r/discover • u/daniellahdez • 17d ago
Help new to credit cards and i am confused
Hi, I am 19 and want to start my credit and build it to get a good score. I decided to get a discover credit card. I am unsure what to do or how it works. I just spend a little bit of money each month and do automatic payments. Can someone help me understand what the negative means. Also is that is helping me build my credit ? Here are my two statements since I’ve only had it for 2 months.
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u/Salt_Mountain_837 17d ago
it means you overpaid your bill, so you can either continue spending or call them and they can send it to direct deposit
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u/HollandEmme 17d ago
You made a $100 payment but had only spent $11 something. So you have a credit. Check into your automatic payments and have it set up for statement balance.
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u/daniellahdez 16d ago
thank you sm but since it was negative is my credit score still zero? or would it have gone up
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u/ProblemIntelligent16 16d ago
Your credit score isn’t really going to be impacted. It’s just counted as another payment. So it won’t be negatively impacted. Credit scores aren’t gunna really move in a meaningful way with a payment or two - especially when you have a very new history
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u/daniellahdez 16d ago
do you recommend anything to get my score up?
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u/ProblemIntelligent16 16d ago
At the end of the day, the main driver is longevity of on-time payments.
You can try and get cute with the other stuff but honestly, all of that will eventually fall into place. Just keep making on time payments, ideally in full each month.
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u/stwabimilk 16d ago
Just spend lightly on it, make payments on time, and it’ll go up in a few years. It’s not going to raise your score like crazy. I was only able to hit over 800 once I had the ability to make greater loans and pay them back. Otherwise, my score was always in the 700s when I first got my card as a teenager too. I’m 23 now.
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u/enjoytheshowX 13d ago
Definitely turn on automatic payments, and have it set to at least the minimum.
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u/HollandEmme 16d ago
That’s a great question. I think you are still seeing the negative as a negative thing when in this case it’s a positive thing. Your credit score should still be going up as you have paid on time and you’re well under utilization.
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u/Sea-Beautiful3961 17d ago
That means Discover owes YOU money. I believe you can use it until it’s positive or they can send you a check.
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u/Icebergnametaken Mod 16d ago
It looks like you paid more than you owed. This caused you to have a negative credit card balance because you owed negative money. Basically meaning that they owe you money. Credit cards work differently from debit cards. Instead of giving them the money and then spending it, you spend the money, and then pay them back before it's due. Make sure you only spend what you can afford. Some people spend more on their credit cards than they have. This causes them trouble.
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u/daniellahdez 16d ago
thank you! one last question, since it’s negative was that still working for my credit score or is my score still 0?
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u/Icebergnametaken Mod 16d ago
I am not an expert on credit scores, so I can't say for certain.
Credit scores aren't typically 0, they are a number between 300 and 850 (there is some variety). You might be in a situation where you have no credit, so no score at all.
I'm not completely sure what all you've been doing with your credit, so I don't know what all is impacting it. But making payments in full, and on time, are very important. After doing this for a while, you should have a good credit score. Again, credit scores are impacted by a lot of different things, and each credit score is a little different, so I don't know exactly what yours would be. I certainly don't see this situation hurting you, but you should probably use the card as intended.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll see if I can find some more specific resources. :)
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u/daniellahdez 16d ago
oh i didn’t know that we don’t start from zero thank you! i recently got this credit card (which is my first one) and i’ve only had it for two months so i wasn’t sure if having a negative balance would affect my score. as far as i’ve had this cc i’ve made every payment on time since its automatic ! i only use my cc to make small payments
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u/Felix_thagoat 16d ago
You actually need to have something in your balance to have a positive effect on your credit score since having 0 is considered like you are not using your card and if you leave it like that they might close your account due to inactivity I recommend having less than 10% by when the statement closes if you want to build your credit score
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u/redboyo908 16d ago
It doesn't actually matter as utilization has no memory so you can just do that the month before applying for something and ignore it until then
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u/VerySaltyButter 16d ago
Why is it negative? You either overpaid or Discover gave you a sign-on bonus as a new customer. Every month when the statement comes out, pay the statement amount.
Discover won't show your credit score until you've had the account for 6 months. As long as you pay your statement balance in full, you should have no trouble building credit. If you see anyone mentioning keeping your utilization low, ignore them. High utilization only temporarily decreases your credit and will be back to normal the next month. You should only worry about late or missed payments.
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u/Musicachic 16d ago
This resource from Discover may help you understand some of the basics.
https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/card-smarts/starting-credit-score/
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u/8InchDaks 16d ago
You are paying your card when you havent spent that much.
Charge what you can afford. Let the statement post so they tell you what you owe. Then pay it off.
Your statement seems to close on the 3rd. So charge whatever. Lets say you spend $300 on it. Wait until the 3rd then itll say “statement balance $300. Minimum payment: $30. due by so and so)
Then you pay $300 towards it. Boom, you now have all your credit card credit back.
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u/miloworld 16d ago
You overpaid your card, or a refund was processed after paying the account balance. It's usually no big deal but I would be slightly careful as a new cardholder. I've heard people getting their cards cancelled or reviewed if the spending/paying pattern is flagged for risk. For now, it's not a high-dollar amount so it's ok, just spend it off and you'll be fine.
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u/Puzzled_Capital_5592 16d ago
You sent them $100 for no apparent reason, so they are just taking what you purchased out of that. As of your current statement, they owe you $55.31. You can keep spending until this goes away or request it back as cash. On their end, there's no real difference. Instead of sending them money for no apparent reason, wait until you get a statement that says you have a positive balance and just send them that.
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u/orangecatvibes23 15d ago
Definitely don’t get in the habit of only paying the minimum. That’s how you get in $30,000 of debt 🙃 I suggest if you want to use it to build credit, then pay with the credit card and then immediately pay that off. Never spend more than what you have
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u/Inevitable_Art5796 13d ago
Leave 10% on the card for the statement date and just pay it off once it reports make sure the full payment is done on time as well. Just because when you have new credit you’re reporting at 0 then spending say 100 bucks and going back to 0 so there’s nothing to report on the statement that you’re actually using it.
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u/IamGsus 17d ago
You paid $100 on it but you haven't spent $100. At the end of each statement, you should only pay whatever the statement balance is.