When I went to get a house loan, I had a very good credit score. The only thing my credit report told me to do in order to improve my score was to get more revolving credit. Up until that point I never had a credit card, so it was pretty new to me.

I started to go out and build more credit. Every time I went out to make a big purchase I would open a credit account with that store. For instance when I bought my TV, I didn't want to drop all that money at once so I opened a credit account at Circuit City. To my advantage, they had an 18 months with no interest or payments. I carried that balance for about a year all the while saving more money to pay off the TV and accumulated no interest like the deal said.

Later, I was in the market for a PS3. I got an offer in the mail to sign up for a Sony card, which offered $150 off a PS3 when I signed up.

The main thing I've been hearing about building credit is that you need to carry a balance on your credit card. I never wanted to do this because I didn't like the fact I would be paying interest to a credit card company and about once every week I would pay off my balance. This didn't seem like a good method to build credit either. Today I finally did a Google search on this question: "Should I carry a balance on my credit card?"

Basically the consensus I got from that search was you do not need to carry a balance. What you should do is use your credit card frequently and pay off your balance when you get your statement. This was a surprise to me because I've always heard that you need to carry a balance to build revolving credit.

I thought this was interesting and thought it would be helpful to others in this situation.

One thing I know for a fact is if you open credit card, you should never close the account. Opening and closing accounts will harm your credit score. So if you open an account it is best to leave the balance at zero rather than close out the account. Just monitor credit score at least once a year to make sure everything is in good standing and to check for fraud or abuse.

Good point, that is true.

I heard you don't want to sign up for too many cards in a period of time. Example: Sign up for 2 credit cards every 6 months is pushing it.

http://www.mint.com/blog/goals/credit-score-urban-legends/

• Myth 1: Checking your credit will lower your score.
• Myth 2: Shopping around for a loan will hurt your credit score.
• Myth 3: If you don’t use your credit card account, you’ll lose your credit line.
• Myth 4: If you co-sign on a loan, your credit score is not affected.
• Myth 5: It’s impossible (and takes forever) to dispute information on my credit file.
• Myth 6: After saying “I do,” your credit scores are married, too.
• Myth 7: Turning to a credit-counseling service will hurt your score.