<prompt> Human: Im 21. I was a dumby. I was late on college tuition payments back over a year ago. It went to collection and I immediately paid it then. And then I had a 500 line of credit through my bank with a 249 remaining balance that I failed to pay. It went to collection. Im pretty sure I paid...Ill be calling my bank tomorrow to find out. Regardless that has fucked my non-existant credit.Assuming I have finished paying that, because if not I will be tomorrow, what can I do?I have a steady full-time job now averaging a minimum of 14.62hr in Missouri, which is okay for a 21 year old here. I applied for an Amazon credit card a few weeks ago to help build, but to no avail.Im nervous. My heart is in my stomach. Dumb, lazy ass me has grown up a lot in the last couple years and I need to fix this.EDIT: To clarify, other than the potential 249 or whatever, I have literally no debt.  <response>: First of all, relax. Dont get worked up - life is more important than a stupid number. You can fix this. It will take a bit of time, and a commitment to change, but getting a handle on this now will put you well ahead of the game in the near future.I would recommend seeking out a credit union and finding out about secured loans, secured credit cards or any kind of credit builder program - many credit unions offer one or more of these programs to help people get back on track.The first two will require you to pony up some money. The last allows you to get an unsecured loan but typically the funds cannot be used by you until the loan pays off. Whichever way you go, be sure to ask if the lender reports your payment history to the credit bureaus. This is critical.You dont need to seek out a credit union specifically - there are many options out there for secured credit cards. I just think youll find better terms and more options at a credit union. Wherever you go, be sure to read the fine print. Some of these options are nothing but fee traps, and they can also carry extremely high interest rates 30, despite the fact that the bank essentially has zero risk in the product.It will take some time to recover from this, but not forever not even 7 years, like udarkbyrd comments. While it can take 7-10 years for bad history to fall off your report, your score will improve significantly quicker. If you can manage your credit properly on-time payments, keep your utilization low, dont apply for new credit too often, you should see your score improve significantly over the next 12-24 months. 