What is the best way to establish credit when you have none?

I have no credit. I am getting ready to graduate and I am getting married in August.... How do I establish credit? Should I get a credit card and use it wisely paying it off every month? Or should I talk to a bank or something? I need help!!

Here's the REAL answer:

I have to make decisions everyday on whether to approve or deny people that apply for credit. If I had to give advice to people that

are trying to start out building credit, this is the advice that I would give:

1. Open a checking account- While opening the account doesn't directly build your credit, it does create a relationship between you

and the bank by being an accountholder. Banks love to cater to their preferred customers that have accounts in great standing by

offering loans and credit cards. Also, having a checking account not only helps manage your money, but it gives you the most

powerful tool in building credit, a checking account to help pay your bills on time. Most banks and credit unions offer online banking

with billpay that can make it easy for you to pay your bills on time, which is important in building credit.

2. Open a secured credit card- Secured credit cards are the easiest credit cards to get, mainly becuase a security deposit is placed

upfront in order to establish a line of credit in the same amount. For example, if you deposit $250, your credit limit is $250, and so on.

The deposit isn't used to pay for any of the purchsases on the card unless, it was charged off and sent to collections, so you would

have to repay it just like a regular card either in full or minimum monthly payments. The deposit is sometimes linked to a savings

account, so it earns interest while you're building credit, so the deposit isn't sitting there. You can think of this as building credit with

a savings account. The more you deposit, the higher your limit, which is good for your score because it creates a cushion between

the total debt you owe and the credit you have available. Also, by continuing to add to the deposit, you're also creating an

emergency fund at the same time. A good way of using the card is by making small purchases ($20/month max) and paying on time

every month while adding to the deposit. Usually after a year or so, the card either converts or upgrades to a regular card, and most

importantly, the deposit is given back, which you can place in a savings account as an emergency fund.

3. Enroll with PRBC- PRBC is America's Alternative Credit Bureau, providing a helpful service to the over 50 million people with

limited or no credit history. If you pay your monthly bills on time, PRBC can help you build credit to qualify for a mortgage and better

interest rates.On-time payments for the following bills are not reported to the traditional credit bureaus:

Rent
Cable
Phone
Daycare
Insurance
Electric
Natural Gas
Cell Phone

The only time your payments for these bills are reported to the other credit bureaus is if they're missing or late.With PRBC, your on-

time payments count. You build credit for paying your bills on time, even if you have no credit history. PRBC has teamed up with Fair

Issac, the creators of the FICO score to introduce the FICO expansion score which helps people build credit. Here's a link that explains

more in detail:

http://www.fairisaac.com/fic/en/product-service/product-index/fico-expansion-score/

In closing, just a few more things to keep in mind.

-Don't spend more than 30% of your combined available credit on all your cards.

-Only apply for credit when necessary.

-Dont close unused accounts.

-Pay on time

Hope this helps...

Thanks for reading and...

Good luck!

If you mean that you're a college student, you should have no trouble getting a credit card, and that is a good start. Last I heard credit card companies are crawling over campuses marketing to students.

Get a no-fee, low interest credit card and even if you just spend $20 every couple of months and keep paying it off on time, you will be establishing a good credit rating.

get a few small loans and pay them off and can try a credit card and pay off the balance each month that will bring up your credit score and then try something bigger like a car loan

The best way to establish credit is prove you are responsible with it. Getting a credit card and paying it off every month is a good place to start.

Another way of establishing credit is to get a small loan. Since you have no credit, you will probably have to start with maybe a couple of hundred dollars or you'll risk having huuuuge interest rates. If you want to start building credit TODAY, go to some place like Sears and open a store card, buy something cheap and pay it off tomorrow. Then, every six months or so, call your credit card and store card companies and ask to have your limit raised. Credit scores are raised by the amount of credit you have available vs. the amount you are using.

Also, pay the $10 per month and subscribe to a credit service. They'll let you know when anything psoitive or negative effects your acore.

if you are starting to build credit you will not get a good credit card because they will not take the risk since you don't have any credit so you have to have start with something that will give you a high interest because those are the only credit cards that will take the risk, but what i would recomend is get one of these cards and use it for about 6-9 months, make your payments on time and then apply for a better card with rewards and better rates once you get approved drop the first one, check out www.fastcreditcardapprovals.com and go under poor or no credit section, but you will see they have all other major credit cards and you are able to compare them all side by side on rates, fees and rewards.

You could.
Your FICO score is calculated allocated like this:

35% is payment history
30% amount owed
15% length of credit history
10% new cards
10% types of credit used

http://www.myfico.com/images/CreditEducation/ce_scorebreakdown.png

QUICK TIPS: [how to raise your FICO score quickly]
-Try a secured credit card through your bank if you can't get any other cards. The only warning I gie is it will affect your credit score badly if you miss any payments.
-Pay all bills on time.
-Don't open a lot of new cards at one time.

I live by Suze Orman's rules for finance. Try picking up her book "For the Young Fabulous & Broke" it's really great.

This is a great question for daveramsey.com. This man has NO credit cards and is a millionaire...check him out. You could call his radio show and ask the question to him on the air.

Yes - do all of those things. I didn't get a credit card until I was well into my 40's. I had built houses and borrowed large sums of money, but I had never 'established credit'. It was really funny - nobody trusted me because I was so old and had never had a credit card. Anyway, I just kept applying - all the banks issue Visa cards. Finally got one after many conversations with the bank. They weren't used to speaking to entirely solvent people - I had no debt and no credit either.

But if you apply, finally you'll get a credit card and that will begin a chain of credit at the big banks. They only want to know if they're going to get paid back if they lend you money.

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