Originally Posted by
mbece
This is pretty much my approach and it is working great for me, except that the secured card I got is BoA's, as I bank with them and it has decent rewards.
Now, after only six months, I've got an Amex which I'm trying for a CLI early next month (I got the Amex through a regular application cause I didn't have one back home) and the secured card that should convert to unsecured in 3-6 months. I'm starting to get pre-approvals from Discover, so even if they don't guarantee an actual approval, I am on the radar which is pretty cool -six months ago even I was denied for Cap One card for Newcomers because they couldn't even generate a report!
Yeah, Discover will keep spamming you endlessly. I went with a CU because it's more like a decent bank back home (no fees for things that should be free, like transfers
+ no FTF on a secured card is hard to do at a normal bank.
You should definitely go the AMEX CLI route at 61 days and +6 months. You should be able to get the line up to 25k and then app for a CSP @ 12 months and they should match it if income supports it.
(BTW, the thing about those Discover offers is that they give you some idea of your EX FICO [in CA]. The APR somewhat reflects how good your FICO is. When they get down to 10.99% you're in a good place.