Secured cards, explained
A secured card was my real beginning. The word secured scares people; it should not.
How the deposit works
You put down a refundable deposit, often a few hundred dollars, and that usually becomes your credit limit. The deposit protects the bank, which is why they will approve you with no history. It is yours back when you close or upgrade the card in good standing.
It reports like any card
A secured card reports your payments to the credit bureaus the same way a regular card does. That is the point: on-time payments build your history.
Move on when you can
After several months of on-time payments, ask whether the card upgrades to an unsecured version (returning your deposit), or open a no-fee unsecured card and keep the old one open if it has no fee, to preserve your account age.