[Evildave]

Nah, it's at worst harmless to cancel the unused accounts, especially store accounts that usually have small credit lines. The fairy tale that you should have lots of open credit accounts sounds like something credit card companies would like to spread.

If you're in dire financial straits, the LAST thing you ever want to do is charge up a bunch of credit cards. That's like telling someone who's drowning to breathe deeply, or trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

I have top 1% credit. No problem ever getting a loan for anything.

This is partially a function of my being a credit card 'deadbeat'. I pay the full balance immediately, and only use the card as a convenience. 'Deadbeat' is the actual term credit card companies use for people who pay the balance. They prefer you to pay them interest forever. It could have 1000% interest, but I never get charged a penny, because I don't carry a balance. I have occasionally carried a balance for major purchases, but I generally don't charge any more than what I could pay off half of right away on the card, with expectations of paying the next half the next month. I loathe interest.

Mostly I have good credit because I have bought and paid for all kinds of things with credit, without missing any payments.

As a general rule, I stop carrying credit cards with me when times are tough. Too easy to run that rubber balance out of whack with what's in the real accounts.

Certain kinds of credit cards are very bad. For instance, once upon a time I had business partners, and we had company credit cards. I had cut up the cards and cancelled the accounts (American Express), but magically they stayed open anyways, because my former partners still had their accounts open. This ultimately linked my credit to them, and some of them fell on hard times. This adversely affected my credit until I convinced Amex to really, really cancel my cards. So beware of 'company cards' in your name. Especially after that company is gone. I only found out because I was buying a car and got a credit report and noticed the score was ten points lower than expected. This was still 'awesomely good' credit in the eyes of the car lot, but it meant a slightly higher interest rate on the car.

On a similar dumb note, I had a Costco club account through the company, too. I always treated it as a personal account. Paid for it out of my pocket after we went our separate ways. Even upgraded it. Then out of the blue it was cancelled because one of my former business partners got around to cancelling all the Costco accounts and even got a refund for it... including the unused portion of my membership that I had paid for out of my pocket. Costco made it good with me, so no real complaints.

You can review your credit for free once a year, and you should definitely do so before making major credit purchases (like a car or house). I give an indirect FTC link because there are too damned many sleazy people linking to 'free credit check' sites that are only a way for them to mine your credit information to resell for direct marketing. Pay attention to those scores. The information is detailed, so be sure and print it out and save it. Since I'm a Linux user, I can just print that information to PDF and stick it on my flash-drive-o-private-crap. Windoze luzers would have to buy Acrobat or something to do that.

http://www.ftc.gov/b...edit/cre34.shtm

You can also make sure your credit isn't 'pre-approved' for other people to sign your name and carry off merchandise.

http://www.optoutprescreen.com/

May as well dump this one in, too. I hate getting called, so it's nice to have a place to complain about it.

https://www.donotcall.gov/

[rgreen4]

Windows users have the option of downloading the free Adobe Reader or the free Foxit Reader.

[smax013]

Evildave said:

Nah, it's at worst harmless to cancel the unused accounts, especially store accounts that usually have small credit lines. The fairy tale that you should have lots of open credit accounts sounds like something credit card companies would like to spread.

>

I agree that you should NOT have lots of credit card accounts open, but that is slightly different than closing accounts and affecting your credit score. It is a well reported fact that changing your credit card debt to total available credit will adversely affect your credit score (we never know truly how much as credit scores are a proprietary/secret process). I agree that if the credit amount is small, then it likely will not hurt. But, it is a card with a high credit limit, then you should think twice about it. I am not saying do not do it, but you need to way the pros and cons each way. It might be that you gain more benefit by closing it...or you might gain more benefit by leaving it open. That is why I believe I said "be careful".

The issue with lots of cards open is a true issue. If you have more than 2 to 3 (at the absolute most), then you likely have too many. In general, if that is the case, then I would recommend closing some. But, you need to be aware that in today's environment, closing accounts could result in your interest rates increasing (which I agree is a moot point if you pay off the amount each month).

