I don't think I've seen any discussion like this on here. A lot of us are around the age where you can start a credit history. The sooner YOU DO the BETTER FOR YOU!!!!!

I don't make a whole lot of money, but I've always been good at doing the best i can with what I have.

When I was 18 my Dad said I should get a credit card. I said I didn't need one- He said I did. So I was like "OK whatever, I'll apply for one."

So I did.....DENIED

I was like WTF?!?! I had a part-time job, so what gives? Well I did some research. I was making less than 10k at that point- which was the main problem. SO I found out about a thing called a "secured credit card." What I had to do is send $400 to the bank that was offering the card. I did and I got a MasterCard REAL credit card with a $400 limit. I still had to pay the bill each month and after a few months of on-time payments I got my $400 back and now had a regular $400 limit credit card. After a while I started getting credit card offers in the mail. YOU HAVE TO READ the terms. A LOT of them were crap with things like annual fees and maintenance fees that they charge you RIGHT OFF THE BAT. After a few more months I started getting better ones with NO FEES. I applied and got one with cash rewards. Since I pay the card off every month, the rewards points build up and it's like free extra money.

Over time if you keep a good payment record and don't max out the cards you could get even better ones that offer you money for signing up. I do this every couple years. the catch is that you need to use the card for at least $500 in purchases in the first 90 days. For me this works because my expenses that I could use a card to pay for are more than $166 anyways ($500/3.) I even eventually got a card that pays me $25 every 4 months just for paying more than the minimum payment each month. I always pay it in full anyways so that's an extra $100 a year free.

The key is to pay the balance off in full each month. If you don't you will get charged interest. If you have $300 you aren't able to pay off in a month on a 15% APR card, you pretty much will have to pay 1/12 of that 15% interest on that $300 you didn't pay off that month.. That equals 1.25% of that $300, which is $3.75 in interest charges for that one month. That's not too bad. If you did that every month it would cost you about $45 a year in interest. THE PROBLEM with not paying the card back down to $0 is that YOU WILL BE CHARGED INTEREST on any NEW purchase on the card!! This will happen until the card is paid back down to $0. This is the reason why it's good to have AT LEAST 2 Credit cards. If you can't pay one completely off for whatever reason, you still have another one you can use for stuff you know you will be able to pay off in full. The one you're keeping a balance on should be the one with the lower interest rate.

At 24 I was able to buy a brand new Camaro on my own without a cosigner- which is somebody who already has a credit history like a parent. This wouldn't have been possible if I had waited longer to get credit. I was making a bit more money (although still not great) but was able to do it and I ended up with a better percentage rate than expected on the loan too.

I'm looking to possibly buy a house within the next year or two also. Nothing very big, but it would still be better than an apartment in my situation. (I like working on cars)

The longer you put off starting a credit history, the more likely you'll end up making someone like Filthy Rich even richer when the time comes that you actually NEED credit!!!

Hopefully this helps some of you guys.

UPDATE:

I did end up getting a house in July 2016 ALSO WITHOUT a cosigner and keeping the new(er) Camaro. I also told the mortgage agent that I'm not paying mortgage insurance (scam and different than Homeowners insurance.).

Oh man did I have to be assertive though to make things work out- AND I'M NOT JOKING.