# Nineteen Year-Old Wants Credit Card Advice

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteen-year-old-wants-credit-card-advice/210081>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 28, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteen-year-old-wants-credit-card-advice/210081 "2003-10-28T19:11:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteen-year-old-wants-credit-card-advice/210081/41 "2003-10-30T17:58:36Z")

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**Netbrian** :

I also suggest checking out [msn.com](http://msn.com) for their articles on managing debt, how a credit rating is determined, how to read your credit report, the difference between the 3 credit bureaus, and your FICO score. It sounds like you want to do this credit thing intelligently, and so you need to research not only the costs of a credit card (annual fee, apr), but also the costs of how you _manage_ your credit history.

There are also websites out there (can’t remember their names… must. eat. lunch.) that will quickly compare different credit card offers. Oh, wait! [www.bankrate.com](http://www.bankrate.com) that’s the one…

Take some time and make this decision wisely.

And my most important tip from years of working for a credit card issuer: **NEVER NEVER NEVER let them raise your credit automatically. They don’t do that cuz they like you. They do it cuz they think you’re a sucker.** Please read about how credit limits affect your FICO score, and you’ll understand.

Good luck! And good financial health!

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