Your FT handle says you are 1k with UA, if you plan to maintain 1k status then take a look at UA Mileage Plus Explorer card (no foreign transaction fee, and $60 off on annual fee with 1k status each year). Alternately, take a look at hotel cards from Chase (no foreign transaction fee, annual fee is offset by free night). You can just hold the hotel card for its benefit, and use it only when you are oversees.

You have low monthly spend ($300) on credit cards, so I agree with previous posters that it does not make sense to consider other cards with annual fees at this time. Among no fee cards, I'd suggest Freedom, or Amex Every Day (no fee version, for 2x points on groceries, and you can build up membership rewards points, transfer to BA for redeeming short haul flights on AA if that's in your travel plans).

This. Take a look at cash back cards for lower spend like this.

Good is always highly subjective. I spend quite a bit on restaurants and my Freedom is seeing plenty of use this quarter. I'm already nearly at the limit for the quarter.

Freedom has been suggested several times already but it does have an FTF. Discover it has no FTF.

Decent is also subjective. Freedom's minimum redemption amount for a statement credit is $20.00 with no increments. Discover is $50 minimum with $50 increments. Both offer other options for redemption as well. The Freedom can later be paired with a CSP or Ink Plus/Bold to transfer to partners. Both the Freedom and have 5% categories that rotate each quarter and 1% on all else. Both have shopping portals with bonus earn options.

You should look into the rewards program for any card you're considering so you can determine if it is decent for you. I find both decent but YMMV.

If you don't want a rotator the Fidelity AmEx is 2% on everything. Quicksilver is 1.5% on everything. No idea about FTF on either of those off the top of my head but you can confirm on their respective sites.

Your Credit Sesame score doesn't really mean a whole lot since it uses a different scoring model than FICO which is actually used by creditors. Additionally, CS's score is based on data in your Experian report. If a creditor pulls a different CRA then that can also lead to a variance in the actual score used versus the CS score.

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I'm curious how op gets all that status with only a $300/month spend and being full ft student.

I also got Forward when I was a student too!

Not sure if your card still has 5X reward rate on dining and bookstores(Amazon) like mine, but if yours does, keep using your Forward and getting Prestige later on seems a really good combination. But for now, Freedom seems a good choice, no annual fee and good rewards, you can save up Chase UR points and transfer to Sapphire preferred, if you get one in the future. (don't think you'll have enough spending right now to justify the annual fee)

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I don't qualify on my own. My dad is a million miler and selected me as his companion.

Sorry to kind of piggy back onto your thread OP, but I actually have a similar question for my brother and was wondering suggestions.

I had suggested he try to open up a Chase United card due to the fact that he will be studying abroad in New Zealand from July-November of this year. It would give him enough miles to go to Bali, which is a place he wanted to go while there, and it would give him no foreign transaction fees.

Apparently Chase changed their minimum credit limit to open this card to $5,000 recently, because I have a card with a smaller limit than that and so do my two friends. He's only got one Discover card that's about 4 months old and has a AAoA at about 10 months because of student loans that are a couple years old.

I'm basically trying to find him a card that will get him no FTF and enough miles to get him to Bali from New Zealand. Also one that is maybe a little kinder to people with little credit history. His CK score is 693.

Unfortunately, he is in a pickle. With presumably no income and a tiny AAoA, I doubt he is going to qualify for any of the big sign up bonuses.

What I would do if I was you is look around at which cards have the sign up bonus you want. That limits the list very fast. then look at which of those have no FTF. That quickly limits the list more. Only then, when you have a small list of potential cards, start looking at how hard they are to obtain. You may or may not find anything he can get.

Being a college student (and the resulting lack of income) will make it difficult to get most decent rewards cards with revolving lines of credit, regardless of credit score IMO.

Also, as others have said, 300$/month in spending is gonna be a painfully slow way to gain miles and a decent cash back card might be your best bet

I would wait for the $200 Chase Freedom offer to come back around and get that. I got it on that offer years ago and its one of the cards that will stay in my wallet for the indefinite future.

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I can easily pull off the $1000 in 3 months sign up bonuses and probably even $2000. I realize I'm not gonna earn a ton for day to day spend, but at the end of the day it's the sign up bonuses that generate the most for us.
And many cards more than justify the annual fee if you use them right so it's not just about the miles/points earned.

In terms of an Amex card the Blue is definitely worth considering but I think a Visa/MC is good to have as well

I believe there are some decent hotel cards out there too that fit what I'm looking for.

Get the Sallie Mae mastercard.

5% on groceries, gas and Amazon. That'll net you a hell of a lot more than any mileage card if your spending is what you say it is.

This. Sallie Mae was my second CC and I still use it every time I buy groceries, gas, or anything on Amazon.