Building a good credit score takes time and a history of on-time payments.

 To have a FICO score, you need at least one account that’s been open six months or longer and at least one creditor reporting your activity to the credit bureaus in the past six months.

 

Get a Secured Credit Card

If you’re building your credit score from scratch, you’ll likely need to start with a secured credit card. A secured credit card requires a deposit; the deposit amount is usually your credit limit. You’ll use the card like any other card; Buy things, make a payment on or before the due date. If you don’t pay the balance in full, you will incur interest. 

 Most companies will upgrade your credit card to unsecured after a certain time period and return your deposit. If you close the account, you’ll also receive your deposit back.

 Secured credit cards aren’t meant to be used forever. The purpose of a secured card is to build your credit enough to qualify for an unsecured card — a card without a deposit and with better benefits. 

 

-Get a Credit-Builder loan or a Secured Loan

Typically, the money you borrow is held by the lender in an account and not released to you until the loan is repaid. It’s a forced savings program of sorts, and your payments are reported to credit bureaus. Secured loans are most often offered by credit unions or community banks; at least one lender offers them online.

 Self Lender (www.self.inc) is the most popular and reports to all 3 credit bureaus.

 

Become an authorized user

A family member or significant other may be willing to add you as an authorized user on his or her card. Doing so adds that card's payment history to your credit files, so you'll want a primary user who has a long history of paying on time. In addition, being added as an authorized user can reduce the amount of time it takes to generate a FICO score.

 You don't have to use — or even possess — the credit card at all in order to benefit from being an authorized user.

 Ask the primary cardholder to find out whether the card issuer reports authorized user activity to the credit bureaus. That activity generally is reported, but you’ll want to make sure — otherwise, your credit-building efforts may be wasted.

 

Get credit for the bills you pay

Rent reporting services such as Rental Kharma and LevelCredit take a bill you are already paying and put it on your credit report, helping to build a positive history of on-time payments. Not every credit score takes these payments into account, but some do, and that may be enough to get a loan or credit card that firmly establishes your credit history for all lenders. DO NOT sign up for this service if you don’t make on time payments. 

 Experian Boost offers a way to have your cell phone and utility bills reflected in your credit report with that credit bureau. Note that the effect is limited only to your credit report with Experian.