To young to Apply for Citi AA Cards?
 

Ok, I am currently 20 years old and currently have a Amex Blue, Chase Student and Citi Thank you card. My oldest is the chase which is about 2 years old, while the newest is the Citi TY which is only 2 months old. I have been looking at applying for the Citi AA Amex/Visa cards using the 2 browser trick to get the 100,000 miles. I have never churned cards before and have some questions

How long between Citi card should you wait? Is 2 months too short?

I also know that the Visa is a Signature so the min CL is 5K, my most recent Citi TY only came with a 1K, which is my lowest off all my cards, so I don't know if this is a bad sign.

I always pay in full, and have done a lot of reading so I understand that if you pay your cards off then mild churning will have very little effect on your credit score. I also am not planning on applying for any types of loans in the near future.

I have a lot of purchases coming up with the start of school, so I could easily meet the min spend, I just don't know if its too soon to apply for 2 more cards from Citi. If not I will probably wait until Dec to appiy for them to meet the min spend. I would prefer to get them sooner than later though, so I can get the points and plan some trips :)

Any tips would be very welcomed, and thanks for all the help.

*I also should note that about a month ago, I recieved a 35k offer for the AA CIti card(visa I think), in the mail, after doing a decent amount of travel with AA.

I have rolled Citi cards within two weeks of each other, but I am not 20 and starting out.:cool:

I would roll your college expenses onto the TYR card and then see if you could later get the ATT TYR card, if you have ATT cell service (TYRs+discounts). Bulking up on TYRs may get you a ticket.

Have you run Credit Karma or an alternative to see a shadow of your
credit score? Is it up in the mid 700's? If not, might want to go single on the Citi card set...

Need more info.
What is your income?
Credit score?
If your 2 month old Citi TY card only come with $1k credit limit, that's not a good sign.
So I say wait until Dec as you planned. But make sure to charge as much your Citi TY card as possilbe, and pay it off each month. This way, if you ever need to call Citi credit analyst, at least Citi knows that you could handle more than $1000 credit limit.

After my last app Credit Karma says i'm at 742.

Read about the SPG bonus increasing to 30K tomorrow, and I think I might go for that for now. Thats a good bonus which I can use for AA if I want, also it requires 5K which I have coming up. In addition Amex will backdate it, so it should give a nice boost to my credit score. And I like amex, because they seem to be the most generous with CLI's. And if I want to ever cancel it I can always reallocate the credit to my Blue to make sure my Credit to Debt ratio doesnt skyrocket.

Also it has a low AF($65) so I will probably hang on to it for a couple of years. What do you guys think?

I know 30K is low compared to the 100K AA, but do you guys think this is better? SPG is a versatile program.

Are you living with your parents? I used to get quite a few cards for my kids, stating Household Income of the entire household. Is this still allowed? I still state the whole household income when applying for cards for my spouse and me. I know one of the applications currently defines household income as income that is available to pay the credit card, and since none of us would allow another's credit card to go into default, I interpret that to mean the entire household.

Household income is only allowed between spouses in community property states. Per the CARD Act, banks are supposed to be required to use the applicant's income only. This has caused some blowback from non-working spouses and hearings were held in the spring, but so far the regulation put in place in late 2011 (related to the 2009 legislation) has not been changed. Mind you the specific purpose of the rule was to cut back on kids in college using HHI to dig a hole with a lot of debt.

Community property states are an exception since state law says that both spouses equally share in each other's asset and income while married.

From what I've read about the card act, most companies are very specific about Personal income especially for Under 21 CC Holders

Personally, I'd consider money your parents give you as income, so if they pay your tuition, you could have them pay you the money instead and you pay your tuition. So while 100% of that income is committed to something upon receipt, it is, at least, "income."

I've heard that before and I wonder how many applicants are really abiding by it. I'm going to keep doing things my own evil way.

Thats an interesting way of thinking about it. They do pay my tuition. As of right now, I put some on my cards some on theres .So maybe I will add that in as part of my tuition. My only question is, does all income need to be taxed? I guess it makes sense, since CC's consider Income to be money used to repay debts. And if my tuition is a debt and they are giving me the money to pay it back it would then be income.

Say Amex decides to Financial review me because they see a jump in income from my previous card, how would I prove this is income?

Any input from others?

I don't blame you, and I suspect most folks are behaving that way without even considering that the rules may have changed. My wife is a by the book kind of gal, so she, and her circa 800 credit score with zero cards from chase/amex/citi sits on the sidelines.

I expect the regulation to change for spouses at some point since it wasn't the legislative intent and has lousy political optics. At that point we'll cry havoc and unleash the hounds. Until then there are plenty of offers for me to chase the spend on.

Hi kal22. I'll provide my personal experience for you to give you some perspective.

I have 19 years old, a rising sophomore. I have long held additional cards from my parents' accounts, and got my first credit card, a BoA cash rewards card with $1k limit, about 11.5 months ago. The report that came with the card quoted my credit score as 787. A month or two after that, I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and was approved with a $5k limit. Since then, I have been approved for an Amex Blue Cash with $2k limit, and a Chase UA MP Explorer card with $1k limit. Last month I was denied for a Chase Priority Club card, but did get my Chase SP limit up to $6k. The denial was due to not long enough credit history (the wanted to see how I dealt with my Chase credit since it was "relatively new," with my Chase SP about 10 months old at that point.

Last week, I checked CreditSesame, which put my credit score at 757. I then applied for the Citi AA cards with the two browser trick, and was approved for both, with $5k limits each. The cards arrived today.

Here is what I think about your situation. It is not a great sign that your last Citi card came with a $1k limit. However, what I want to know is what credit lines you have on your other cards, and what is your total revolving credit. If you have a $5k credit line, I think you have a good shot, assuming you have always paid everything in time and usually in full. From talking to multiple Chase agents for reconsideration (where I was still denied), Chase being my highest provider of credit was a cause of concern given my limited credit history. If for example I had a $5k line of credit with another lender, they would've been more willing to lend me more credit (though still not saying that they would approve me).

If all your cards have low limits, I would suggest trying to increase one of those to at least 5k, then applying for the AA cards in December.

The income they ask on the application is not for tax purposes, and can include any income that you have to repay your debts, including money from your parents, and any other similar income that you don't need to report. However, money they give you for tuition is technically NOT money you have to repay your debts, because it has to go to your tuition. If you include that in your income, well, it wouldn't be accurate, but I wouldn't be one to judge. I have over estimated my income before.

I don't think it means anything that you got a credit card offer in the mail.

I hope this helps.

Edit: Saw your title again. Too young? No. (Obviously) What is more important is your credit history, how much credit you currently hold, and how you've managed that credit.

I was 20 when I got my 2 Citi AAs (6.5K limit each). Credit Karma was around 760, and I had just gotten the Chase Sapphire Preferred with a 7K limit a few months before.