If you have no credit at all I would go with the Capitol One Journey card. Its a really good card for people looking to build credit, or for people who have no credit. If you have any credit I would try a Discover card because they are the best for younger people (assuming you aren't to old).

Advice with using the card, don't use it on food or a bunch of small items. Use it on bigger items such as a tv, lawn mower, a bed, etc. always pay more then the minimum, and pay earlier then the stated due date. Hope this helps

Screw credit pay everything in cash.
It is what o teach my kids.

If you don't have cash for it, you can't afford it.
Government has us all screwed because you "have" to have a credit score to get anything. I laugh at them when they want to check mine only because I have a 814. I have a hard inquiry which affects your CS because of my purchase of a new vehicle. So my Only debt I have is my new 2016 Honda Pilot RES I bought the wife and only owe 26k left. Bought it last year for 45k.

Proof below:


Like stated before don't buy food or cheap little thins because you are lying more interest than that is worth putting it on. Put it on big purchases as in car, tv, house, motorcycle, or some gaming systems...

Disclaimer - and you'll see this sentence a few times throughout this post - I'm an 18 year old college student working a very nice part time job, so I have a fair bit of disposable income. This is all in my experience and in the experience of my family, who I occasionally help with finances. If this information is incorrect at all, I apologize. However, all of the information about the credit cards is true backed with first-hand experience.

For your first credit card, I would recommend the [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] . There is no annual fee, they approve most people, and the rewards are pretty great. You get 1% cash back on any purchases at any point in time, but special categories are selected quarterly to give you 5% cash back. For instance, cardholder's get 5% cash back on all purchases classified as Home Improvement or Amazon.com sales. I've only had the card for a few months but I've built up about $15 in cash back rewards, which you can redeem any time. That's practically free money!

XeJackal wrote Visa Soutwest Airlines card if you live in the US it the best card as it helps build credit and let's you fly free after earning so many points

Hope this helps

The con to the Southwest Airlines card is that they typically only give cards to those who have already established credit, meaning a higher chance of being rejected. However, given that you have a much more stable income - I'm an 18 year old college student who works part time - they might give you more consideration. The free miles only come after a pretty significant amount of money is spent, so don't expect to be flying for free very often if you don't spend a lot of money on a regular basis.

Addendum: I only know about Southwest because my family has had their cards for years. If you use it for travel expenses, it's pretty nice. Otherwise, it takes a while to redeem your rewards if you don't often spend high amounts of money.

GT40 wrote Advice with using the card, don't use it on food or a bunch of small items. Use it on bigger items such as a tv, lawn mower, a bed, etc. always pay more then the minimum, and pay earlier
then the stated due date. Hope this helps

As far as I'm aware, the items that you buy hold absolutely no importance in your credit score. Credit bureaus most often look at the total amount of credit given, the average amount of credit that is used, spending patterns, and how often you pay your bill. For example, I have had the card for about two months and I use it for every day purchases such as the grocery store, meals out, gas, etc. I nearly max out my $1,000 credit limit every month, but I pay it off entirely the same day that the bill comes - mind you I'm an 18 year old college student with a fair bit of supplemental income - so that I have no left over bills to pay that will collect up interest. My first FICO credit score was run at the end of June, giving me a 709, and my second FICO credit score was run at the end of July, giving me a 730. The credit bureaus care that you can pay your money back well enough, they don't care what you spend it on.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Terrowin wrote Disclaimer - and you'll see this sentence a few times throughout this post - I'm an 18 year old college student working a very nice part time job, so I have a fair bit of disposable income. This is all in my experience and in the experience of my family, who I occasionally help with finances. If this information is incorrect at all, I apologize. However, all of the information about the credit cards is true backed with first-hand experience.

For your first credit card, I would recommend the [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] . There is no annual fee, they approve most people, and the rewards are pretty great. You get 1% cash back on any purchases at any point in time, but special categories are selected quarterly to give you 5% cash back. For instance, cardholder's get 5% cash back on all purchases classified as Home Improvement or Amazon.com sales. I've only had the card for a few months but I've built up about $15 in cash back rewards, which you can redeem any time. That's practically free money!

XeJackal wrote Visa Soutwest Airlines card if you live in the US it the best card as it helps build credit and let's you fly free after earning so many points

Hope this helps

The con to the Southwest Airlines card is that they typically only give cards to those who have already established credit, meaning a higher chance of being rejected. However, given that you have a much more stable income - I'm an 18 year old college student who works part time - they might give you more consideration. The free miles only come after a pretty significant amount of money is spent, so don't expect to be flying for free very often if you don't spend a lot of money on a regular basis.

Addendum: I only know about Southwest because my family has had their cards for years. If you use it for travel expenses, it's pretty nice. Otherwise, it takes a while to redeem your rewards if you don't often spend high amounts of money.

GT40 wrote Advice with using the card, don't use it on food or a bunch of small items. Use it on bigger items such as a tv, lawn mower, a bed, etc. always pay more then the minimum, and pay earlier
then the stated due date. Hope this helps

As far as I'm aware, the items that you buy hold absolutely no importance in your credit score. Credit bureaus most often look at the total amount of credit given, the average amount of credit that is used, spending patterns, and how often you pay your bill. For example, I have had the card for about two months and I use it for every day purchases such as the grocery store, meals out, gas, etc. I nearly max out my $1,000 credit limit every month, but I pay it off entirely the same day that the bill comes - mind you I'm an 18 year old college student with a fair bit of supplemental income - so that I have no left over bills to pay that will collect up interest. My first FICO credit score was run at the end of June, giving me a 709, and my second FICO credit score was run at the end of July, giving me a 730. The credit bureaus care that you can pay your money back well enough, they don't care what you spend it on.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Actually it kinda does matter, i took two semesters of personal finance. One thing he always stressed was to use it on bigger purchases. He's doing pretty well off, so i'm sorry to say but you're wrong for calling me incorrect

GT40 wrote Actually it kinda does matter, i took two semesters of personal finance. One thing he always stressed was to use it on bigger purchases. He's doing pretty well off, so i'm sorry to say but you're wrong for calling me incorrect

Now I'm curious, why would the items you purchase matter? Why would you only want to use credit for bigger purchases? I can give an example of why I believe you may be incorrect:

In the course of one week, you take two separate trips to Target: one trip for a $199 television and the other trip for a $110 purchase of food for the week. How will they ring up on your credit card statement? The statement, nor the transaction history on your card, would tell you that you bought a television or food for the week, it would simply say something along the lines of TARGET followed by your region data (if it's the same everywhere, that's how it is in my state), and only the total amount that you paid. The credit card companies don't track what you purchase, they track the amount that you spent. So that leads me to reiterate the question - why does what you're purchasing have any importance?

PS: I also took a personal finance course and never heard anything about only using credit on large purchases, the teacher actually suggested smaller purchases in order to keep statement payments lower so you could pay the entire bill on time.

Yep, go to Capitol one or something. As far as advice, when building credit only take out 1/3 of your max. For example if your max is 75 dollars, only charge 25. Also don't pay it all off, pay off like 20 bucks, then the next month only barrow to where you owe 1/3rd of the max. Say your max is still only at 75, only charge 20 (because you still owe 5). Now only pay off 20, and pay the full bill every 6 months. This way they see you're still holding money and paying money off.

Can you pay it off in full each month? Of course. Is that going to give you credit? You bet. As much as keeping just a little bit un paid? No. It's not life or death or some huge amount, but if you can keep track of the numbers it's a good way to go.