The info about raising the credit limit is good, I’d also consider opening a second card while you’re young to increase your average age of account when you actually need credit later in life. You can stick this new one in the freezer or just put a recurring subscription on it and forget about it.

I would take the fixed given those three choices. And I have a 7 year arm now so I'm not averse to them... the rate discount just doesn't seem worth it.

Sometimes a 15 year fixed is a good deal if you can swing the payments. No idea where they are nowadays though.

Variable rate loans are not good in this economic climate. Just pay it off so you can have more cash for your monthly budget. Depending on what state you live in, you'll need it for increasing food and energy costs.

You don't get penalized for high utilization...not really. As long as you aren't overspending on the card to the point you can't pay it off whenever you are absolutely fine. You could 90% utilize your card for years and then decide that next month you are going to get a car loan and so you pay your car off in full and your score will be just as high as had you kept your utilization low all that time. Negative impacts on credit score from utilization are ephemeral and go away as soon as you pay down the card...they don't last.

People freak out about utilization and it really does not matter. Honestly...don't worry about it at all.

To make you feel better, up to 1 year ago, you were not missing much by having your money in a checking account as interest were very very low

I think you might want to think of your credit score in a different way. The way I explain it to people is that your credit score is the measurement of your ability to borrow money and more importantly your ability to pay it back. That’s why people who can already borrow money can borrow more money easily. If someone else is willing to lend you money then I would too. Lower risk. So the greater your balance means more risk to pay it off so your score drops. The banks aren’t out to get you. They are in the business of making money.

Also there is no need to constantly check your credit score. It’s only important when you need to borrow money.

Keep paying it off every month. Request an increase to your limit. Open one more card. You will be fine.

Due to the number of rule-breaking comments this post was receiving, especially low-quality and off-topic comments, the moderation team has locked the post from future comments. This post broke no rules and received a number of helpful and on-topic responses initially, but it unfortunately became the target of many unhelpful comments.

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See https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8962

I just log in online and click credit limit increase button. Bang 5k increase.

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No one is really answering your question.

If a bank gives you a credit line of $700 they’re essentially saying that’s the maximum amount they think you can afford to borrow at that time (based majoritively income). When you’re utilization goes up, your credit score goes down because it’s basically an indicator to other lenders that you are close to the maximum amount you can afford to borrow. Because your credit is younger, your revolving credit ends up being a bigger factor. As others suggested your solution to lower utilization is to increase your credit limit to essentially prove you can afford to borrow more. The trick here is to not let the higher limit entice you into spending more. Banks actually want to give you a limit slightly more than what they think you can afford but not more than what they think you’ll ever be able to pay back. Then when you can’t pay a monthly statement in full, they get to charge you additional interest.

And I’ll reiterate what others have said. 775 is still great at your age. Utilization will also have a smaller affect on your overall credit as it ages. Missed payments are the real killers, so I’ll repeat: don’t borrow more than what you can actually afford to pay back each month. Don’t let the higher credit limit make you think that’s how much you can actually spend.

Highly recommend this article on the origins of the credit card.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1994/11/04/the-day-the-credit-card-was-born/d42da27b-0437-4a67-b753-bf9b440ad6dc/

TLDR; you’re encouraged to use your credit card because banks make money when you do. You’re penalized for high credit utilization because it’s essentially an indictor that you’re nearing your borrow limit.

I saw someone comment once that they use a free/cheap service to actually file their taxes (I think it was FreeTaxUSA) but they go through the process on TurboTax to compare numbers. It's a little more work but I thought it was a good tactic since as I recall turbo tax only charges to file-- it's free to use and go through their checks and instructions.

I switched to FreeTaxUSA last year and found it to be perfectly adequate, but if I were less sure about it, I think it's totally worth the savings to find out what turbo tax thinks and then file elsewhere.

Something to add to my ever growing collection of funny tax edge cases

I just want to add here—for anyone’s info or curiosity. We have NO debts, even credit card debt. Stellar credit scores. No student debt (both college grads), no car debt, no loans, no mortgage.

My disability (me getting sick) took away a HUGE part of our income.

How are you penalized by a low credit score?

A: Only if you want to borrow more outside your existing debts.

The credit score is there to make it easier for potential creditors to rate you. So they don't have to spend a half hour asking about your salary and your first born and what elementary school you went to.

If you're not going open a new debt anytime soon, your credit score isn't a big deal.

IS your insurance by any chance through the marketplace that the government offers?

We rent and have only minimal taxes on our old cars.

Thanks for the info, this is helpful.

We rent.

Assume you are not in Calif. We get extension until end of Oct with no payments, estimated tax or anything due until then. Fed and State taxes

True. I made $110k and forgot to get health insurance for the year (dont ask). 0 deductions on a W2 I file as single and had to pay $2k to my state only and Federal returned $81.

No, you can't deduct an expense you didn't actually pay. The hospital (or their 3rd party billing) records the amount you owe and if you don't pay then after a while they are allowed to write it off as a lost expense. In doing so, they send documentation to the IRS (and to you) saying that they essentially paid you the amount you owed. It's possible OP got that letter and only thought it was forgiving the debt, without understanding the income aspect.

I know people hate TurboTax here and yes I agree Intuit has problems from an ethical lobbying side, but their product is one of the best out there. I've used free solutions like Credit Karma and did a heads up comparison back in 2019 and 2020. My conclusion was the numbers are the same but TurboTax has a lot more tooltips and help guides if you have questions.

My taxes are a mess now that I don't have time to do it twice to compare, but I think TurboTax is well worth it if you need to go through capital gains, etc and anything a bit more complex than a basic W-2 and 1099-INT/DIV.

They are pretty much all to blame but the real reason is because taxes are based on your word and ambiguity. The rich don't want a flat tax, they want their lawyers and accountants to cost less then their taxes so they can lie their way out of it. The only ones that get caught are the poor that can't afford them.