Hi everyone,

I am a PhD student, and my wife and I have been in the US for almost 4 years now. We have only one credit card (well, two cards, one for each of us), a very basic card (zero annual fee, almost no rewards) from our local credit union. I do not know my FICO score, but presumably our credit history is reasonably good, because we always pay our balance by the end on the month and haven't accumulated any debt, even though we make most of our purchases with the credit card.

We do not travel often (just visit our relatives in Russia once every couple of years), but it is likely to change as I come closer to finishing my PhD and especially after I get my PhD (and hopefully become an assistant professor). For now, our preferred airline is United, both because it (and its Star Alliance partners) have the cheapest/most convenient flights to Russia and because we live in the Bay area (close to SFO).

Anyway, now I start thinking about getting another credit card: first, we will have to get it anyway after I finish my PhD since we will almost certainly move to a different place, so it would be nice to get one and to start building a relationship with a major bank now; second, I would like to accumulate some rewards (though I realize that this process is very slow). The question is: what card should we get?

I have been looking at United MileagePlus Explorer card (the main downside is that we don't know where we will move next and do not want to commit to one airline), Chase Sapphire Preferred (we have received a pre-qualified offer for it, though I don't know if it means anything significant), and Capital One Venture Rewards, as well as some other cards. I have read the reviews here, but because there are lots of credit cards around and because we are quite new to all this, I am really looking for some advice on what we should get and why.

I will greatly appreciate your help!

Sapphire Preferred seems like an obvious choice if you can spend $4,000 in the next 3 months to get the 50k point bonus. It satisfies your current need with United, but doesn't lock you in.

Sorry to ask:

1. What exactly is your status in the U.S.?

2. What card do you exactly have now?

3. How much CL do you have now?

The reason is if you are a visa holder and your credit card is a secured card, your chance getting a new card is very slim.

Also, even you have 4 years of credit history, 1 single revolving account may not be enough to convince a major issuer to approve an app.

These are all great questions! In fact, one of the reasons why I asked my question here is to see what we can expect to get in our situation. Here are the answers:

1. J-1 student on a 3-year-long visa (though the student status is good for 6 years); my wife is J-2.

2. Stanford Federal Credit Union Visa Platinum Cash Back.

3. $3,500 (this is what they gave us in the beginning, and we have never applied to increase it).

If you think it will be difficult to get an approval from a major issuer in our case, could you give us any advice on what card/what issuer may be a better and more realistic option?

The good news - you should be able to get another card.

The bad news - mostly you can only get 1 additional card only.

In your case, the major issue is you only have 1 card. Issuers hesitate to issue when you don't have enough history (multiple revolving accounts). This is why you have to take it slowly - 1 card at a time. When you get denial, it means you have to stop. Also - as this will be your second (or third card), you will have to keep the card as well (even it means paying the AF).

In term of the choices, you are not obligated to choose a travel card. Keep in mind - travel cards are good only when you travel (as their benefits tier with travel primarily). So given your almost-to-none travel pattern, travel cards, especially those with AFs, will not be suitable for you.

Having this in mind, it is not a bad idea to look at CB cards (such as Citi Double Cash, Chase Freedom Unlimited - new pending product). General reward cards can be considered as well only if they don't have any AFs or you can justify the AFs.