I’m 31 and honestly just now getting serious about my credit, and it feels weird admitting that. In my 20s I didn’t really think about it. I paid what I needed to pay, never went into debt, didn’t do anything “bad,” so I assumed that meant my credit would just magically be fine. I didn’t get why older guys were obsessed with this stuff.
Fast forward to now and… yeah, turns out “not screwing up” is not the same as “actually building” anything. I applied for a nicer apartment recently and the leasing office basically told me my credit was “too thin.” Not bad. Not risky. Just not enough. Same thing happened when I looked into refinancing my car, guy literally said, “If you had more history, we could do better for you.” Felt like getting graded on an assignment no one ever told me I had.
So lately I’ve been trying to fix things. Paying everything on time, watching my balances, actually checking my reports instead of avoiding them because I was scared to see something wrong. I even started using one of those debit cards that report to credit bureaus since it builds history without me needing to take on debt I don’t want. Honestly wish I knew stuff like that existed earlier.
Anyway, to the guys here who are older and have been through the whole rebuilding or “late start” thing, what credit habits or decisions ended up helping you the most?