open an account at a credit union and make regular small deposits to it (once a week or so)
open an account at a regular bank.
Hell, open ANOTHER account at ANOTHER bank.
After a month or two, get a small loan from the credit union. Even if they only give you funds to match the money in your account (usually, credit unions are kinda lenient, though).
Take the money from that loan, put it into the account at the "regular" bank. Have payments to the credit union come out of this account, plus a lil extra (you don't wanna pay interest)
After 3 months of this, do it again with the second bank. Take a loan out and put it in the third account, set up payments the same way.
After your first cycle of doing this and paying the loans off, take whatever money that's left from making payments, shift it into a SAVINGS account at each bank, but leave enough in the checking accounts to keep said accounts open.
If you live in a pretty nice sized town, try to do this with two or three credit unions.
It should take about 8 months to a year, but you should start getting all kinds of low level "regular" credit card offers flooding in.
But only do this in yearly cycles. Having too many loans open makes your credit drop, regardless of your payment history.
at Lightstream for denying me without giving an explanation
