# What's the Straight Dope on how credit card interest works? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580 "2006-05-13T01:37:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580/21 "2006-05-14T13:37:19Z")
> [@niblet\_head](#): > > Not always. Yes, not always. But often enough that if such person were to submit all of the credit offers they received, the number that were accepted would be greater than zero. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580/22 "2006-05-14T14:01:22Z")
Of course, you are right that there are some companies that will take anyone, regardless of risk, because they will get the vig as you mentioned, but for the average person with okay but not stellar credit, companies may make lots of offers but they won’t “line up” to actually _extend_ further credit. And once you apply for more credit and are turned down when a company sees your actual credit report all other companies will likely turn you down, also, specifically because you were recently denied. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580/23 "2006-05-14T14:53:50Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Yes, not always. But often enough that if such person were to submit all of the credit offers they received, the number that were accepted would be greater than zero. Different companies are willing to take on different amounts of risk, but they get fewer and fewer ask the risk becomes higher and higher. Credit card companies aren’t in the business to ruin people’s lives, they’re there to make money. It is not a money-making strategy to give money to someone who can’t pay back the principal or the interest. So credit card companies in general don’t “love” a potential customer in that position, except for the highest risk lenders. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580/24 "2006-05-14T15:00:20Z")
But it’s true that your credit score is better if you actually use your credit accounts. It doesn’t help much if you have a bunch of cards with $10,000 limits and you never carry a balance. The best kind of prospective credit card customer, from the company’s view, is the one who borrows money, takes a while to pay it back, but still can afford to borrow some more. Lower risk + slow repayer = highly sought after customer. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580/25 "2006-05-14T19:09:42Z")
> [@Brain Wreck](#): > > But it’s true that your credit score is better if you actually use your credit accounts. It doesn’t help much if you have a bunch of cards with $10,000 limits and you never carry a balance. The best kind of prospective credit card customer, from the company’s view, is the one who borrows money, takes a while to pay it back, but still can afford to borrow some more. Lower risk + slow repayer = highly sought after customer. As long as there’s been SOME activity on a card in the last couple of months, it’ll all look the same to all creditors EXCEPT for the given creditor you have the given account with. The credit reports don’t give a blow by blow transaction log, or even a monthly summary. They provide snapshots of your balance at a given point in time, sometimes as much as 90 days ago even with an active card. Because of this, Brain Wreck, I must respectfully submit that my credit report fails to consistently and accurately contain the information as to whether I “actually use” a given account. As a consequence, I must conclude that using or not using your accounts has little effect on your credit score in most cases. Remember that not everything on your report actually effects the score! Occupation and income aren’t figured into that score, for instance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-how-credit-card-interest-works/356580.md?page=1)