Help me with my credit and lack there of.

BradicusMaximus

So, I'm 21 with no credit. I probably should've gotten started on this when I turned 18 but I'm dumb. I know theres no quick way of doing it, but I'm pretty sure I should finally start working on it. Sages of H/A, show me your ways!

a5ehren

1) Do you have student loans? If yes, keep paying them on time.

2) Open a bank account if you don't have one. Just having one open increases your credit history.

3) Pull your score from myFICO.com (not free) or creditkarma.com (free) and see what agencies have on you. Even for young people working on building credit, the biggest problem is usually account age.

4) Consider getting a credit card, then use it and pay it off every month. If you don't feel you can trust yourself with it, just hide it in your house and use it to pay bills.

BradicusMaximus

I already pay my own bills and what not, it wouldn't be hard factoring a CC into it. Am I going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get one? Also, is it worth pulling any info from those sites right now?

Draygo

Depends, when you open your bank account ask if they offer a credit card. You may have to deal with a really low limit at first. And understand the limit is for expenditure spanning 2 months, not 1, so a 500$ limit can be exceeded if you put 300$ on it on two months in a row. Its generally not that hard to get a credit card, though its tougher than it used to be.

The longer you have and pay your credit card bill the better. Car payments, student loans also count for building your credit. But by far the easist way is to get and pay a credit card on time every month.

BradicusMaximus

I guess I'll be heading up to my credit union Monday and talking to them about getting one. If anything I'm sure they can give me some useful information.