She should be able to get approved for the Freedom card pretty easily. I just had a friend get approved for it as his first real card after being an authorized user for about 4 years during the short-lived 35k offer.

Has she tried calling reconsideration for the Sapphire? Chase is pretty lenient, and if you offer a low-risk proposition (such as starting w/ a 1k limit) they will usually approve the application. Note that this assumes the application was for the Sapphire and not the Sapphire Preferred. The preferred has a min credit line of $5k

My mistake, it was the Sapphire Preferred, and she tried 3 times with the reconsideration line to no avail. She'll probably just go for the Chase Freedom since that looks like she'd get easily approved and then try again in a few months for the Sapphire Preferred or other good offers at that time. Thanks.

I might be in an even worse situation compared to the OP, but would still like to get some useful advice. I have tried to research the forum, but have not found anything that fits my situation.

I am a medical student living in Hungary and doing a 3-month training (J-1 visa) in the US from July. I will anyway have to open a US bank account to receive my bursary, and thought that I should do it in the most "useful" way.

My two goals:
Goal 0: Get a card that is accepted US-wide for most transactions. I guess this requirement is not to hard to satisfy.

Goal A: Get airline miles/hotel points/any other "currency" useful for travel for my spending. I do not have any particular number of miles that I would get, so I would appreciate any options which gave me any.

Goal B: If Goal A is not possible, get a card that would help to build my US credit history, since I plan to return for a bit longer period in about 4-5 years.

As I have my primary credit card in Hungary (a secured card from Citibank - originally co-branded with the ill-fated Hungarian airline, Malev - with relatively high spending and all payments in time throughout its existance), therefore foreign transaction fees would not affect my decision at all.

I completely understand that I do not qualify for too much in terms of US cards, but please advise me if you can.

Thank you very much in advance.

Do you have a US Social Security Number? If not, do you have a US Tax ID Number? Without either of those, you won't be able to get a US based CC.

The first thing to do is to get whatever card you can, preferably one without an annual fee.

I'm a 21 year old college student as well, however I got a free/no benefit Wells Fargo card when I turned 18. When I turned 19, I applied for the Amex HHonors card(free one) and was approved with a $2000 credit limit. Now, two years later it has been upped to $5000. I also applied for the AA 75K Citi card a year ago for the promo and was approved for that with a $4000 limit. I also have a Cabelas Visa card which I received about 1.5 years ago with a $3500 limit.

Long story short, it can be done as a young person/college student. Ironically, one of the community colleges I took classes at charged a fee to pay tuition off through an electronic funds transfer but no fee for paying with a credit card! Easy points. I however was working two jobs most of the time until recently along with not taking out any student loans. I paid off my tuition as it came. Both of those aspects probably helped me get to my current situation.

Building my credit however has proven more than worthwhile as I just recently purchased a home and was approved for a mortgage at the age of 21. Likely thanks to all of my credit cards.