First of all, the credit cards we offer on this site work great for people with limited or no credit history. Read below for other tips and ideas for those with no credit history.

You can effectively "buy" a credit card by applying for a secured VISA or MasterCard. The money you put in will go into a savings account to guarantee the credit card until you re-establish your credit. Browse through the list of secured credit cards listed within our site.

The trick is to start small: try applying for credit with a local business, such as a department store or a local bank or credit union. These local merchants may have lower credit standards than larger lenders. Before you apply for credit, make sure the credit grantor reports credit history information to one of the major U.S. credit bureaus so you can build your history.

If you have a steady income, you may also want to consider applying for what is known as a “secured” credit card. A secured card is a bank credit card backed by money that you deposit and keep in a bank account that is linked to the credit card company. That account serves as security for the card. (If you don't pay your credit card bill, the money in your account may be used to cover that debt.)

Secured credit card grantors report to the credit bureaus, so making payments on time will help build your credit history. Although the interest rates may be higher for these cards than for non-secured cards, they can be worth the extra cost. However, make sure you check out a variety of offers and compare the fees. And don’t apply for a card that charges an “application fee” or with a company that promises not to check your credit history. These are two

As you build your good payment history with a secured card, the company may reduce the amount of money you must keep in your linked bank account or eliminate it altogether, thus giving you the kind of unsecured card you may have had little chance of getting otherwise. As you use a secured card to start building credit, you may find that getting unsecured cards as well as other kinds of credit cards, can become much easier.