Card for those with a thin credit file?

[Anonymous]

I got my mother applying for Citi AAdvantage Visa to get the 75k sign-up bonus offer, but she was declined due to "Too few satisfactory credit reference". She has no negatives and no inquiry other than for the Citi app, but just has one Macy's store card reporting . She had that card for ten years though. I didn't know this before, but apparently having a thin file is right next to having derogs when it comes to getting approvals.

Since there's obviously no point in wasting inquiries, which cards should she try applying to build references? I hope there's something that earns her at least some rewards...

[wollepopolle]

Well, when I applied for a Chase Freedom, they rejected me based on too thin a credit file. At the time, I had a six-year old Amex with a 10K limit and a three year old PNC with a 8K limit.If they want to reject you, there is always a reason that they can find.

Did the Macy's storecard report? Did you see her credit report? Did it report on the credit agency that Citi pulled? And, what was the limit on the store card? If the limit remained small throughout all these years, then there you see why they would reject her.

[Creditaddict]

Macys no longer reports CL on the store card

I would call Macys and ask to be upgraded to Macy's Amex

Also American Express Zync I believe will approve with just 1 account.

Discover is a possibility also