How to build credit without a credit card
There are many ways to build up credit even if you don’t qualify for a credit card.
Making good financial decisions enables people to get more out of life, and I’m happy to contribute to that endeavor.
— Poonkulali Thangavelu
Poonkulali Thangavelu is a senior writer at Bankrate, addressing credit card-related consumer protection and debt management issues. She believes that making good financial decisions enables people to get more out of life and is happy to contribute to others’ financial education. She uses credit cards extensively and sees them as a good financial resource to draw on — if used wisely.
Poonka has extensive journalism experience covering personal finance and business topics. She draws on her financial education and expertise and likes to simplify the subject matter to enable readers to make good decisions. While covering the mortgage market for National Mortgage News, she curated and edited a newsletter targeting the home-equity lending niche of the mortgage industry. In this role, she cautioned that home prices were getting out of hand in the period leading up to the 2006 housing market crash.
She’s contributed to multiple business and consumer-oriented outlets, and her work has been picked up by various national publishers such as the San Francisco Gate, Chicago Tribune and McGraw Hill, along with syndication on Fidelity, MSN, Nasdaq, Yahoo! and others. Her career includes a stint doing consumer market research for global advertising agency Ogilvy as well as experience as an equity analyst and writer.
It’s great to earn credit card rewards, but don’t go overboard with your spending in order to hit a welcome bonus or bonus category cap. I like the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express since it offers cash back on groceries, which I buy a few times each month anyway. The cash back rewards even offset the annual fee, so I find it worthwhile.
Making good financial decisions enables people to get more out of life, and I’m happy to contribute to that endeavor.
— Poonkulali Thangavelu
There are many ways to build up credit even if you don’t qualify for a credit card.
What to do if your card issuer won’t share the results of a dispute investigation?
Inflation could impact your credit score in several ways.
Can your bank take funds from your checking account to pay off your credit card?
A lender can dismiss a credit report dispute at frivolous, but you do have recourse.
What do you do if a card issuer shuts down your account without warning?
Should you return an online purchase you got a refund for?
Paying off credit card debt could help raise your credit score and bring down your overall debt levels, making you a more attractive prospect to lenders and fetching a lower interest rate.
Building a good FICO credit score is one of the best things you can do for your financial health. Here’s what your FICO score entails.
For many entrepreneurs, bringing a business to fruition is no small financial feat.
A business’ D&B rating could impact its business prospects.
Try to transfer any balance left when your promotion ends to a new 0 percent card.
Business credit card rewards are considered a rebate on spending and are not taxable
You can get a rewards credit card without good credit if you are flexible enough.
If you travel by train, you could also plan to earn rewards on the travel
You can use your personal credit card for business expenses, but should you?
Use the Amex Gold to earn rewards on dining, groceries and travel. Then, take advantage of boosted rewards redemption through the Amex Travel portal.
Using a personal loan to pay off credit card debt can be a huge financial relief—but is a personal loan your best option?
You can carry a balance on a credit card, but not with a charge card.
Compare and pick the best 0% APR travel credit cards
Comenity Bank, now known as Bread Financial, offers 140+ store credit cards to retailers around the world.
No matter the season, a rewards card can help lighten the load of your spending.
Need extra time to pay for your Amazon purchases? Find out your financing options here.