For the record, my brother is very responsible and smart. He's been an old man trapped in a young man's body ever since we were 12. He took care of his payments when the card was active and he paid on time and in full every month.
It's not the end of the world if he doesn't have a card. He's going to plead his case with Citi tomorrow and if they deny him, he says he'll just go with debit for a while, if not until he graduates.
@bostonte wrote:Only one card on the credit report. That card was opened in Sep 09 (so less than 1 year history). $5,000 income. Maximum previous limit $800.
And you suggest he apply for Amex Zync?
Come on. That was a silly thing to say. That would be a complete waste of at least 1 inquiry, if not multiple.
I've heard of people getting Zync with 1 card at 6 months history.
I was actually planning on applying for it (for Amex backdating) next month once I hit 6 months on my only card that has a $700 dollar limit, although my income is $12k (impressive, huh? haha 
) with a part-time job during the school year.
I don't think that's all that silly, although I wouldn't advise it if he's able to get his Citi card back. Go search around other boards and see what type of histories some people had when they were approved. I think you might be surprised. His income is probably going to kill him, though, especially with Amex.
@Creditaddict wrote:i personally would recommend someone to have 3 open trade lines including 1 store card to optimize credit scoring.
1. Amex Zync
2. USbank
3. Discover
I was planning on apping for Zync and Citi Forward to complement my BofA MasterCard. I (my girlfriend) spend(s) a lot of (my) money on restaurants, and Forward has 5x points for eating out. Like I mentioned before, I want Zync purely for the backdating for Blue Cash in a couple years.
I'll look into US Bank and Discover, though! Originally I had planned to wait on Discover, so I could get Discover More down the road instead of Discover Student now. Plus, I don't think I would reach the spending tier to get the max benefits out of a Discover card just yet...or get anywhere near it if I were splitting up my spending between 3 cards.
How much of an idiot am I for wanting a Citi card after they gave my brother so much trouble?
