Quote:I just erased a big post on how I built my credit history without paying interest.

 

A Sharia-practicing Muslim can probably figure it out.  Hint: it involves small credit limits with retailers, discipline with paying the entire balances at the end of the month, and at least 2 years.

Or they could just use a shady online service to take out an "interest-free loan" of a couple thousand dollars, paid in advance, and the "lender" would then report their $100/mo. payments as on-time for the next 20 months. There are ways to beat the system out there, and you don't even have to look very hard to find them. Taking out small lines of credit with merchants and paying the balance in full each month isn't exactly cheating. If anything, it's just responsible use of credit, although going for too many credit cards in a short period of time can get you flagged and kill your score.

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