<prompt> Human: I have been out of college for 8 years, and have roughly 8K in student loan debt, with no credit card debt to speak of. I just downloaded Credit Karma and YIIIKES!!!Ive been a super-flake with student loan payments pretty much pretended they were optional for the past 8 years and as a result my score is TERRIBLE. Basically, the payments they wanted me to make were too high for me to make, and I would set up an affordable payment plan for a certain period of time say, 55month for 6 months and once the window was over for the lower payment plan and they stopped auto-debiting from my account, I would forgetjust not call Sallie Mae to set up a new payment plan. Then, they would hunt me down with random calls from Minnesota Mumbai and I would ignore them and panic for no logical reason until I couldnt stand it anymore. Then, I would finally call the nice Sallie MaeNavient man in India who would ask me approx 3 robotic questions about my financial circumstances and put me on another reduced payment plan, which would inevitably end and then the same shit would happen I would just not pay once the period ended. My student loan debt is about 8K unfortunately still pretty much what i started with, LOLZ.I have 1 credit card that has a 200 limit just to build credit per the advice of my dad. I am in good standing with this card never made a late payment BOOYA but its basically useless to me since I cant put plane tickets or anything on it. And I just looked credit karma and since I spend all of the 200 every month which I didnt know I was not supposed to do I dont know if its doing me any favors in the credit building department.Not that im trying to buy a house anytime soon, but I would like to not have a terrible credit score. If I pull up my Huggies and start making regular student loan payments, do I really need to wait 7 years before my score improves?Any pro tipsadvice would be greatly appreciated!!!Assistant: Credit score weighs the age of infractions against current standing.For example, a missed payment on a student loan 3 years ago is not weighed nearly as heavily as one last month.Keep in mind, credit score is a risk analysis tool. Somebody that is currently delinquent is a much bigger risk than somebody that was delinquent several years back.So, yes, start making regular payments. A debt of 8k can be smashed in a year of controlled spending and belt-tightening.Human: Thank you so much! Do you know if there are any other ways to build credit in my situation, aside from making consistent student loan payments? As I mentioned, I have a 200 limit capital one card, but I have been spending to my limit every month and paying off the balance in full every month. I was not aware that spending to my limit was a bad thing as long as I paid it off, but apparently it might be? I would open up another card to build credit, but with my low score I dont know what Ill even qualify for...  <response>: A secured credit card is what most people would go with. Once youve used that to build up your score, you can then apply for an unsecured card.Pick a winner off this list 