First and second credit cards. What to do next

[tbea1004]

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@Anonymous wrote:

After a year, you should be able to get Discover IT, Amex BCP, and Chase Freedom. I'm not sure after six months. As a general rule, I'm against apping for cards you won't use, so I wouldn't use the shopping card trick unless you shop at the store frequently. Kohls is the main store I shop for clothes at, so I understand that one. 

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I am new at this so can you explain the shopping card trick to me? I am under %30 util and I will start keeping it under 10.

[Anonymous]

OP try and get four no AF cards open as soon as you can, being reasonable about what you apply for. Secured if you have to. Once you get four work on CLI'ing them. Get an amex as soon as you have a score over 680, even if you have to get their secured card.

The reason is to build up a block of old no AF cards that will help your AAoA in the future. Right now your AAoA is miniscule and you can hardly make it worse. If you get four, in two years they will all be two years old and they will protect your AAoA when you app something new.

No AF so you can afford to keep them open the rest of your life.

[noobody]

When you apply new credit, usually you got hit with HP, and AAoA, since shopping cart trick do not HP, and your AAoA is next to 0, you have nothing to loose, and more trade line to protect your AAoA in the future to gain, the is the perfect time to do it,

[tbea1004]

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@noobody wrote:
When you apply new credit, usually you got hit with HP, and AAoA, since shopping cart trick do not HP, and your AAoA is next to 0, you have nothing to loose, and more trade line to protect your AAoA in the future to gain, the is the perfect time to do it,

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What stores could be used for the shopping cart trick?

[Anonymous]

Don't worry about the shopping cart trick you don't need it . Just garden with the 2 you have then after 6-8 months apply for a decent card ( Discover , Chase , Amex ) .

[Anonymous]

This is the advice that I got six months ago and while there is some merit I think it doesn't fully consider the long term. In the short term that will indeed bump up his credit faster, but in my opinion it is not the best strategy for the long term.

I believe that he should app spam and get a number of cards. My reasoning is that with a short credit history no matter what you do you will be viewed as a credit risk by lenders. Therefore your short term credit score is less of a concern than where you will be in, say, two years.

Use case: Two years from now he applies for a new credit card, a car loan, and a mortgage. If he gets five cards now his AAoA will be 25×5/8 or 15 months, if he sticks with two cards his AAoA will be 24×2/5 or 9 months. His AAoA in two years will be 40% higher in two years in this case. And not by that time the new account credit will be gone, the INQ's will be gone.

So, as someone starting from zero myself, I believe you want to establish a bedrock of perhaps four or five accounts before you hit the garden for an extended time, to protect your AAoA in the future.

[AgentofGaming]

From my experience you should avoid getting HPs to Experian. Most of the good cards pull that with the exception of Barclays.

A good card to start would have been discover with 5% rewards and it's pretty friendly to new credit. 

Don't app for cards you don't really want long-term, you'll just get inquiries but if yo must try to find special deals or relationships with banks (Chase special consideration, Bank of America at work, Credit Union, etc) since it'll be hard to get cards on a thin credit file alone. As a last resort get a good secured card but don't expect it to become anything nice after you unsecure it and most banks play nasty and give you a HP when you try to graduate the unsecured card.

[Anonymous]

I got my first credit card 6 months ago. Got a cosigner for a car in that time too. Have had that for about 3 months. My score according to cap1 is 710. So from nothing to 710 in 6 months. Definitely wait. I just got approved for a discover it a few days ago. So I would say 6 months is sufficient.

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@tbea1004 wrote:

I have had a capital one platinum card for about a month with a $300 limit and I just got a Kohl's card with $400. I have 4 inquiries on experian and no other credit history. What should I do next? I need some advice.

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