Originally Posted by
lwildernorva
Before you do anything, you need to understand credit and how it may affect you. Just as you can't learn everything from one college course, you can't learn everything from one board. Before jumping into this, it's a really good idea to learn about credit in general. One good internet resource is here,
http://creditboards.com/forums/.
Once you've got credit down, you can mix that knowledge with what you'll get here. In general terms, understand that while love may be a game for the young, credit and FF programs tend to favor us who have reached an age where, perhaps, we've got a bit more experience under our belts.
+1. Great advice.
For OP, yes, start from creditboards.com for credit score/history/rating/worthiness issues. Come to FT for the mile/point game.
Do understand that quite a few FTers are getting fat signup bonuses from credit cards because they ARE credit-worthy in the eyes of the banks (long credit history, good income...etc). That's why for starters like you, you have to grasp the "credit concept" and work on your credit first. Reading creditboards.com like crazy will be a good starter.
No idea about frequent flyer programs and mile/point games? That's where FT comes in. Read the sticky threads in fora of your interest. Read and read and read threads on FT to "build" your knowledge base. Have a question? Great! Search and see if that's asked before on FT and how the question was asked and answered.
Still confused? No problem. Ask a different and/or more detailed question than the person before you. By doing so, not only will you build the knowledge, but also you expand your own horizon about the mile game. Plan for sleepless nights crunching on FT.
Don't forget, you can learn all the basics from the official website of the airlines too. Sometimes the airlines just give you easy and straightforward answers to their frequent flyer programs from ground zero. And the airline websites are not as overwhelming as FT.
Welcome to FT!