My husband always has had excellent credit. However, as his wife, I never had any credit of my own. I don't work, so I don't have my own income. I finally applied for my own cards, in my name. On the application, I used his salary as "our" income, and I finally got a credit card with my name on it, instead of his. It helped a lot, back in the early days of having to cash a check, and they wanted ID. Nobody wanted to cash my checks when it wasn't my name on the credit card. Long story short, I now have my own credit cards, and I pay them off each and every month in full. My husband and I both have 800 credit scores, although he carries balances on his cards, and I do not. I constantly ask him why he carries those balances, and gives those credit cards so much interest? He says he'd rather have the cash in the bank. Makes no sense.
My husband gives me a certain portion of his salary each month, and I pay most of the household bills out of that money. There's a small portion left over for "Me", and I have loved being able to handle expenses this way.
Credit cards can indeed get you into trouble, when the interest rates are so high, and you carry a balance. However, I use mine, solely for convenience. If I don't have the money to pay the bill when it arrives, I don't use the card. That's not saying that I never paid interest, because I have. It takes a long time to establish good credit, but you need to establish the good habits from the very beginning, so you stay out of trouble.
I love paying bills online, and not having to write all those checks. My husband still writes the checks for his accounts, but I pay almost all of the other bills online. The world is ever changing. It used to be, that you saved the money first, and then you spent it. The world don't work that way anymore. Now it's "have it today", and pay for it tomorrow.
