> How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a c

> How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a credit card. Reason: lack of credit history. A lot of people have similar stories. I don't really understand why, but it's way easier to get a credit card with no history if you are in college. People who would easily be approved as a senior in college will get denied 12 months later. It's stupid that it works this way, but some of the best financial advice you can give a college student is "get a credit card before you graduate." > 4. Prevent employers from pulling credit history. Your finances are not their business. This resonates intuitively with a lot of people (myself included), and is actually the law in 11 states. There are some interesting subtleties that should be considered before making up your mind though. In brief, the practical impact can make things _worse_ for some demographics often assumed to benefit from this type of legislation. A mass market article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/23/the-law-was-supposed-to-reduce-discrimination-but-it-made-hiring-more-racially-biased/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/23/the-l... The original research: http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shoag/files/no_more_credit_score_employer_credit_check_bans_and_signal_sub.pdf?m=14483 http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shoag/files/no_more_credit_... > 5. Prevent landlords from pulling credit history. They are not loaning you money. If all goes well, they aren't loaning you money. However, in most states it takes at least a couple of months to lawfully evict a non-paying tenant. So landlords are implicitly offering to loan tenants a few months rent.