Building a good credit history

strawb_shortcake

My eldest is just about to finish uni, and wants to start building a credit history with a view of buying a house in 12-18 tt. They already have a job lined up.
They need to take on their mobile phone from September, currently I pay £7.50pm via Tesco and they don't have higher aspirations for a mobile phone.

They do have a full student loan which won't be repayable yet on their salary.
They have never used their overdraft.
Where are they most likely to be accepted for credit. 
We've talked about credit card usage, and putting a small amount of spending each month, to be paid off in full each month, but how hard will it be to acquire one?
They are very sensible, but then they've never had this much spare income before, so whilst they plan saving £800-1000 per month this may not come to fruition. 

I'm pretty sure they had a student bank account with TSB if that makes any difference.

Many thanks

eskbanker

They should check the state of their credit files, if they have an overdraft facility there'll be some sort of credit footprint - their current account provider may be a suitable place to start with a credit card.

They should also spend some time going through MSE articles such as:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/bad-credit-credit-cards/

and completing the eligibility checkers linked from these.

kimwp

The best way to get in the habit of saving is to set up regular savers that go out soon after payday. For £800-1000, the three highest fixed ones and an accessible one is probably the best option, make sure to consider annual spends when calculating how much can be saved.

For credit cards- ask the bank that he is currently banking with.

strawb_shortcake

kimwp said:

The best way to get in the habit of saving is to set up regular savers that go out soon after payday. For £800-1000, the three highest fixed ones and an accessible one is probably the best option, make sure to consider annual spends when calculating how much can be saved.

For credit cards- ask the bank that he is currently banking with.

Thank you, that was his plan, coupled with a payment into his LISA too. He'd also suggested going to his current bank

strawb_shortcake

eskbanker said:

They should check the state of their credit files, if they have an overdraft facility there'll be some sort of credit footprint - their current account provider may be a suitable place to start with a credit card.

They should also spend some time going through MSE articles such as:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/bad-credit-credit-cards/

and completing the eligibility checkers linked from these.

Thank you, they are home next weekend so can run through it with them then