Quote

If you're in dire financial straits, the LAST thing you ever want to do is charge up a bunch of credit cards. That's like telling someone who's drowning to breathe deeply, or trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

>

I agree...and that is why I said for emergencies only...I meant true, life & death emercenies...not that there was a great sale on some shoes that you liked. I am talking true medical emergencies where they need some sort of payment or proof of payment or you need to buy food to eat/survive and have no money and no other ways to get food.

Quote

I have top 1% credit. No problem ever getting a loan for anything.


This is partially a function of my being a credit card 'deadbeat'. I pay the full balance immediately, and only use the card as a convenience. 'Deadbeat' is the actual term credit card companies use for people who pay the balance. They prefer you to pay them interest forever. It could have 1000% interest, but I never get charged a penny, because I don't carry a balance. I have occasionally carried a balance for major purchases, but I generally don't charge any more than what I could pay off half of right away on the card, with expectations of paying the next half the next month. I loathe interest.

I do that same. Only on a few rare occasions will I carry over a balance...typically for major purchases, but usually have it paid off a month or two later.

Quote

Mostly I have good credit because I have bought and paid for all kinds of things with credit, without missing any payments.


As a general rule, I stop carrying credit cards with me when times are tough. Too easy to run that rubber balance out of whack with what's in the real accounts.

I still carry it with me as it is much easier than carrying cash or a check book (and I LOATH people who pay for one or two items in the express lane at the Supermarket with a check...especially when they don't start filling out the check until after the cashier is done ringing things up). The key is just don't buy anything large without reviewing the balances in the "real" accounts.

Quote

Certain kinds of credit cards are very bad. For instance, once upon a time I had business partners, and we had company credit cards. I had cut up the cards and cancelled the accounts (American Express), but magically they stayed open anyways, because my former partners still had their accounts open. This ultimately linked my credit to them, and some of them fell on hard times. This adversely affected my credit until I convinced Amex to really, really cancel my cards. So beware of 'company cards' in your name. Especially after that company is gone. I only found out because I was buying a car and got a credit report and noticed the score was ten points lower than expected. This was still 'awesomely good' credit in the eyes of the car lot, but it meant a slightly higher interest rate on the car.

I also dislike AmEx "Comany Cards". My bad experience was largely due to lack of timely expense check payments for travel from the company, not AmEx. I had submitted my expense report in a timely fashion, but the project manager did not do his bit in time. So, I did not get my check at the end of the month and would have to wait another month (they only paid once a month). I was told just let the balance go. My response was I am not going to trash my credit rating (while it was a "company card", it was still in my name and affected my credit rating) for the company...and I was not going to float the company a loan for month. The standard response was...wait a month. My response was..."Then I won't be travelling for the company anymore."...this was to the accounting manager. End result...my check was down to me within 30 mintues.


You can review your credit for free once a year, and you should definitely do so before making major credit purchases (like a car or house). I give an indirect FTC link because there are too damned many sleazy people linking to 'free credit check' sites that are only a way for them to mine your credit information to resell for direct marketing. Pay attention to those scores. The information is detailed, so be sure and print it out and save it. Since I'm a Linux user, I can just print that information to PDF and stick it on my flash-drive-o-private-crap. Windoze luzers would have to buy Acrobat or something to do that.


http://www.ftc.gov/b...edit/cre34.shtm

Or to get the "free reports", you have to sign up and pay for some "credit monitoring" or "credit protection" service. No thanks.

I check mine credit reports once a year...in fact, it is getting to be about time.

You can also make sure your credit isn't 'pre-approved' for other people to sign your name and carry off merchandise.


http://www.optoutprescreen.com/


May as well dump this one in, too. I hate getting called, so it's nice to have a place to complain about it.


https://www.donotcall.gov/

Long ago did the Do Not Call list...and have gleefully reported violators many times...and gleefully told them that I would be reporting them.

