You Don't Have to be in Debt to Build Credit Posted on March 2nd, 2010 Some people think that they always need to owe something on a credit card to build their credit. The truth is that you don't have to owe anyone even a single penny to build your credit. The only thing that you need to do to build your credit rating is to have credit available to you and demonstrate over time that you can use it responsibly. This can be done by only charging $20 to your credit card once every 6 months and then paying it off in full when you get the bill. This will keep your account active and build your credit rating even though you owe nothing. The reason this works is because you have credit available to you and you are choosing not to use it. Using only the credit you can afford to repay is one way to use credit responsibly. Other questions people have about building a good credit rating are: - How high does my credit limit need to be to build my credit rating? - How many credit cards do I need to build my credit? - What if I overspend? Are there any strategies that I can use to keep myself from overspending on my credit cards?