First time buyer 0 credit rating what can i do?

kingstreet

I don't know if it's the same for all card issuers, but we once had a thread on here where someone opened a card to achieve the objective of improving his credit score.

He spent money on the card, then immediately repaid it. He came on here complaining there was nothing showing on his credit file and his score hadn't changed.

The only solution we could come up with was he never waited for a statement to be produced.

He never came back again after this was explained to him, so I presumed the guess was correct.

mungobella

Since it takes a while for stuff to show up on credit reports, I would assume this gentlemen just needed to show a bit more patience. If there's been activity on the card, of course they're going to generate a statement. The statements will reflect how the card was used, both in terms of what was put on and any payments applied. If the balance is 0 by the time of the official statement date, it will just reflect this. This is the case with my current Barclaycard and AmEx, but also for every other card I've ever owned. The credit report also has columns for both balance and payments, so it will show payment activity even if balance shows up as zero.

To the OP: There are lots of good articles on how to build up your credit, including on this site. The first thing you should do is get on the electoral roll, if you haven't already.

Also, you will be judged by how long you've had credit, so if you think you can handle a credit card it makes sense to open an account soon. There are a couple of credit cards for people who have never had credit before or have bad credit, so you may consider those--the interest rates are ridiculous, but as long as you're sure you can pay them off it shouldn't be a problem.

Thrugelmir

Open a savings account with a potential lender. That will build history in its own right. Both Halifax and NW have FTB schemes.