I was credit card free until my senior year in college. I payed everything with a debit card, payed my rent/utilities on time and didn't overdraft (ok, I did o

I was credit card free until my senior year in college. I payed everything with a debit card, payed my rent/utilities on time and didn't overdraft (ok, I did on occasion, but it wasn' a pattern). All that amounted to was that I had no negative mark on my credit report. In my last semester of senior year I got a low limit credit card and used it for gas. Only gas, and I payed it off every month. About 6 months after I graduated I applied for a mortgage and fell into the highest credit group (excellent, which was 700+ at the time, I think). This is the pattern I would recommend. Some people advocate having a long credit history as the best way to get good credit. I think the best way to do it is to have a low debt/income ratio and use credit responsibly. You can try to game the system in the short term, but doing that almost always screws you in the long term because you're human, and humans make mistakes.