Quote Originally Posted by kelly
Just establishing credit. I took out a loan and got a small credit card last year cuz I had no credit (had to get a co-signer of course).
Gotcha.

The best thing to do is to get small, sometimes secured, credit cards and pay on them wisely.

Try getting gas cards, store credit cards, or even some of the bigger banks offer secured cards. The interest rates suck, yes, but they do offer a way to "build" your credit file enough to start getting offers from other companies.

Remember the 1/3 rule. No matter what the highest credit is, unless you plan on paying it off at the end of the month, try not to go over 1/3 of the limit. This will help you build your score up quicker.

Be careful with too many inquiries. It can sure enough drop your score quickly. Most creditors get your info sold to them as a "good" prospect for a variety of reasons including your current score. Most "pre-approved" credit card offers start out that way. Your name is sold to this mega credit card company under the assumption that you are someone they're probably interested in because you either just recently got credit or have a good score already. They then turn around and send you all these offers for you to fill out. Everytime you apply for any of those, they may pull your credit. If they do, it will be an inquiry. Too many inquiries and your hard earned score will suffer.

If you get a few smaller accts, the bigger ones will follow soon enough if you keep your nose clean and pay everything like it should be and don't max everything out right away.