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From my experience, BOA Cash Reward seems to be a good card to start with blank history. And CL may be around $1K.
is 676 your FICO score or is that a Fako? do you know what your 3 fico scores are by chance?
676 would leave you open to some options depending on income and your overall profile. If I were you, I would check to see what your FICO scores are and then report back.
Discover could be good option for you, Maybe even a barclays card depending on what your TU fico is? and I assume you have low amount of inquiries?
If your reports are clean I would try Discover as they like thin files. Starting limits no matter the score are often low with most banks until you build more payment history. A synchrony store card like Amazon might be an option.
Your best bet with such a young file is to let it age a bit more I feel. While your SL's may be in the hundreds now, they could easily be in the low thousands a year from now or even in 6 months with perfect payment history and low utilization after your AAoA hits a year. If you open more accounts now, your AAoA will stay at 0 (less than 1 year) which I'm afraid will continue to hold you back from what you're looking to do (obtain cards with higher limits). If I were you, I'd wait 6 months and pull your 3 FICO 08's. If you're around 700 average, I'd say apply and give yourself a x-mas present or two. If not, sit tight a few more months and pull those scores again.
I personally wouldn't recommend continuing to app until you hit an average of 700. Just my opinion.
@Anonymous wrote:If your reports are clean I would try Discover as they like thin files. Starting limits no matter the score are often low with most banks until you build more payment history. A synchrony store card like Amazon might be an option.
+1
Total CL: $321.7k | UTL: 2% | AAoA: 7.0yrs | Baddies: 0 | Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping |
There are people on this board myself included who got approved for 20k+ cards with a 676 or lower scores however most did not have thin files. DC, BC and CO are all good starter cards and do not mind thin files.
I was in your shoes 18 months ago. You will typically see $500-$1k starting limits. Don't go overboard. It is easier to wait a year for bigger starting limits than it is to grow beginner cards like cap 1 steps cards. I started with cap 1 and a store cc (bought washer and dryer 12 mo same as cash). I let those report for 4 months then got another store card (Walmart or Amazon). My limits were low and I knew they would continue to be low until I built some history. I chose to stop applying for 6 months. I used the cards like a debit card and was sure to pay the balance in full every couple weeks. At the 10 month mark, I tested the waters with Chase and discover. Chase shocked me with a $10k limit and Discover was $3k. Discover has grown the most.
I would recommend Discover, Walmart or Amazon. Those are the accounts that I have seen grow the most when starting out. It will take time so you will have to be patient the first year and no matter what, don't miss a payment and pay all but 10% of a credit card balance so they have something to report. This time next year will be your reward for the "big" cards/limits.
Capital One is really good with CLI. I started out with $1,000 and after 1 year I am at $7,500 and I am a student. Not too bad.