Mid-level card advice: new to US
 

Hi all,

I moved to the US from Germany last year to begin a PhD. When I first arrived, the only card I was able to access was a ThankYou Preferred from CitiBank. I pay my balance in full every month and would like a card that rewards me better for my spending, preferably in ff miles or cashback.

What could I realistically expect to be approved for? The main restriction is that I have only been in the US for 12 months. My other details are decent, if modest: recent FICO scores between 680-715; no debt and some savings; total annual income from all sources of around 40k.

I'd love a card that provides better rewards - but I'm also wary of making unrealistic applications and damaging my scores. So I'd really appreciate advice on intermediate/mid-range cards, a step up from what I have, before later moving on to bigger and better things.

Many thanks!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

How much in credit-card charges do you (or can you) make in an average month? If you want to earn free flights, where do you want to go?

Based upon your income, you are not likely to earn very much in the way of rewards just from your yearly spend; and the better sign-up bonuses typically require a spend of $3K-$4K within the first three months of getting a new card. Can you meet such a spend requirement?

Thanks for the reply! Most of my travel is US (CA, generally SFO) to Europe (Germany/UK). And yes, I am not anticipating to earn massive amounts of bonus miles with my current income -- but I would like to make the most of what I have for now. I could, however, comfortably manage a 3-4k spend in the opening 3 months; and an average spend of up to 1k/month on credit would certainly be possible, depending on credit limits etc. It's just a question of finding the right card, and it seems to me more a problem of eligibility/approval rather than of finances.

Realistically, you should not expect a lot.

Your credit is new. So the credit card game we all discussed here is simply not for you...yet.

You are welcome to apply anything you want. But remember - 1 card at a time, since your chance of denial is way higher than typical consumers.