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Credit scores, credit reports, disputes, monitoring, and building or repairing credit. Know what moves your score and raise it before you need to borrow.
If you’re 18 with income or assets of your own, start building credit with one student, starter, or secured card. Put a single small recurring bill on it and set autopay to pay the full statement balance every month. That builds the on-time payments and low balances that count most in your credit score.
Before you close an unused credit card, check what it costs you. A card with no annual fee costs nothing to keep and still helps your credit, so leave it open. Downgrade or close only the cards that charge a fee you don’t earn back or tempt you to overspend.
Missing your credit card’s minimum payment starts a clock. A late fee can hit right away, a credit report mark at 30 days, a penalty rate at 60, and collections near 180. Each stage is easier to stop than the one after it, so call your issuer before the due date and pay the missed minimum before day 30.
Co-signing a credit card makes you liable for every dollar someone else charges, with no say in how they spend. An authorized user’s charges are yours to pay too. If you want to help someone build credit, put them on your own card as an authorized user instead, where you can cut off their spending anytime.
Your card issuer usually reports the balance on your statement closing date to the credit bureaus, so a card you pay in full every month can still show a big balance. Pay most of it a few days before the statement closes, and your credit report shows a fraction of what you spent.
You can get a U.S. credit card without a Social Security number (SSN). Many issuers accept an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) in its place, so apply with yours where the application asks for an SSN or ITIN. If you can’t get an SSN and need a number for federal taxes, request an ITIN from the IRS on Form W-7.
Your credit report carries a Chapter 7 bankruptcy for 10 years and a Chapter 13 for seven, but either one counts against you less each year. Check that every discharged account shows a zero balance, dispute any that doesn’t, and start adding on-time payments now.
A charge card has no preset spending limit, but unlike a credit card, it expects the full balance every month instead of a minimum payment. No preset limit doesn’t mean unlimited, so confirm a big purchase first and set autopay to pay your full statement balance.
Most big card issuers will show you which cards you’re likely to get before you apply, and their check is a soft inquiry that doesn’t affect your credit score. Check the issuer’s pre-approval page first, and apply only for a card it offers you, because the application itself is a hard inquiry that can lower your score.
Under the credit bureaus’ own rules, a medical collection shouldn’t appear on your credit report if you’ve paid it, if its original balance was under $500, or if the bill is less than a year past due. If one appears anyway, dispute it with each bureau that lists it, and attach proof it breaks the rule.
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