Sorry for the second thread bump. Welp, almost a year later. My score has gone from 705 in April last year to 738 as of last month. I have a Discover, an Amazon, and a Best Buy credit card. I pay my balance off in full each month.
Haven't had any problems qualifying for anything. I got an $8000 auto loan last year after my car took a poop. I've paid off about $1800 of that so far.
My advice to anyone who's put it off is to just do it. Get a credit card. Use it responsibly. It makes life easier. I don't know what I would have done had I not been able to get a loan for my new car. That's something I would have been shit out of luck on if I hadn't any established credit history.
Question: They've bumped my original available credit limit from $500 to $1050 over the course of a year and a half. I make a lot more money now and have never (not once) carried a balance over into the next month. Is it a bad idea to request an increase? It's been about 6 months since they last upped my limit and I find myself using about 50% of my available balance on a semi-regular basis which I don't think is a great ratio.