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Credit History for Beginners

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gercredit
Contributor

Credit History for Beginners

Dear MyFICO forum members,

 

This is a post which mainly says one thing, THANK YOU.

I am pretty sure that without the support and help from this board I would have not had that “success” in my credit history which I have right now. This should also not be a post where I try to get a lot appreciation for, but really more an informative post to everyone else. My credit history is now exactly a year old and I have a TU FICO of around 680.

 

Alright, but lets start right away. Will be a longer post and I excuse myself already if my English is not understandable, I will do my best!

 

I came to the US last year in October. I was aware that my credit rating will be reset and I have to start at 0. Nevertheless, I thought it would be easier.

I have opened my Checking/Savings account with Chase right in October, I only got a Debit card at this time. After a while I figured that having a credit card would be beneficial and I applied in November in person at a local Chase bank for the Chase Freedom. I raised the question to the banker and asked if I would get approved (I got around 75k income). She says sure, no problem. Got the 7-10 days message, one week later received the letter and denied of course.

 

So I was disappointed and had no idea what do you (I have never heard about recon before). So I left the application behind me and asked my co-workers what to do. Recommendation was to apply for a secure credit card. I did a bit of research and finally applied for the Cap1 Secure. I was approved and had my first credit, I was proud… ask my wife Smiley Wink That was end of November last year.

 

Over the next weeks/months I then finally did a bit of research found FICO, FAKO and **bleep** scores. AAoA, Utilization, Inquiries, boy what a learning curve… Still I did not get everything correct, so I went ahead and pulled my FAKO score from Experian in March. If I remember correctly it was something around 710. Anyway, I thought that’s a good sign and was very enthusiastic.

So I have seen all these advertisement about the Discover IT card and I liked it (please don’t judge) and so I went ahead and applied. I got the 10 days message and decided to call in this time (wow a recon). So there I was answering questions how long I been in the US what I am doing… I WAS APPROVED first unsecured credit card for 750$.

At pretty much the same time I also thought about the Amazon VISA, as I am doing there a lot of shopping. This time I did it online and was flat out denied. With some help from the forum, I also decided to recon that. APPROVED for 700$, great.

 

With this new upside, I decided to do more reading and I found some posts (not much, but enough to keep me going) which pointed to the direction that you COULD get an Amex with a short history and high income. So I thought “hey that’s me”. Alright so pulled the trigger in April (at this point I was thinking about waiting for 6 months history for FICO, but decided on a No because if I got rejected I wait 30 days and then the 6 months mark would be there).

What should I say, approved for the Amex BCP with 2.000$. I was astonished, surprised, lucky, stupid? Whatever you wanna call it, but it worked.

 

During this journey I read a lot in these forums and gained knowledge. I was paying on time, always paid in full and did not take any cash advance.

When I did hit the 3 months mark (around July) with Discover, I tried to get a SP CLI. I did this online and was approved for a 2.000$ CL. Which was great. One week after I got a Auto CLI on my Chase Amazon to 1.400$ (hey you take what you get right…). Did the 61 days 3x increase with Amex as well and ended up with 6.000$ on that one.

 

I also learned that my Cap1 Secured would most likely never graduate. I decided that I don’t wanna keep the Cap1 Secured and would like to get a Rewards card with Cap1. I applied for the QS1 card as I thought I would have no chance for the QS. I got approved with a lousy 500$ CL in CreditSteps (still in there). I went ahead and closed my secured card with them.

 

As you can see my strategy was 100% Cashback at this moment. In October I went ahead again to the Discover CLI tool and gave it a shot to 4.000$ (double up). I was countered with 3.500$, I took it.

 

So I was thinking about getting the Freedom end of the year. I checked the Chase Preapproval website in November and I was shocked… There it was… the CSP. I am a frequent traveler, private and business and this card would fit perfectly. So yeah I went ahead and applied for the CSP instead of the Freedom. Got a nice CL with 8.000$. After looking for some help in the forum, most members said go ahead and go for the Freedom as well. Well I did and got a 4.500$ line there as well. I love this combo it has so much potential and UR points great.

 

Thanks a lot guys, for your help and for the reading Smiley Happy

 

Gercredit

Message 1 of 3
2 REPLIES 2
coldnmn
Mega Contributor

Re: Credit History for Beginners

Smiley Happy Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your credit journey! 

Discover IT $17k / US Bank Ace (VSig) $13.5K / US Bank Cash+ (VSig) $13.5k
Sam's Mastercard $15k / Walmart Mastercard $10k / Blispay $7.5k PayPal Ex MC $10.8k
CareCredit 5k / Husq $5k / Cap1 QS $4.5k / Barclay Ring $5.35k / Citi DC (WMC) $12k
Gardening Date 7/01/16 / MyFico 08: EQ 801 / TU 777 / EX 771 / 06/08/17
Message 2 of 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit History for Beginners

Thanks for sharing this with us!
Message 3 of 3
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