Suggestions for Someone with No Credit History...Nada

[Gmood1]

As @bourgogne  mentioned,

The gifted AU perfect payment credit history is the fastest way to generate scores. Did the same for my 18 year old nephew, Dec of 2018.

Bought his first car and home at 19 yrs old in 2019. Had no scores at all in 2018.

Once scores generate, he can scoop up a couple CCs of his own and watch his credit bloom!

[Anonymous]

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@ChargedUp wrote:

Even with no credit history, he may be able to pull a Capital One Platinum without a deposit. It'll more than likely be a bucketed, low limit card but he'll probably get "credit steps" to earn at least one modest CLI and in time, he can convert it to a regular, no AF Quicksilver. 6-9 months later and he could probably get in with BoA, Citi or Amex unsecured. Wait 12 months and he could likely get in with Chase.

If he has any military affiliation from family, have him join Navy Federal CU. They're a great place to begin building credit.

Aside from the Cap One card, if he does have to do the secured route, Discover is a great card to invest in and will graduate in a respectable amount of time. Discover doesn't usually bucket their cards, so his CL will grow with prudent use and timely payments. BoA's $99 for $500 isn't a bad way to go either, and BoA credit limits grow quite nicely from personal experience. Discover and BoA both give SP CLI's.

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I would say any card that can be converted out of starter card mode would be good. One that can provide a 15K limit down the road. Ones that can't, become useless cards once you have established credit and just need to be cancelled. 

[KJinNC]

Without getting into cards, and there are multiple approaches you could take there depending on needs and urgency, I'd suggest Self Lender or equivalent from a bank or CU right off the bat. If you want a laid-back approach, Self Lender or equivalent plus his bank's secured card would be good accounts to have chugging away in the background while he lives his life. Then when he wants more in the future, he'll have some basis for it. I say this as someone who opened 14 accounts in the last 10 months, though, so it also depends on his goals. JMO!