How to Build Credit Score from Scratch – Simple Steps to Start

The Frustration of Getting Started with Credit
You’ve been saving money for down payment on a new car, exciting. You applied for an auto loan with one bank and was denied, bummer. Another bank approved you, but with an interest rate of 16%, yikes. Both lenders say that you don’t have enough credit. Having no credit is different from having bad credit. It doesn’t mean you necessarily did anything wrong. Maybe you don’t like to borrow money, maybe you just never got a credit card, but from the lender’s point of view, you are a total mystery. They have no idea whether you’re the kind of person who pays their bills on time, so it’s safer for them just to turn you down. How to Build Credit Score from Scratch.

The Credit Catch-22
How to Build Credit Score from Scratch, Unfortunately, the only way to build credit is to use credit, and the only way to use credit is to get credit, and the easiest way to get credit is to already have a credit history. That sounds like a catch 22, but there are ways to start building your credit from scratch. It can take an investment in time and money, but if you ever want to buy a house or get a car loan, the process is definitely worth it.

Starting with a Revolving Line of Credit
The best start would be to establish a revolving line of credit where how much you pay back each month depends on how much you use, in other words, a credit card. Many lenders have pre-qualification applications which allows you to apply without a hard pull on your credit. This is a great option if you’re not sure whether you’ll qualify and don’t wanna make your credit worse. Keep in mind, if you qualify and move forward with an official application, the inquiry will be reported and may temporarily affect your credit score.

Secured vs. Unsecured Credit Cards
You may qualify for an unsecured credit card which gives you a specific spending limit. But if you’re starting without any credit history, you’ll probably have to go for a secured card. This type of card requires collateral in the form of a deposit, which sets your credit limit. In other words, you give the bank say $1,000 and they give you a credit card with $1,000 limit. While there are a number of secured cards that eventually graduate to unsecured, others don’t, so be sure to do your research before taking the leap.

Why It Still Counts as Credit
Now, this may not sound much like credit since you’re essentially borrowing your own money, but it’s a way to show the bank that you’re reliable. And the two main things they’re looking at are payment history and utilization.

The Importance of Payment History
Payment history weighs the most when it comes to credit score. So it’s imperative that you pay all of your bills on time. If you miss your due date, you’ll incur a late fee, but lenders will not report your late payment to the credit bureau until you’re more than 30 days past due, tick-tock.

Understanding Utilization
Utilization is how much credit you have available on your card in relation to how much you currently owe. So if you have $1,000 limit and you’ve borrowed $500, you have a 50% utilization rate. The lower your utilization, the better you look to lenders because it suggests you have discipline and self-control and don’t run up cards to their limit. For optimal results, try to keep your utilization percentage below 30%.

Other Credit Score Factors
But payment history and utilization aren’t the only things that credit bureaus look at when calculating your score. They also factor in the length of your credit history, credit mix and inquiries and new accounts.

Long-Term Strategy: Length and Mix of Credit
There’s not much you can do about length of credit history except to get the process started as soon as you can. Credit mix refers to having a healthy balance of revolving credit, like credit cards, and installment credit, like mortgages, car loans, and student loans. Now, should you go take out a big car loan just to build credit? No way, it’s never a good idea to go into debt for something you don’t absolutely need. However, there is a safer option to achieving a good credit mix.

Using Credit Builder Loans
Credit builder loans are designed for exactly this purpose to help consumers with no credit history boost their credit worthiness. They’re like savings accounts and installment lines of credit combined. You choose your loan amount and term length, but instead of giving the money to you, the lender puts it in a special savings account. Once you’ve paid it off, you get the total amount of the loan minus a small amount of interest, kind of like a loan in reverse. What’s great about it is that your monthly payments are reported as traditional installment payments, so you’re building your credit history and getting some motivation to save money.

Piggybacking as an Authorized User
There is a bit of a shortcut to building credit from scratch and that’s to piggyback off someone else’s credit. The official term is called becoming an authorized user, which means they’re allowing you to use their line of credit and your activity there will be reflected on your credit reports. You’ll often see this with spouses or other family members helping each other build credit. If the person giving you a piggyback ride has low utilization and a good payment history, this can help your credit tremendously, but they are risking their own credit score to help you, so don’t abuse that.

The Impact of Inquiries and New Accounts
Oh, there’s one more component of credit scores that we haven’t discussed and that’s inquiries and new accounts. How to Build Credit Score from Scratch Even though this factor is at the bottom of the totem pole, it can make quite the difference if not managed properly. Every time you officially apply for a line of credit, your score takes a short-term ding, whether or not you’re even approved. If you apply blindly to lots of lenders in a short period of time, that can give the impression that you’re thirsty for debt, and that’s a huge red flag in lenders’ eyes.

Final Thoughts on Building Credit
For someone with no history or a bad score, the world of credit can feel like an exclusive party that you’re not invited to. But it is possible to get in, you just have to prove you know the rules. It takes time and discipline, but it’s so worth it. And whether you’re building credit history from scratch or rebuilding from past mistakes, understanding how credit reporting and scoring works is an essential component.