cash as deposit. I had started a job that involved travel once I graduated I needed a card to put hotels and such on if I got stuck some place. 500 wasn't much but it started turning into a lot of other offers after not very long.

Ed, you may have been correct 10 years ago, but not anymore. You can get a rental car with debit cards, you can reserve hotel rooms with debit cards and the list goes on. You also have the same consumer protections. Of course, credit card companies would still like everyone to believe you cant get by without their cards...they want people to spend more than they can afford. Wolfie, family knows best, get rid of that card and pay cash.

Well everyone gotta say as much as I'd like to just pay cash for everything and not worry about credit ,I'm learning in n alot if various ways the wood dosent wanna work like that anymore. The fact I have the cash in hand doesn't seem to matter more and more . Anyhow thanks for all the responses

every , well almost every card is 0% interest if you pay your bill every month. they bank on you not paying every month.

your family is smart to be weary of credit or people offering it.

do you have a bank or credit union you might try and find a credit union , if there are non local or even if there are , look for a Army or US service personnel credit union , start an account put some money in checking and ask about a credit card.

when I was 19 my dad said you want to build credit and we went and visited my aunt at the bank set up a separate saving put 500 in it and then asked for a 500 dollar credit limit on a credit card they gave it too me no risk to them they had my cash as deposit. I had started a job that involved travel once I graduated I needed a card to put hotels and such on if I got stuck some place. 500 wasn't much but it started turning into a lot of other offers after not very long.[/quote]
Think I'm going to look into this more than anything

I've never had any problems renting a car or getting a hotel room with a debit card. The person behind the counter has no idea if it's a debit card taking cash out of my bank account or a credit card taking money out of a line of credit. We card just about everything, just not on a credit card.

Remember ,Card utilization will drop you credit score .you have anywhere from 1/4 or more of your total amount your getting hit .

Honestly there is no reason for your score to be that low! You can get free credit reports from all three agencies. Do that and see if someone else got credit in your name!

You probably know most of this Wolfdog, but I'm going to spell it all out anyway.

Your credit score is a number to indicate how good you are at paying your debts. The better record you have at paying debts, the more likely that someone will loan you more. It's like if someone asks to borrow my tools- if he has a good record of borrowing and bringing stuff back, I'm more likely to loan to him again. Someone with zero history is an unknown. That's why it's hard to get a loan with no credit history. You have to start small and build trust.

You should think of your credit score like a percentage or ratio. Missing one payment in 10 years won't matter too much, but missing one in 8 months means you've missed 1/8 of your payments, or 12.5%. That's not good. After 2 years of good payments it'll only be 4% (1/24). So, it takes a lot of good payments to make up for a bad one. That's why, if you have debt, it's really important to pay on time, every time. And, the longer your credit history is, the more lenders trust you.

There are 3 businesses, called "credit bureaus", that calculate credit score: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Usually the 3 will have slightly different numbers for your score, but pretty close because they use basically the same formula. A large lender will usually check all 3 scores and use the average; some small lenders might only check one.

Now here's an important part: checking your credit score too much can hurt your score. That's because the automated system thinks that if someone (including you) is checking your score, you must be trying to get a new loan, which is recorded as negative activity if it happens too much. Don't worry though, there are ways to check your score without damage.

One option is a credit monitoring service like Credit Karma, which Adam mentioned. The downside is that monitoring services usually cost money, unless you get a promo deal. Many services will offer a month free, then you just cancel before the month is up. IMO, you don't really need to pay for constant credit monitoring unless you have quite a bit going on financially.

Your bank might offer some kind of free credit report or monitoring. If you use TurboTax or H&R Block to do your own taxes, they usually offer me a free credit check when I file. Also, any time someone runs a credit check on you (like when you apply for a loan), you can ask for a copy of the report. Lastly, the most basic way to check your credit is directly from the bureaus. By law, you can request your own credit report once per year from each of the 3 bureaus. So if you spread them out, that's 3 free reports a year with no penalty.

If you have any savings, probably the best way to build credit is with a Savings-Secured Loan (other banks might use different names). Basically you give the bank $1000, and they give you a $1000 loan. You make the payments for the term, and then they give your money back. Even though it starts with your money, it shows on your credit report as a loan so it's good for your score. Just make your payments!

Debt can be a very valuable thing, if it's managed right. It really expands your options in the world.

Do the Dave Ramsey plan. No credit score needed.

Your credit score is made up of a formula. Debt to income ratio, revolving credit and other things to. You could never miss a payment and still not have a perfect score do to this goofy formula they use. Your score just gives you an idea of how much debt they will let you take on. Pay cash and no credit score needed.