Can't Seem To Be Approved With Perfect History

[nyancat]

Your problem is you're applying way too much! Don't waste your money on a secure card. Just use your Discover and don't apply for ANYTHING for a year. You should be good then. Just, don't go with Best Buy for crying out loud when you do get another card. Get a Captial One or Bank of America to get yourself a flat 1.5% cash back with no f/x fee.

[Mopar_Jones]

Don't get me wrong, a secured card is great and works wonders for people who can't obtain an unsecured card.. an unsecured card that doesn't charge you $300 in AFs and 29% interest. I heard someone else mention it on here, try Capital One. I'm almost positive you'll be approved, but try the 'see if I'm prequialified' link on their website first. Also, if you have a friend or a parent that has a good credit card with a history, without a lot of it used utilization wise, ask them to add you as an authorized user just to build your history, tell them to keep the card, you don't want it!

Your score is in the low 600's because of the inquiries. From what I've read, you have at least 5 or so already. 6 won't hurt you much more, so try one more app and then sit in the garden for a while until they all drop off. Understand though, once you get a new card, your score will drop for a few month because it will lower your history from 8 months to 4.. however, it will be back up in a few months and most likely higher because you will have more available credit. Make sure you keep the utilization low though.. try to keep only about $20 on the card at the end of the statement. Don't pay it off completely, that actually dips your score a little bit believe it or not.. esspecially with such a low limit reporting.

If you're going to app for one more.. make sure you make it count!

I personally believe you will be approved for

Capital one

Target

Navy Federal (if you're elligble for membership)

Dell Preferred

Some ones you don't really want, but will do their job regardless -

Credit One Bank

First Premier

[Uplink]

Okay, I'll try looking into Capital One instead of a secured card. I just would like to have another card to spread spending. So it's better to not pay in full then? And when you say keep $20 on the card. Does that mean to pay off what I have spent through out the month so that there is just a low amount left at the end of the month? Does it work like that? If I spend $400 during the month on the card, but pay it off every week in incriments of lets say $50-75 it can be posted to the statement, that way just a little bit is left for the statement?

EDIT: I got pre-approved for the Capital One Cashback card. Not the one with no annual fee though. This one is $39. But if I were to get one of the cards with an annual fee (pretty much the only ones I can get becides the Capital One Student card), would it affect my credit score afterwards to cancel them? Or would there be anyway to upgrade the one without the annual fee once my credit gets higher? Also would a card like that be better than getting the no annual fee student card? I don't want to have 2 student cards though, I am almost done with college in another semester.

[Mopar_Jones]

Well, believe it or not, it's actually better to actually have a little utilzation than none.. so yes. At a $500 limit, If you charge $300 on the card, pay the balance down to like $25.. that will leave your utilzation at about 5%.. which is perfect..

[ElCamino]

OP - How many inquiries are already on your reports?

[Mopar_Jones]

Don't ever get a CO card with the hope that it will be upgraded.. but yes, it's a possibilty. Typically, once you've had the card for a little while, the EO has the power to do a lot of things that the regualr CSR won't. $39 fee is worth it to add a second tradeline to your CR.. and you can even get it waived if you try hard enough. Your credit will see an impact for a short time only because you'll be cutting down you AAoA.. but in a few months, your score will be higher than it is now because of the more available credit and the second tradeline..

[Uplink]

I'm not sure how many inquiries. I'm guessing around 5-6 the past year based off my memory. I haven't looked at the full reports or anything, just what the Best Buy denial told me.

And thanks Mopar! I may go with that card then, I really don't want the student card as I mentioned, and I the only other card without an annual fee is some coming to America card Haha.

[Creditaddict]

Have you tried the pre-approval at Citicards.com or Chase.... I think you have a good chance at a citi card... they don't seem to mind being first or 2nd in line to give a credit card and give much higher starter lines than others.

Also Amazon store card or Amazon Visa??

Don't just go apply for Capital One, be sure you use the pre-approval with them and I would only apply if you get an offer.

[injustifiiable]

I would do a couple things:

1) Pull a real FICO score from here. That denial uses some internal scoring method that doesn't mean anything. Your actual FICO might be higher or lower.

2) Talk to a Relationship Banker at Chase...they might have a Pre-approval for one of their cards. It'd be good to explain your situation to them and let them know that you want to establish a credit relationship with them as they are your main bank.

3) Another way to get easy credit without racking up inquiries is to try the Comenity Bank Shopping Cart Trick with a couple retail cards. You can search and find a wealth of info on that.

The credit landscape is certainly not the same as it was when I was your age. At 18, credit card companies were basically throwing cards at everyone that they could. Those were the glory days...lol.

[Uplink]

Well, I was pre-approved for the Capital One card, I wasn't pre-approved for any Chase ones though. I went with the Capital One card with $39 annual fee. Already applied, got approved, and it will be here within 7 days. I figure the annual fee will be made up for. But I know, it sucks that it's all based off of generic stats and all for approval. if it were me running how credit cards worked, I'd say who cares how much you spend or have as your statement balance, as long as you can pay it off reasonably, or in full (Like I do) what's the difference? Haha But thanks for all the help guys! You have no idea how much it has helped and informed me!