In 2014, I landed at New York City's JFK airport, three overstuffed suitcases in tow, incredibly excited about my new job in a new city. I'd spent more than a decade working as a journalist in Ireland, where I grew up, and the U.K., and now I was going to be running social media for CNN in their New York office.
To build any kind of financial record, I started using prepaid credit cards. I finally found a landlord willing to take a chance on me but had to pay six month's rent up front . "Your credit score is basically a three-digit number between 300 and 850 that tells lenders how likely you are to stop paying your bills," said Liz Weston, a financial planner, author of"Your Credit Score" and a columnist for NerdWallet.
"Make sure that the amount of credit you're using on any card is below 30 percent, and ideally below 10 percent," said Weston. This matters even if you pay the balance in full each and every month. In my credit-invisible state, I had to get prepaid credit cards for six months before eventually being accepted for a traditional card with a low limit of $500. As my repayment history grew month after month, I was offered more cards and larger limits, which I took to improve my rating, just as Weston advises. And it helps to have multiple lines of credit.