Good starter credit card to build up credit score for 22 year old

nicenswift

Hi,

My daughter (22 year old) has just finished Uni and has a couple of part time jobs and is earning reasonable money.

She has no debt (apart from student loan) and currently just uses her debit card to purchase fuel, clothes, socialising etc.

She is now wanting to start building her credit score and is looking at getting good credit card to do so.

Her in intention is to do all her monthly spending on it and then strictly pay it off in full every month so balance transfer or APR is not really important and more important would be getting a decent credit limit so she can do all her spends in a month on it. ALso one that has no fees

She has been offered a Monzo Build card as she has a Monzo account already but has not accepted this yet hence this post.

She also has a nice amount of savings.

Any advice for the best start card based on the above.

Many hanks for your time and advice.

eskbanker

I'm not familiar with that particular card but if it's fee-free then would seem a reasonable place to start - it's often recommended to obtain a first credit card from your current account provider, who already has some history of your financial situation.

flaneurs_lobster

Just add that having a PAYM phone contract in her name is another low cost(ish) way of showing credit-worthiness.

Her savings will not be relevant to any CC issuer when considering an application.

ZunoWobble

If she’s confident she can pay the balance in full every month, a basic no-fee credit card should be enough. There’s no need to chase rewards or a big limit at this stage. Use it regularly, keep the balance sensible and pay it in full by the due date — her credit history should build naturally over time.

HillStreetBlues

Use a compare site and see what kind of offers she gets, they only do a soft search at first so no impact on her credit files.

CliveOfIndia

Any standard card will do the job, the question is probably more who she will get accepted by.

As long as she always repays in full every month without fail, the APR is - as you rightly say - irrelevant. And always paying in full is what she absolutely must be doing.

Ignore the score - it's a marketing gimmick seen by no-one other than the account holder and the CRAs. Proper use of a credit card will, however, begin to build up a favourable credit history - which is what really matters.

As for the limits she'll be offered, there's no way of knowing until she applies. Some of the eligibility checkers will give an indicated limit, but nothing is guaranteed until the formal application is processed. But even if she's offered a fairly low limit initially, she may very well be able to apply for (or be offered) an increase after a period of responsible use.

lr1277

Some card providers have a minimum income requirement. Check the minimum income requirement for the desired card by typing into Google:

[card provider name/card] minimum income

Your daughter can then see if her total income exceeds the minimum.

cc123mm456

This is the MSE article for this scenario: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/credit-builder/

Although as mentioned above, if the current account provider is already offering a credit builder card that's fee free, that will probably be the best place to start.

Monzo have an eligibility checker, that will only make a soft search, before committing to the application and carrying out a hard search.

born_again

No card is better than any other.

Forget the credit score (means nothing to lenders, only the CRA make a song & dance about how important it is) It is you credit history that counts to lenders (No missed payments etc).

daveyjp

My daughter was in a simialr position a couple of years ago. She applied for a card from her own bank as they had full insight into her account management. Accepted immediately with a credit limit of a few thousand pounds.

She only uses it for fuel and paying for holidays and it is always paid off in full each month.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82117889#Comment_82117889

Just to be clear, some cards are very definitely better than others (rewards, interest rates, transfer offers, etc)! However, they'd all have the same effect on credit files, if that's what you're meaning…