Why I have 5 credit cards at 21 and you should too

Too many people around me are either too afraid to get a credit card or don't know anything about credit cards or sometimes even both. This fascinates me because you need credit to get a house, rent an apartment, get a car loan if needed and the list goes on and on. You are setting yourself at a disadvantage for no reason if you do not have a credit card right now. Especially, since credit cards give you FREE MONEY. Yes, you read that right. FREE MONEY. You will get FREE MONEY when you use a credit card. I think there is a common misconception with credit cards because some people automatically think that if you get a credit card you will misuse it. While this may be true for some people it probably is not true for you. If you want to be successful with having a credit card then all you have to do is follow two rules. These two rules are not spending more money than you have in your bank account and paying off the amount on time every month. If you follow these two rules you will have a perfect credit score by the time you are 30. It really is that easy.

So Brycen, how do you get this FREE MONEY you are talking about. Every credit card company gives you points when you spend money you were already going to spend. At the minimum, just about every credit card company gives you 1% cash back on all purchases. That is $1 for every $100 spent. Yes, this may seem like a little but it adds up over time. If you get a rewards card which are oriented towards cash back you can get up to 10% back on certain categories. That is $10 for every $100 spent or $1 for every $10 spent. An example of this is the Discover IT card who will double the amount of cash back you receive in your first year. Every 3 months you will get a new set of categories to receive 5% cash back on. For example, one of these categories includes restaurants. If you spend money at any restaurant you will automatically get 5% back on the amount you spend. Remember though, on your first year Discover will double this amount and you will get 10% back. Easy money. Unfortunately, not every credit card company is as generous as Discover but you can still get some hefty rewards. Another example of this is Chase's sign-up bonus. If you spend $500 in the first 3 months they will automatically give you $200 back. I took advantage of this by paying off my $500 speeding ticket with this card. In reality, I only spent $300 on the speeding ticket. Take that cop!

I hope that my little rant inspires you to start looking into credit cards and obtaining one because at the end of the day they are not hard to manage and you get FREE MONEY. Who doesn't like FREE MONEY? Beats me. While you are accruing free money you are also building up your credit score which will thank you in the long run. I highly suggest you look into the Discover IT card because it is a great first card and a good card to have anyways. If you get denied, try applying for a secured card where your credit line is the amount of money you deposited. For example, for a secured card if you put a $300 deposit you will have $300 to spend as a line of credit. This may seem like it sucks and it kind of does if I am being honest. But the reason you do this is to show the credit card company that they can trust you and after some time (maybe 6 months or so) you will get your original $300 back and you can get a normal credit card. Then, you can really start your credit card journey.