You need to establish a relationship with a financial institution. A credit union is the easiest way to do this.

Join a credit union, sign up for direct deposit of your paycheck and establish credit with them (convince them to give you a signature loan for 2 - 3k while they put a hold on the funds for the entire loan amount in your savings account there if you need to in order to get them to help you establish credit. You can be up-front with them about your reason for this, they should help you to do this.) Then make payments on that loan for 6 months (automatic deductions from your CU checking account is best for this) or so, pay off the loan in full, then get a credit card from them. Many CUs have credit card programs with points/miles, but they are usually the type where the points can be exchanged for a certain amount of credit on a revenue ticket .. not necessarily the best program, but at least they might have something.

CUs generally use their own history with their depostors. Keep a decent balance in your CU accounts during this period. Make sure they report your loan and status to the credit reporting agencies.

And get the store & gas cards too. Run a small balance on them month to month (so you pay interest charges), and then pay them off. Repeat for several cycles.

Forget miles and points, for now. Unless the bank has a history with you, you aren't likely to get them. Once you have established credit like this, and used it and payed it off (not necessarily in full monthly) you will eventually be able to get the better miles/points cards.

-David

[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited Dec 10, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited Dec 10, 2003).]