<prompt> Human: Posted this in rMilitaryFinance but not sure how active that sub is. Thanks for taking some time to help me out. Im 22 years old, a new 0-1 officer, 2nd Lieutenant in the Marines, and very uninformed financially though Ive been prowling around here and other places trying to build up some background knowledge. Im looking for a good way to start my career financially, and establish credit. Please feel free to completely tear down my current plans, as theres zero experienceconcrete knowledge behind them.- 0-1 Pay: 44,000 annually before taxes my PEBD is July 2011. I commissioned this past June, and go active early this September. - I have no college debt- I own my vehicle outright just bought a 95 Corolla in cash- Currently my only recurring payment is 525yr in USAA Auto Insurance no comprehensivecollision, maximum medicaluninsuredproperty damage payouts. I plan on paying for the full year upfront- I plan on putting 12-15 of each paycheck into a Roth TSP leaning towards 15 due to lack of debtother payments- I have checking and savings accounts at BofA, USAA, and Navy Federal, total funds currently 6,500 - 500. Debit cards for each checking account, plus USAA also sent me an ATM card for whatever reason. - I am eligible for the 25,000 USAA Loan at 2.99 APR, and also a 4,000 AAFMAA Loan 1.5 APR but this requires me to take out 250,000 of term life insurance - Im single, no kids, so wasnt planning on taking any life insurance. In order to establish credit, my father not a financial wizard advised me to take out a small amount from one of the aforementioned loans and allow the re-payment to start establishing my credit. A military finance officer disagreed and recommended I instead go for a low-limit, no annual fee credit card. Im inclined to agree with the 3404. He also recommended I pull my credit report - where should I do that from? I understand paying the card off in full every month so that I never see the interest - that would be my plan. With that said, Ive never had a credit card before - do you recommend any cards from USAA, NFCU, or BofA? Looking for no annual fees. - Looking at these two cards from NFCUUSAA.. both have no annual fee, and claim to be lowest rate they offer.- I plan on only using for small monthly purchases groceries, the like to establish credit and pay in full every month. Only real difference Ive discerned thus far is that NavyFed has no balance transfer fees.- Im currently leaning towards the NFCU Platinum VISA, though I dont have particularly strong reasons for doing so- Navy Fed Platinum - USAA Rate Advantage Card Sincerely, thank you for anyall advice.. feel fairly over my head here, but I know that having no debt is a huge leg up and I dont want to squander the advantage.  <response>: The military finance officer is right - you dont have to take out a loan to establish a good credit history. A credit card is enough to get started.You can pull your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com I suggest pulling one bureaus report every 4 months instead of all three at once so that you dont run the risk of not catching an error or fraudulent entry for a long time.USAA probably wont have a problem approving you for one of their cards, though theyre usually pretty conservative with the amount they extend; my USAA Mastercard is the first card I ever got, and even after a year of on time, in-full payments, they wouldnt raise my limit past the initial 300 limit, but Citi was more than happy to extend me a 2000 limit on a brand new Citi Forward card.Personally, I would apply for a rewards card over one with a low APR, especially if youre not planning on carrying a balance and accruing interest charges which is a good thing; you might as well get that 1 back over getting nothing back at all. 