What credit line should one have when going OTR starting out

If he wants to be a trucker i doubt he has the cash to "pay off the bills" lol.

 

Stuff happens when you are out OTR. The fact that you are thinking ahead is great. Too many drivers head out with no plan. As a few members stated, Your focus should be having cash on hand, instead of credit. If it has to be credit now, no problem, but once you're through training and out on your own, make sure your priority is putting some emergency cash aside FIRST, before you start addressing your bills. Covering your minimums at least, obviously. Personally, I set aside $2000 when I first went out.
I would also give you this advice: There is a financial guy on the radio named Dave Ramsey. His debt program is really great and helped me a lot and is VERY relevant to your original question/situation. They sell his books at a lot of the truckstops you'll be stopping in. I know I see them at almost all T/As and Petros. His original book is called Total Money Makeover. I would recommend that book to anyone reading this. If you can catch his radio show also, even better. Good Luck

 

Im not sure if you are done with school or if you are just asking about the trainer/finisher time. But I would say that $2000 should cover most anything that comes up. When I started my school and hotel was paid for. Then when I got into the first truck with my trainer I was being paid by the mile with the company I am with. I ended up spending about $3000 my first two months out which was one month of school and an additional month with a trainer with the company.

I think you could get away with much less than what I paid my first few months. I am single, have no kids and basically just came to do this for the adventure of it. So needless to say I bought whatever I felt like buying. I did make sure that I had no debts when I came out, but you dont have to go that far. Very least just pay what bills you have ahead by a few months so you wont have anything to worry about if something does go wrong. You really dont want to be stressed and burning through advances your first weeks in. You will have plenty to learn and do and you really dont need to extra distraction of money problems when you are trying to learn to operate these vehicles.

 

Why would you spend crazy money for a plane ticket if you got off the truck. It is not like you have to be anywhere in a hurry.

Rent a car for 300 bucks and drive home.

Whoops , did not read the last few posts about rental cars.

 

1400 dollars to go from phoenix to atlanta ?

 

Yep, I know it seemed like a lot. But at that time a walk up to the counter one way ticket was very expensive on some routes. I tried to get him to fly on southwest to Birmingham Alabama, but even theirs was almost $800. I am sure there are people in here that went through this!

 

Because I know where this might go I took a few minutes and looked up the same day one way fare from Phoenix to Atlanta fare on the delta website. Todays fares started at $494 and topped out at $1584. I think he flew on Delta and that was the best fare his wife could find for him at that time.

 

I had a $25,000 line of credit but the most i used at one time was probably a few hundred bucks that got paid off the next check. $2-3000 line of credit and you should be fine.

 

Money should never become a serious issue unless your terminated away from your home terminal or your company has ceased operations. Lines of credit are OK (I'm thinking other then credit card) but you might be in a situation where you can't get access to these funds. Keep emergency cash on you. As long as I can remember my father kept both emergency cash and payment for diesel on him at all times. This was in the days before comdata and some truckstops demanded cash and would not issue credit. You should never leave your company home terminal thinking that company will provide you a way home in an emergency situation.

 

Its 2016 if you have a decent credit line attached to visa or mastercard you are good to go.t the only time i wasnt able to use my cc was because i was broke down or stuck in the middle of nowhere where cash wouldnt do me any good either.