Which credit card do you recommend for me?

Get a prepaid one, that has to be charged beforehand.

If you can pay it off every month, get any one that is free. If you can’t take @ragingloli‘s suggestion although if you want to boost your credit rating, I don’t know if that will.

I thought pre-paid credit cards were at Walmart and were for people that didn’t have good credit though? So they can buy things online or something.

Without another open credit line, I don’t think it would positively boost my credit.

@KNOWITALL Yes, I would think that is true. What do you want to get from a credit card?

I use a prepaid one, because I do not want to have an actual credit card, but some online stores have that as their only option.

Capital One is free, and has a cash back feature. Capital One also has an excellent app for managing your account.

@zenvelo Is there a specific one? I get overwhelmed with all the choices.

These are my Capital One options based on recommendations:
Quick Silver
Venture One
Savor One
Venture Rewards

If you are an Amazon Prime member, you should definitely get their linked credit card from Chase. It gives you points to use on future purchases with Amazon. It works just like cash back.

@KNOWITALL The Quicksilver is a good one. It accumulates a cashback, very straightforward.

@ragingloli Don’t you have a debit card from you bank for online purchases?

@Hawaii_Jake Thanks, but I am not. I don’t do a lot of online shopping since we have so many great local stores and outlets.

@zenvelo Okay great, I appreciate that. :)

@KNOWITALL
My debit card does not double as a credit card, and I would like to avoid exposing my bank account details as much as possible.

I have two. I have an REI credit card which gives me cash back and discounts on REI purchases. It’s free. It’s only really worthwhile if you have an REI near you and use it. I also have a Southwest Airlines credit card that I pay for, but I fly Southwest a lot so it’s worth it. My wife is looking at getting a Costco credit card in her own name so she can bump me off and have her own credit although I don’t know anything about it.

@Caravanfan I have store cards, like Best Buy and Macy’s, just never pulled the trigger on a major cc. I’m almost 50, guess it’s time.

Thanks all, I applied and got approved so I guess I’m doing this whole adult thing now.

I use my Chase Amazon card for nearly everything and pay it off in full every month. The points do add up, and it’s nice to get free Amazon purchases here and there.

@gorillapaws If they had a chewy.com card I would use those points for sure. I’m not a big consumer, more of an event type.

@KNOWITALL Haha. I thought you were linking to granola bars at first. ;)

You should go with what fits your lifestyle and priorities for sure.

@gorillapaws Funny!

Now, next question. Do you all have mobile bank apps or for your cards? Its the last Boomer thing I have to get over. I have Lifelock and Norton-all of which flipped out over my new card. Is that truly safe from most hackers now?

As far as cybersecurity goes, the biggest risk is the user. People use the same username/weak password on a small forum for discussing gardening tips as they do for securing access to their email and their IRA portfolio account. It doesn’t matter how secure the bank’s security is if a hacker can quickly gain access to a small site that’s using outdated or insecure practices. He can pull up the list of usernames and passwords and then try those on other sites for example. Or trick you with a phishing attack.

The best practice is to use a password manager app and create a complex and unique password for each login you have online and to enable 2-factor authentication on all of your online accounts.

If you do that you’re ahead of > 95% of the people out there. That said, if a talented hacker wants to target you specifically, it’s a practical certainty that he’ll be able to get access to everything.

I also have the Chase Amazon card. I use amazon a lot. Well, my sister uses amazon card a lot more and then she transfers me the cash since we use the same credit union and I just pay the bill off every week. I have never paid interest on it. And over the last year has added up to a fair amount of cash. I just use the points awarded to pay down the card. So I technically get 5% cash for everything she buys on Amazon since she sends me 100% in cash, and I only send Chase 95% in real cash.

And I actually like that the chase card has a high minimum payment. Even if you have $200 bucks on the card they want $35. My Capital one Card will let me get a 2K balance and only want $35. That barely covers interest. And if there is one thing that pisses me off is cards where you can pay for ever and barely get the principal down.

@johnpowell So is a balance better for your credit or paying it off every month? Credit Karma says pay it off but my score went down 10 points on Transunion. I cant have that, trying to break 800 not go backwards.

Go to Nerdwallet they figure out which one is best for you.
Capital One is best if you plan on traveling in foreign countries because they don’t charge fees for foreign transactions.

@gorillapaws Good advice. I’ll get that done first. I just don’t trust phone security with my money quite yet.

@Tropical I actually did read about that one. I do need to start travelling again now that mom’s in full remission right now. Been a long hard 8 years.

@KNOWITALL I also recommend that you check out https://haveibeenpwned.com You enter your email and it’ll tell you if your password has been compromised, and if so the source of the security breach. If it’s on that site, you need to update any sites that still use that password, because it’s freely available to hackers.

Thanks, will do.

You’re better off not getting one.

@kritiper I’m uber responsible, it’ll be ok. It’s actually recommended for emergencies, and i’m stuck at 762 credit. Trying to bump it up closer to 800.

Here’s my opinion:

Get a card with zero annual fee. The interest rate doesn’t matter, because you will never be charged interest if you pay in full by the due date. You can pay days after you do the charge, you don’t even need to wait for a bill if you are paranoid about interest and penalties.

There are some cards that have no annual fee and give cash back. Chase and PNC have those cards, not sure which other companies do. Nerdwallet.com and a few other sites can help you compare current offers if someone hasn’t mentioned it above.

Don’t get a prepaid card, it has no affect on your credit score, but a real credit card will improve your credit score, because you will always pay your amount due. Some prepaid cards actually lose money over time, and some of them charge a fee to buy them, be really careful if you go that route. Moreover, it is similar to cash, if you lose it, or someone steals it, it’s gone. Credit cards have protections. Prepaid you have to front the money, but with credit cards you can actually earn money while your money sits in the bank waiting for the bill. I make money on my money because I use credit cards.