I recently tried to get a credit card in my name. Easier said than done, it turns out. While I had always had a card as a user on my husband’s account I had decided that it was important to have something that was entirely in my name. I thought that this was a perfect time to apply considering that the holidays were coming up and cash flow was a little tight. I wanted to be able to budget out my holiday shopping and having a small credit limit in my name was, I thought, a good idea. However, I was denied credit - even a small limit. This was the first time that I had really given any thought to my own personal credit report.

It turns out that having little to no credit is just as detrimental as having bad credit. I just had very little in my own name and it was counting against me. I needed something in my name and I needed it quickly so I began to look at secured credit cards.

Secured credit cards allow for the cardholder to carry a particular limit that must first be deposited into a secured savings account that is held by the lender; this is to protect all parties involved. For instance, I could have a $1,000 limit by first depositing $1,000 for the lender to hold. Most importantly, this manageable credit limit would allow me to work towards building credit in my name - improving my credit report.

The way that I can keep track of my credit in the months to come is by ordering free credit reports on a regular basis in order to watch the improvement of my credit score. In the weeks and months to come I hope to see improvement so that I can look to get a traditional card in my name.

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