I was offered another credit card a week ago, but threw it away. I figured one was dangerous enough. You're saying I should have accepted it and used it minimally and paid it off right away?

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yes!!

but remained disciplined. I use mine to pay all bills online instead of my debit card. I go to the card on line every couple of weeks and pay it off. I even look to see what is pending but not processed and pay those as well. End of the month I owe nothing and pay no interest. My score jumped by nearly 200 points from the mid 500's to mid 700's in less than 2 years. I only started to make payments this way in the past 12-15 months and that was when my biggest score jump came.

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Damn. If offered another, I'll have to accept. I figured one was enough. When it comes to being disciplined, I'm probably overboard. I hate spending money, although I love spending money on my daughters. I don't carry cash so I don't think I have any money at all. Sounds stupid, but somehow it's kept me financially balanced the last ehh.. 8 years or so.

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Tomorrow, I'm taking half my bee check from this year and paying off my pickup 3.5 years early. I haven't gone through my interest savings on that yet; but judging from my bankers reaction to my refi on my mortgage last year, he isn't going to be thanking me. I saved $110,000 in interest and Mrs. Dakota was mad because it cost me $4,500 to do the paperwork. She's been wanting a deck for a while.

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Let her know she can work as many jobs as she'd like to help pay for that deck she wants.

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She's up for a promotion pretty soon. I'm sure we will both have some extra cash flow every month.

Just keep plugging away, man. When I was your age, I was overwhelmed too. What I did to get out from interest hell was to bust ass with a second gig. That probably won't work for you because you don't have a significant other to watch your daughters while you would work another job. There definitely were opportunity costs involved though. I have sacrificed a lot of time with my daughters, to provide all that I have; and there are regrets with that. My goal is to have my 15 year mortgage paid off by the time I retire from the state at age 52, and by then I won't need this 5 bedroom house anymore.

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Thanks. I have quite a bit on my mind with the new job maybe and possibly moving back, but tomorrow I'm going to check out a few other Credit Cards that I got email offers about. Gotta make sure they aren't some kind of scam or something. I didn't know having more than one made a difference. Referring to Credit Cards. I figured one would suffice.

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The technical reason for getting more credit cards (AND PAYING THEM OFF AS YOU GO) is that it will improve your "utilization ratio", which is A) the amount of your AVAILABLE credit compared to the ACTUAL credit you are presently using. You need to increase your overall "credit line" in order to improve your utilization ratio.

B) This comes under the category of "Amounts owed" when calculating your FICO score (Fair Isaac) - This category is fully 30% of the total determination in arriving at your score, only exceeded by "Payment History" which is 35% of the determination of your FICO score.

Contrast that with the fact that the opening and/or non-opening of new credit cards only weighs 10% in that score determination, coupled with the fact that the opening is a short-term hit, whereas the utilization ratio is a long-term positive IF YOU KEEP THE RATIO FAVORABLE by PAYING AS YOU go, this ostensibly counter-intuitive method works well for folks with credit problems that are on a path to improve them.

Don't go crazy, and as I said before, it IS important to USE the cards, as you will see the fastest rise in your score, improved offers from other creditors, etc.

I would re-visit my existing credit cards once better offers arrive---as in getting rid of the old ones--- UNSOLICITED ones, btw. You'll know the good offers when you see them.