Since it is a first time card, pay attention as to wether there are any monthly / annual fees.
Alot of begginers cards will have a annual fee, that they will breakup & bill you monthly for. So, you may get, say, $6 / mo bill. IF YOU DON’T PAY IT, YOU WILL BE CONSIDERED LATE.
Otherwise, 10.99% is not too bad to start with, believe it or not.
Whatever you do, keep the card open. Keep it at least 2-3 yrs, depending on what else you do. Since you are just starting out, the only thing you can do is fuck it up; or not fuck it up.
In otherwords:
*Use it sparingly, & pay it off. Keeping a running balance on the card is a stupid urban myth. It will make the finance company happy (as you’re paying interest to them), but will not help you credit scores.
*DO NOT BE LATE. Evar. I don’t care if you have to setup biweekly pmts through your banks bill-pay service.
*Keep the account open. Average age of account is a SMALL percentage of FICO, but since you’re starting out, each month you keep the account in good standing is a positive.
*DO NOT carry running balances greater then 60%, even less is better. Ideally, you’ll keep ZERO running balance on the card.
Here is the actual breakdown of your FICO scoring (as of 6/2007 model):
35% Payment History (no lates / 30 days+)
30% Utilization (total credit lines in use as a percentage)
15% New credit - how recently you’ve taken out credit, hard inquiries
10% Average age of accounts