> I can't think of a whole lot of things that are worth taking on significant debt for a new college graduate. There are a lot of things for which a credit his

> I can't think of a whole lot of things that are worth taking on significant debt for a new college graduate. There are a lot of things for which a credit history is helpful or downright necessary. I would never recommend signing a mobile phone contract, but most of them do credit checks when you do 2-year contracts. Utility companies also do credit checks to determine whether you need to pay a deposit. It depends on where you are and how competitive the rental market is, but in NYC, it strongly helps to have a credit history in order to sign a lease. Landlords (at least for the apartments you'd want to live in) generally are reluctant to sign leases for new college graduates unless they have a guarantor on the lease (many require that the guarantor make 80x the monthly rent in income and live in the tri-state area). Having a solid credit history not only makes them more likely to waive these requirements, but also more willing to accept an offer for lower rent (because they're more confident that you will pay rent on time and not cause damages, the two things that they care about the most). None of this is worth "taking on significant debt", but fortunately, you don't have to take on any debt at all in order to build a credit history.