Category: Tradelines

I’ve had enough credit cards open at once that my wallet stopped functioning as a wallet. At one point I was running eleven cards simultaneously for tradeline purposes — and the one thing that constant card management teaches you is how credit dynamics actually work. So when people ask me about the best credit card for buying a car, I have opinions. Not just about which cards have good rewards, but about what actually happens to your credit score when you put a large purchase on a card — which most guides skip over entirely.

People trying to rebuild their credit sometimes ask me whether the BNPL services they’re already using — Zip, Afterpay, Klarna — are helping their score. It’s a fair assumption: you’re making payments, you’re paying on time, shouldn’t that count for something? The answer for Zip specifically is no — and understanding why explains a lot about how credit reporting actually works. Phone financing runs on similar logic — I looked at whether financing a phone builds credit.