dcman2

Feel free to call the reconsideration line to plead your case.

However, the miles "game" is more complicated than it looks and while it is tempting to try to get free travel, it may not be in your best interest right now.

10k a year is not a lot if income regardless of other gifts, credit card companies will quite fairly ask themselves how you would pay off a 1000 minimum spend or 195$ yearly fee. You could easily get into financial trouble trying to do that.

You are in a great position to start building your credit. On your current cards, ALWAYS pay your balance in full every month. If you aren't doing this, pay down your debt and don't charge any more. If you are doing this, apply for other credit, store or gas station branded cards are fine, and pay them off every month. My rule of thumb is credit is dangerous, if I'm not paying my balance every month I have no business charging.

Your goal is to build your credit score. Learn as much as you can about how your score is evaluated (plenty of info here and elsewhere online) to make sure you're doing the right thing. You can build a credit score fairly quickly, if you're getting turned down shift your focus to doing well with what you have for a while in order to do this .

Your credit score, especially when you are young and will soon be thinking about cars and homes and such, is much more important than a free plane ticket or hotel room.