[alin1]

Hello,

Me and my other half plan to buy a house in 6-7 years when we have saved up all of our target deposit. I am a full time student and only have a weekend job, so I don't earn enough to get a credit card to build a credit rating which in the coming years will help us financially. I am good with money, never had debts (apart from upcoming student tuition fees!) and have never missed payments for car insurance or phone contracts.
I would like to know what anyone thinks about opening a joint account with your partner? I know you can get authorised users but surely if we both use it we should both be legally responsible for the debt. We are both good with money, and already have savings together, and so we just want to help ourselves build a credit rating!

Thank you in advanced!

[Historophilia]

I agree with the posts above. That's what my boyfriend has been doing since he started Uni this year.

[shelly1]

You'll be boosting your credit ratings with your mobile phone contact. A credit card would be a good idea too. Re: Opening a joint account - I assume you mean a current account. If so, have a look at moneysupermarket - it will give the +ives & -ives of available accounts, i.e. for some you need to deposit £1.5k a month going into it.

[cl_steele]

If you want to get a higher credit rating id recomend getting a card like Granite or Capital one, excellent credit building cards so long as you pay them off each month otherwise theyre very expensive also things like having a mobile contract and other direct debits into your account will help improve your credit rating

[EGjeff]

(Original post by Kiirk)
I'm using it to pay for small items say £20 a month just to boost my credit score.

This is your best bet.

I use mine for pretty much everything and have a direct debit set up to pay it off each month. Credit cards are only as dangerous as the person using them

A few tips:

Don't pay off balances straight away, let it come to the end of the month or whatever your allocated date is, you usually have a couple of weeks between the statement and the payment deadline.

Try not to go above 2/3rd of the maximum limit

If you're scraping the barrel to pay it off, try and pay atleast something - even £5, 100% better than failing to pay altogether.