How I went from no credit score to financing a house in 2 years

11.04.2024 - 15:47 / thepointsguy.com / Nick Ewen

When I joined TPG almost two years ago, I had no credit history to speak of — and even less knowledge of credit card rewards.

Now, I'm fortunate to say I have a handful of credit cards along with an "excellent" credit score — one that will help me finance an upcoming house purchase.

Some parts of my credit journey, like landing a job at TPG and being able to learn from my credit expert colleagues, were just plain lucky, but other parts are pretty straightforward and can be replicated by anyone looking to improve their credit score.

Here's how I went from having no credit to becoming a homeowner.

Before joining TPG, I had no idea of the value credit cards could offer the average person. Forget about premium travel cards or racking up cash-back rewards — I was a naive recent college grad who barely had notions of credit history and credit score.

I eventually conveyed all of this to TPG's senior editorial director, Nick Ewen, who went above and beyond by adding me as an authorized user to his longest-standing credit card. That may seem risky, but he never actually gave me the card. This way, he let me benefit from his credit history without worrying about being responsible for my charges.

He showed me the basics of monitoring your credit score with sites like Experian. Imagine my surprise one day when I saw that my score had, seemingly out of nowhere, shot into the 700s.

That's the power of becoming an authorized user. It was a huge head start for my credit journey and one for which I can't thank Nick enough.

Takeaway: Don't be afraid to ask friends and family if they'll help you start your credit journey by adding you as an authorized user on one of their accounts. It can give you a huge boost, especially if that person has an outstanding credit history. (Note: Despite my experience, I wouldn't necessarily recommend asking your boss. Nick is way more generous than most.)

My next step was to get my own credit cards. Again, I was lucky to get advice from some of the top credit card experts around, but you can get the same advice by checking out our list of the best starter credit cards.

I learned that a secured card is a good place to start, so I got the secured version of the Discover it Cash Back card first. After a few months of solid payment history, it converted to the unsecured version.

I still wasn't able to land a premium travel card right away. Even though my credit score was excellent, I had only a few months of payment history to my name.

However, I did qualify for the Apple Card, a reasonable cash-back option that (I thought) made sense for me at the time, as it offered simple cash rewards, an intuitive user interface and no fees attached. I also earned a welcome bonus of $75 cash back in my