[Alpine TSi]

Well here is what I did 2 1/2 years ago that lead me to my pretty freaking good credit now.

I wanted to buy my Talon from a guy, he wanted 3500 for it. I talked to my dad about it, he happened to have 3500 laying around. Instead of giving me the money he put it in a CD at our bank and I applied for a secured loan using the CD as collateral. Obviously I got the loan because the bank had nothing to lose. It was a two year loan, I actually came into enough money to pay it off after two months, but I waited until the eighth month to pay it off(that helps your credit more compared to paying it off after only a month or two).

I then waited about a year. I was continually getting credit card offers in the mail, but I ignored them. In early 2004 I applied for a CapitalOne card, I got approved for only 1000 dollars, but got a good interest rate, I then got a preapproved offer from American Express. I used the AMEX only when I knew I was 100% able to pay it, as AMEX is a different kind of card. Then I made a few purchases on the CapitalOne card bringing the balance up to about 400 dollars, paid that off in 3 months.

Since then I have gotten another card with 1000 dollar limit and very low APR, gotten my limit raised on my CapitalOne card, and got straight up approved(with no cosigner) for my first year school loan of 15K, I also just got approved for a 4K personal loan with no collateral.

That is what worked perfectly for me, I may not have the best credit, but lenders have enough faith in me to give me what I need.

Now I know not everyone has parents as nice as my dad, but you don't even need that. With tax returns coming around, if you were going to spend big money on something with it, consider putting it up for a secured loan in the same amount, that way you get what you wanted, establish credit, and have nice easy monthly payments that you could probably swing just like any other monthly bill.