Prince

Would some kind soul explain to me how this American credit system works? I'm from Europe, originally, only been to the States for a little over a year, and not used to, or aware of, how this aspect of 'living' works. See, where I am from, if you don't have unpaid outstanding debt, you pay your bills etc etc, that means your credit standing is perfect. It doesn't get better than that; essentially, it can only go down.

But here in America, it seems that you start with nothing and build it up somehow. I recently applied for a credit card, and got shot down because of "insufficient credit". Since I have done absolutely nothing to ruin my credit, I can only assume that they denied me the credit card because I've never had a credit card here, or a loan, or anything like that. All I have is a checking account with a debit card.

So how does one build a credit history in this country? I don't want to take out a loan just for the sake of building a credit history, but unless I build it up somehow, how will I ever be able to get a mortgage or anything?

It's just really confusing.

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