I applied for a Visa Credit card... It was declined...

The reason given to me was that I don't have credit. (not that I have bad credit, I basically have no credit rating, thats why I need a credit card, to earn credit).

Now, I recently bought a house and already have the furnishings for it, paid 20 pct down, have another 10 pct of its value in cash, I own my own car and have a steady middle class job working for the government. This apparently does not warrant me being trustworthy enough to have a credit card with a basic limit ?

However when I was a student with no job, no car, no money, no home... I couldn't walk down the halls of the campus without being assaulted by 3 credit cards vendors trying to get me to sign up for a Visa or a Mastercard or a whatever they were offering...
The car I paid for in cash. The house I just bought, and take possession of in about 2 weeks (mortgage is already approved), so it won't show up on my credit report I don't believe until my first payment comes up after a month. I would have liked to have the credit card to make paying my bills easier though rather than 6-8 weeks later after I own the house.
I know that many of those CC's offered to students were later declined, I just think they'd bother to write down on the application form somewhere that people with 'no credit' will not be accepted. There are like 50 footnotes on the bloody thing, youi'd think they could make that 51 rather than wait 6 weeks to tell me by a form letter. If nothing else, save themselves a lot of postage.
The only reason I really need one is that it would make paying bills easier, you get one credit card bill at the end of the month, make sure its all legitimate charges and pay it by over the phone banking. 5 minutes and voila!

Isn't that nuts? You can buy a house but not get a credit card. Start with the easier credit cards to get like gas cards and department store cards. Only put a little bit on them at a time and pay them off every month. I would say in about 6 - 9 months you will start getting preapproved credit card offers from major companies. Be careful with those buggers. It's really easy to get in over your head. Only put on them what you can afford to pay off each month. Good luck!

You can still be assaulted by credit card companys now. They'll just turn you down once you apply. Pay all your bills on time or ahead of time for six months then apply for a store credit card like target or old navy and pay those on time or ahead of time full balance for 2 months then you should be golden.