Summary of the best credit cards for beginners
Other strategies to build credit so you can get your first credit card
If you’re not a college student, or you don’t have savings available to make a collateral deposit to get a secured credit card, there are other ways you may be able to build your credit to the point where you will be eligible for your first credit card.
Cosigned loans
This usually involves a car loan or some other type of installment loan. If you don’t have a credit history, you can often get a loan approved if it is cosigned by someone with a high credit score. You’ll make the monthly payments, and the pay history will be reported to the credit bureaus. It might take a year or more of on-time payments before you have a credit score sufficient to get a credit card.
Become an authorized user on someone else’s credit card
This will usually be a parent. You’ll have to be added as a fully authorized user, which means they’ll ask for your Social Security number. As long as the monthly payments are made on time by you or the primary user, it will help to build your credit rating.
Credit builder loans
These work like secured credit cards, but you don’t have to have money in a savings account or for a security deposit.
This is how it works: you take out a credit builder loan for $1,000. The money is immediately deposited into a savings account in your name, but acts as collateral for the loan. Monthly payments are deducted from the savings account. As the months passed, and payments are made, you begin to build a credit history and credit score, even though you never actually make a direct payment.
The bottom line
Getting started with a credit card is a catch-22. You need a card to build your credit history, but it can be hard to be approved for a card without having that history to show upfront. But it’s not all hopeless. Thankfully, there are quite a few secured cards, student cards, and beginner-friendly unsecured cards to help you out.
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