I can't think of a whole lot of things that are worth taking on significant debt for a new college graduate. Certainly not real-estate unless it's actually your business because it reduces flexibility to relocate for a job. Maybe reliable transportation, but that's a problem that can also be largely solved by relocation.
Revolving type credit to purchase gas and groceries makes sense. It also makes sense to purchase supplies for one's business. Beyond that, it's just consumer debt.
Putting money into a CD as collateral for a secured loan is probably worse than a slightly lower credit score due to the illiquidity of CD's.
> 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.
We are in agreement that there are better and worse uses of credit. We are probably neither of us about to graduate college, however. Hence my question was why the OP wanted credit.
That's the wrong way to think about it. Credit isn't something you just get when you need it. You have to build it so it's available when you want to use it, this takes time.
Through high school and college I had a credit card that started out with a $150 limit and grew to around $800 or so. I used it for books and other small stuff. By the time I bought my first home at 21 my credit score was in the mid-high 700's. By the time I was in my mid-20's it was around 800.
I'd have had a harder time and higher rates if I hadn't established my credit early.
I can't think of a whole lot of things that are worth taking on significant debt for a new college graduate. Certainly not real-estate unless it's actually your business because it reduces flexibility to relocate for a job. Maybe reliable transportation, but that's a problem that can also be largely solved by relocation.
Revolving type credit to purchase gas and groceries makes sense. It also makes sense to purchase supplies for one's business. Beyond that, it's just consumer debt.
Putting money into a CD as collateral for a secured loan is probably worse than a slightly lower credit score due to the illiquidity of CD's.