Please point a credit-less student towards success
 

Hello! :)

I have been reading A LOT and the information just never seems to stop coming. I'm going to keep reading but I would appreciate any advice you guys have to give.

So I have absolutely no credit history at this moment except some hard inquiries.

So here is my banking life story:

Started with Citi student checking and savings.
Opened a Chase checking and savings.
Applied and Denied for Chase Freedom due to lack of Credit History
Applied and Approved for Discover it (500 limit) 5% Rotating, 1% All
Applied and Approved for Capital One Journey (300 limit) 1% all .25% bonus
Applied and Approved for Citi Platinum Select Dividend Card (1000 limit) 5% Rotating, 1% all
Applied and Denied for Amazon Chase Credit card due to lack of Credit History.

Are the three cards that I have right now adequate?

What steps should I take so that I can rake in future benefits. Maybe participating in manufactured spending.

and what are some cards that I should aim for?

I know this is a lot but I would really appreciate any advice you guys would have for me

Hey, I just finished college so I'm sort of in your shoes but I think you need to take some time to build up your credit history and score. It's good you have credit open, now just chill and let that mature for a while before you start trying to get the big rewards and manufacturer spend. It'd be tough to do much MS with such low credit limits that wouldn't be detrimental to you CS anyway.

As a 21 year old college student with multiple credit cards open with Chase, opening a checking account with them helps.

I posted this elsewhere yesterday when someone was asking the same question:

I'm 22 and started with a credit card with my credit union when I was 18. A credit card with a bank that knows you or a secured credit card are really the best starting options.

If you have financially savvy parents you could always see if they would add you as authorized users to some of their cards. Certain card issuers will back date your credit history with them to the date the primary card holder first got the card. Its a nice boost to your credit history.

What kind of credit limit would be enough to start MS?

Check out these threads
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-decision.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-income-2.html

And possibly
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...tart-here.html

Whatever you end up doing, Go EASY at first or you'll end up doing something wrong or get shut down by the bank
Neither of which should be your intended outcomes

Technically I guess you could MS with any CL, but it gets a bit harder to make it worthwhile when you can only spend a few hundred bucks in a store at a time with low CL. Not to mention then you have to worry about either exceeding your CL or having a high % utilization, which is harmful to your CS as well. Just wait a few years and let your score build... that's what I did all throughout college and am just now getting into this that my CS and whatnot are high enough.

You are playing with fire, chances are you will use those cards to live on and pay interest.

Of course that's what the banks want

Until you get a full time job making decent $$ I would avoid the miles/points game and just try to build our credit with one major CC and maybe a gas card, pay the balance in full every month.

The reason we get away with what we do is VERY FEW people have the $$$$ and discipline to hit spend limits over and over without paying interest and even the people who do may fall on hard times such as an illness or layoff.


The banks have the stats , most people will make them $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Talk about " Debbie downer" over here... But, I would make sure your parents are at least vaguely aware of what you are doing (in case you screw something up badly) Best if your parents travel a lot and are involved in the game as well . (this however is not a requirement)

Debbie Downer or a realist ?

Very few people play this game the right way, people with very little income/savings and credit have a MUCH better chance at failing

The banks let this go on for a reason

If you read his other post you would know he is GOING TO BE a college student so any decent income is 2-4 ( or more years) way for he/she.

Ah well, both I suppose
But again, I have always been the first one to say that this game is not for everyone and to make sure you have a solid plan of action before even thinking about starting out. Problem is, a lot of people skip this step and jump right in and thus automatically set themselves up to fail
I guess though I had an advantage from the get-go since we are all LEGAL immigrants, when my mom and I came to the US she did not have much of a credit history. She has of course since built it up and has passed on the art of using a credit card responsibly on to me

So you don't see a kid ENTERING College as setting himself up to fail ?

How much income does he have ? What are his expenses ? Does he have any savings ?

People read these forums and think this game is so easy and it's not

I stand by my response that building his credit is the way to go, him getting denied on apps is not helping that situation

edit

But anyway I said my piece and if not for people paying interest this game stops pronto. Good luck to him but I'll bet you a beer 12 months from now his credit is tapped and he is paying 15-20% or even more interest and doesn't have one free flight or hotel night

The OP does not say WHEN he applied for the various cards. One key element is the CL that has been approved. $500, $300, $500. This type of CL will not get you any of the premium cards.

From these CLs, it does appear that you have very little, if any reported income. I agree with others that have said you should chill out and let your credit build. It takes time and there is no way you can hurry that up. Getting hard pulls and getting denied is doing nothing but hurting your credit score.

Getting into the mileage "game" is not easy or simple. It takes a lot of work and attention to detail.

Again, just chill and get a good credit history behind you and then get into getting mileage once you have a significant reportable income.

First, thank you all for responding. Most forums won't give newbies as much attention as this one does :)

But I apologize for not expanding more on my situation.

The citi card has a $1000 limit (my mistake)

I'm going to be to a college student this fall and my finances are very sound at this moment. In fact, i'm getting money back from my college every semester.

I'll also be employed full time during breaks and part time during the school year while in college and i'll be earning a before tax income of approximately 20,000.

and all my inquiries were made THIS MONTH. denied for freedom, approved for the three, denied from amazon.

How should I be using my credit cards so that I can increase my credit score and hopefully my limits?

Currently, I'm keeping the capital one under 30%, the Citi one under 10%, and the discover, I use close to the limit but repay the balances within the same month so that at the end I end up near ~30%.

I've set up auto pay for citi and discover and i'll set it up for capital one when it lets me (after i get my first statement)

What should i do differently so I can get into this game more quickly?