A place where I worked had a lot of college students working there part time. They would give the receptionist/secretary’s phone number on their credit card applications. The secretary would gladly verify that their claimed income was correct.
When I first moved to the states and had no American credit rating, (and past the “college age” time when they give out credit on campus,) I got a $300-limit card from CenturyBank that had something like a $100 annual fee, which was usurious, but I only had the card for six months before I had enough of a credit history to get a real card.
Apparently other people felt it was usurious, too, since I later got a pittance from a class-action lawsuit against that bank for people who had been holders of that card.
My parents were pretty determined that I’d have a credit history by the time I was out of college, so we did 3 things.
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I signed up for one of the introductory credit card offers they had EVERYWHERE at my college. I basically compared all of them I could find. (still have that card today actually)
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Even though my parents were ultimately paying, we bought my school books using the card for about 3 years of college, and paid it off in installments, as having a credit card without ever carrying a balance doesn’t really help your credit rating much.
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After I graduated, I needed a better ride. I got lucky and found one through an estate sale, but didn’t have the $1500 to buy it outright. So I got a short-term loan from the bank that my grandmother co-signed on, rather than just have Mom and Dad cough up the $1500 and have me pay them back.
After that, it was more a matter of just paying the credit card and car note off in a timely fashion and keeping any and all of my bills paid, so that when it came time to actually buy a house, I had an extraordinarily good credit score.
I tend to conceive of a credit rating as rather akin to a plant- you have to deliberately cultivate it if you want it to flourish. Letting it grow wild means that it may grow like a weed if you’re really lucky, but it’ll probably end up scrubby, unhealthy and stunted.
I had no credit history until a couple of years ago, but never had any trouble getting a savings or checking account. I dunno, maybe I just lucked out in finding good banks the first try.
Once I had a bank, I was able to start building a credit history by getting a secured credit card. For some reason, loaning money to yourself counts, but using a debit card doesn’t.
#2 isn’t true. Revolving a balance typically provides no benefit over paying off a balance in any month you charge something. If the balances are a large percentage of the credit line, then carrying a balance becomes a negative.
Was that the case 25 years ago though? And no, the balances weren’t ever more than about 30% of the total credit limit at their highest.
I’m not positive, but 25 years ago, even more than today, you would have a very hard time telling from a credit report whether a balance was revolving or not, as a credit report is a static, point in time, view. It doesn’t look at trends.
Having said that, with your utilization at under 30%, you were certainly, at the worst, neutral. You weren’t doing anything to hurt yourself. 
What about joint accounts? I had some small sum in an account with my name and a parent’s on it. Also a credit card that I’d use when they wanted me to buy things for them.
I would say try a credit union, rather than a major national bank. I will tell a story, although it was in Canada, but those big banks are mostly unfriendly.
The son of a good friend of mine had an account at a Bank of Montreal here in Montreal. He moved to Toronto and went into a local branch of the Bank of Montreal to transfer his account to them. They refused saying he needed a birth certificate. He came back with his birth certificate. They told him that it was in French and they couldn’t handle that. So he walked into a credit union down the street and opened an account, no questions asked. Then he closed his B of M account and has never looked back.
I may move to the US in a year or so and so this question interests me. But I already have two accounts in US banks, so it might not be serious for me.
I got my first savings account at the credit union when I was five. Today, my account is older than practically everyone who works at that credit union.
I got my first checking account when I was 14, when I took over a paper route. (A real paper route with 100 daily/Sunday papers I walked on the route for four years, including brutal winters with hip-deep snow, and uphill in all directions all year long. None of this throw the paper from a warm car crap.)
I got my first credit card, an oil company card, at 20 when I was a gas jockey behind the counter at a self-service gas station. They used to hand out oil cards like candy so I managed to pick up three or four different cards, and only used the card where I worked. That lead to a Sears card and a JC Penney card (where I worked one Christmas season). Every time I used a credit card from Day One I pay it off every month. I’ve never used a credit card to pay off a purchase in installments. I was taught that credit card is used when you don’t want to carry cash. No other reason.
Today I have one Amex card, one Visa card, a fast-dwindling mortgage, no other debts, and 845 on my FICO score.
It all comes down to discipline and using the system for your benefit, and never, ever allow the system to use you.
First savings, then checking, then a gas co. credit card, then Sears was the old route. Today I would think that a department or apparel store credit card would be the junior step before a true credit card.
I did well before I went to college. My cousin and I used to go to the mall a lot when we were 12-13 and always signed up for a credit card so we could get the free chocolates or blanket or stuffed animal. We always lied and said we were 18 and if the lady at the kiosk guessed our real ages, she didn’t seem to care. This was a weekly occurrence for awhile.
Also, they’re all over the baseball stadium during games. Occasionally somebody will get cold at the game, and I’ll tell them to go sign up for a credit card by the concession stand and they’ll get a free Cardinals blanket.
Personally, my mom got me some sort of Visa credit card when I was 16 that had a $500 limit and both our names were on the account. Doesn’t a history of paying your phone bills, rent and utilities on time also help establish credit? It only makes sense, considering paying any of those bills late will hurt your credit.
I took a first time homebuyer’s course the Saturday before last, and one of the other participants was the 17-year-old daughter of a prospective homebuyer. She asked about establishing credit, and we were told #2 **is **still true.
I had a savings account when I was around 7-8, started working (with a payroll check, at least) when I was 14, and got student checking when I was 16. My mom added me as an AU to her gas card, and I believe that showed up eventually. At 18 I had a Stafford Loan and within a week of starting college had around 5 student credit cards.
My GF was not from the US and not even a permanent resident at the time. Somehow she got a car loan, then her job gave her membership in a state employees credit union. They gave her a credit card and a small loan. Later when we tried to get cell phones, I was rejected for lack of credit history but she wasn’t. So, I ended up on hers for a year and then we switched. She also got furniture financing, Gateway computer, and all this other stuff that we co-owned but was all in her name.
I hope they were first against the wall.
They help.
My parents began buying small CD’s in my name & SSN soon after my birth, but they also had my parents name on them. After I turned 18, the bank told me I could cash those and replace them with ones with only my name on them (but at that time, the interest rate on new CD’s was lower, so I left them alone).
I also got my first credit card at age 16. It was in my name, but my parents had to sign something for me to get it. A copy of my monthly bill was also mailed to them. And I believe they would have been responsible if I had skipped on the payments.
Like many others in this thread, I started with a credit card that was specifically marketed toward college students. (But oddly, it was right after I graduated from college; I had never seen one of these offers during college.) I applied for a credit card from the bank where I had a checking account, PNC, first, and was denied. I then fortuitously received an application for a college student credit card in the mail, sent it in, and was approved.
Probably a net positive for a 23 year old kid in college; no damage being done, and building up history, which was entirely the point.
When I moved to the US 10 years ago, I opened checking & savings accounts, and just used a debit card for a while. But I soon realized that this wasn’t building enough of a credit history to qualify for a credit card. I started using a secured credit card, and that seemed to do the trick. I got approved for regular credit cards after a while.
About 35 years ago I got a Sears credit card with no credit history. It was very easy, and that’s what started me in the credit system. Just like Clark Cello said, this was a method very common at that time, though perhaps less so nowadays.