Denied a student credit card, what can I do to prevent this from happening again?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

Recently I applied for a Citi Forward card, and they denied me for the following reasons:

Length of time accounts have been established on your
credit report.

There is a lack of recent revolving account information
on your credit report.

Your credit report shows proportion of loan balance to
loan amounts is too high.

Your credit report shows too many inquiries in the last
12 months.

My credit score currently is 603, which is low and not a number I want to keep. For the most part I understand WHY I was declined (not enough types of credit, loan amounts are too high, I applied for too many credit cards, my one loan is too new) but my loans are deferred student loans (about 44k in total) that I don't need to pay until I graduate in two years. What can I do to raise my credit in the meantime? Would paying my student loans early help at all? This is such a frustrating situation because I want to raise my credit but I'm not getting any opportunities to do so.

Thanks for your help!

[trumpet-205]

Talk to local credit union. Alternatively apply for secured credit card.

[Cdnewmanpac]

The letter they send you is computer generated. It is usually set to display 4 reasons. It is extremely unlikely your 3rd and 4th reason had any impact on the decision. The key is usually the first reason, sometimes the 2nd. In your case, Citi does not want to go first. They are looking for proof you can manage revolving credit before they join the party. So your best bet is either a capital one student card (the easiest to qualify for) or a secured credit card. Your loans are in deferral, so really shouldn't be counted against you. The other question is income: do you have any? Be sure to include grants or scholarships if you have any. Capital one has a pre-approval on their website that you should try first. If you get pre-approved, go for it. Yes, there is an annual fee and your limit will be low, but it will serve you well for a year. If you don't get an approval, I'd really look at a secured card. The key to a secured card is that you need to have extra money for the deposit. The amount doesn't really matter. Total credit limit does not factor into your FICO score. Insteady, just use the card modestly, pay in full every month (don't worry about the whole allowing <10% to report thing, that is for people who are fine tuning, you are MUCH safer to just PIF every month). good luck and be patient.

[rootpooty]

OP do you have any open cc accounts now?

[CruzImperial]

If you have never had a credit card, citi wont risk money on you.
Try discover or cap one student cards first. Wait a year and go for citi.

Getting AU on your parents accs will help tons!

[Cleanmachine]

My Son was denied when he first applied for this card for the same reasons.

He wrote a letter to Citibank and requested re-consideration.

He also sent a copy of his Equifax Report which he obtained from the Internet.

About 10-days later he received a phone call from a Service Representative who just inquired

as to what College he was attending. He provided the information and was approved for the

card with a $4000.00 credit limit.

I suspect that Citi wanted to verify that he was in fact a college student.

I would suggest you try for re-consideration.

Good Luck

[birjest]

My son applied for a Citi Forward and was denied.  We called back and tried to recon...3 times.  Answer we got was:  no credit history....no crap.  So, we went on to USAA website, and bamm.  He was approved with a $1000 limit.  4 months ago, he was approved with Discover for $500.  I agree with everybody here, go with local credit union and app with Discover.