“Unlock Rewards While Building Credit: 7 Smart Steps to Earn Cashback & Boost Your Score”

If you're trying to build your credit while getting some rewards, you're in luck. Starting with just one card and the right strategy works wonders. Starting fresh or rebuilding, this one guide gets you through seven steps on getting cashback, perks, and even handling your credit score—all at the same time.  

1. Building Credit and Earning Rewards Simultaneously

Secured credit cards allow you to deposit some collateral, earn low rewards, and build a history record on payments that gets sent to the three credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.  

Some cards geared to build credit offer cashback on qualifying purchases, like the Discover it® Secured Card with its 2% gas/restaurant (up to $1,000 quarterly) and 1% spend feature on non-gas/restaurant purchases and a first year match bonus.  Rewards are also offered by credit cards like Step or Petal 2 Visa which aim at users with no or limited credit history.  

2. The Petal 2 Visa or any other like It. 

 Focus on credit-building cards, make sure they reward good spending practices like Discover it Secured, Capital One Quicksilver Secured, Petal 2 Cash Back, or Chase Freedom Rise. Most of them do not charge annual fees and actively report to credit bureaus. Rewards, cashback and sign up bonuses, ongoing cashback bonuses, annual fees and how the card stacks up to others in its category are all aspects that need to be considered.

3. Sustain Low Credit Utilization

For best results, keep your balance at or below 30% of your credit limit.