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Credit Card Application Timing

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Credit Card Application Timing

'm a recent college graduate and am looking to open a few credit cards to start building a good credit score. Here's where I am now:

-Had an AMEX student card with $2,000 CL for about a year now. I plan on supplying them with updated income figures and requesting to convert the card into a regular AMEX card with a higher limit (probably Blue Sky).
-Have a few student loans with a fairly low total balance.
-No late payments, collections, etc.

I plan on opening a few new credit lines pretty soon:

-Rewards Visa or MC, probably from Citi (for places where AMEX isn't accepted)
-Capital One card (to use when traveling--no international fee)
-Overdraft line of credit for my checking account

Any advice on how to time all of this? It seems like a bad idea to apply for everything at once, given the current economic situation. Right now, I am thinking of converting the AMEX card and opening one credit card now, then applying for the other credit card and line of credit at the end of the area. However, the drawback of this is I will spread out the inquiries over the year, which might hurt my credit in the short term.
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2 REPLIES 2
jhtrico1850
Regular Contributor

Re: Credit Card Application Timing

 
Message 2 of 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Card Application Timing

 

My GF has an overdraft line of credit through her CU for her checking account - I'm not 100% sure, but she says it didn't hit her very hard at all.  I doubt that one will be hard to get, especially with established bank history.

 

On a side note, I'm also thinking of apping a few cards once I get a full time job in a few months.

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