[Evildave]

Rgreen4, the operative word is 'Reader'. Neither makes a PDF.

OpenOffice will make a PDF for free, but there are some copy/paste steps for making a PDF from a web page there.

[Evildave]

Yup. Nothing like getting the caller ID pecked in while you wait for the operator, then get the company name and type it into the form (Sometimes getting company name is like pulling teeth, which actually carries a heavier fine! Report these to the phone company, and YOU could collect!), then thanking them for giving me all I need to submit the 'Do Not Call' violation.

Here's another site on that vein.

http://www.callcatalog.com/phones

http://www.fraud.org/

[rgreen4]

Your right, I missed that you were generating the PDF not reading it. Since I'm a user of MS Office 2007 the add-on to print to PDF was a no cost add-on. It is only available for MS Office 2007, not 2003 or earlier.

[iamonsite]

I've found the Ubuntu live distribution to be a little slow, mostly due to spinning up of the CD anytime anything loads. Do yourself a favor and try Puppy Linux . It works great on old hardware and once you're at the desktop, you can remove the CD - It runs in RAM so there's no need to leave the CD in. It has options for installing to a USB thumb drive (if your PC supports booting from USB), Boot from CD, or Install it to the hard drive (it can co-exist with Windows) in a dual boot option.
It's not for everybody, as the Ubuntu characters will remind you. But it does work, and they update the versions every so often to incorporate new programs.
Compared to a live CD like Knoppix or Ubuntu - puppy will boot faster, and you may find it gets you to the internet just fine.
You have to ask yourself what you want to do with your computer, and what you can probably get by with if you can live without Windows programs.
If you need a web browser, word processor, spreadsheet, media player, torrent downloader, photo viewer - editor then Puppy has all those things.
Converting - sounds so final. Try it, boot the CD and give it a shot - if you choose not to commit, remove the CD, reboot and go back to Windows and defrag, anti-virus scan, and update as much as you like.
Most hardware is recognized by the current Linux kernel - but it's impossible to say what you have will be free of any issues. I have an Inspiron 8200 and a Brother HL1440, with a Dell wireless card and it works great. It's free, runs well and costs only the time it takes to try it.

[Evildave]

It shouldn't be too bad if run off a Flash drive of some sort. Something like Puppy (or even Damn Small Linux) will always boot quicker, but Ubuntu has more drivers for more junk, and supports dual monitors immediately, and, I'm just used to it. More convenient to edit /etc/fstab and point /home at a 'real drive', and edit other preferences that way, too, so the boot can be to your liking. Not that you can't edit an ISO to make it happen that way booting off a CD.
Looks like 9.04 live doesn't pop up my Dell Wireless P.O.S. (but ndiswrapper will certainly still work for a full install). Knew I shoulda sprung for the Intel branded one, and cheaped out. It's not irreplaceable, but since ndiswrapper works, I'm content to leave it, rather than pull the notebook apart to replace it.

I miss having an abstract beastie for the wallpaper, too. :( Just rays on brown.

Otherwise, 100% functional. Posting off the live CD now (had it burnt and sitting around, but hadn't done anything with it).

[KStrawn]

mphenterprises, on 10 September 2007 - 04:17 AM, said:

Hi Dabigkahuna. I may have a resolution for you, at least for a trial run. One of our forum members introduced me to an application known as VMware.

VirtualBox does everything VMWare does, plus, it's open-source, free, and, yes, there is a Windows version of it.

This post has been edited by KStrawn: 28 August 2009 - 12:11 PM

[waldojim]

KStrawn, on 28 August 2009 - 09:10 PM, said:

mphenterprises, on 10 September 2007 - 04:17 AM, said:

Hi Dabigkahuna. I may have a resolution for you, at least for a trial run. One of our forum members introduced me to an application known as VMware.

VirtualBox does everything VMWare does, plus, it's open-source, free, and, yes, there is a Windows version of it.

I <3 Virtual Box! so much lighter... and free-er than vmware!