1 year AAoA.. $9,500 Citi Forward approval!!

[fastfire667]

Hi all,

This is my first post here and I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your help. I have been lurking these boards for the past 6 months and have learned sooo much! I started my credit journey a little over a year ago. I bank with Chase, so I went in and applied for a Freedom card. Denied. I applied online for a Discover Student card. Denied. After that denial, I realized it was going to be hard to get someone to take a chance on someone with zero credit history. I applied for a Student Visa card from a credit union in Washington state and was approved for a 1k limit. I have pumped 1-2K per month through the card, always paying in full. After I started lurking these boards, I decided I needed another card to help build some history. So 4 months ago I applied for a Citi Dividend Student card. I wasn't denied, but they wanted me to verify address, identity etc. I decided not to follow through with it. I figured I would just swallow the HP and let me AAoA hit a year before I apped for anything else.

So, last night I decided to pull the trigger on the Citi Forward Student card. I checked my FICO's this past week, all were in the low 700's with the only history the credit union Visa that I have had for a little over a year. After I apped, I got the dreaded "call to verify your info" message and figured I was denied. This morning I called them back, and after verifying my name, address, DOB, phone number etc. the lady put me on hold for 15 minutes. I was just about to hang up when she came back to tell me that I had been approved and with a $9,500 limit!! I was speechless. I was hoping to get maybe 1.5K-2K if approved, but I was NOT expecting such a high limit. I am so excited!

A couple of questions:

1.) Do you guys think my credit limit was a mistake? I asked if she had meant to say $950 and she said no, it was indeed $9,500. I have never heard of a student card with such a high limit. Do you think they approved me for the normal Forward card instead of the student version? I am a full time college student and make about 20K a year.

2.) What should my next step be? My ultimate goal was to get the AMEX Delta Sky miles or another airlines card with a large signup bonus. I have also wanted the Forward ever since I apped for it over a year ago. The Zync is also appealing to get my foot in the door with AMEX. What would you do if you were me? Will having such a high credit limit with Citi make other card issuers more likely to approve me for prime cards?

Thanks for your help guys, you are all awesome!!

[Crashem]

The limit in itself does not increase approval chances but will likely result in higher limits granted initially. Don't think you are Amex revolver ready. Give citibank account 3 months of reporting and Amex zync should work. 6 months of zync use, I bet Amex revolver good too. For other prime lenders, probably need aaoa over at least 1 year and cu card to go over 2 years.

[Crashem]

Btw, not sure of Citibanks pc policy. Might want to look into that.

[logan_720]

If you don't mind me asking, what was the CU you used? I only ask because I obtained a card through my Cu about a year ago, and they discontinued the card  So the only way for me to get a CLI would require me to app for a completely new card.