I'm 22 and have no debt or credit lines other than a USAA $1000 secured MC with an 8 month history, no baddies (pay in full each month) and a credit utilization ratio of ~15%. I started with this card because I had no credit history when I graduated from college last year (yeah, I know--big mistake). FICO 726.
Anyway, I now have 40k in assets saved up from working over the last 8 months, and a stable job paying six figures, as well as no intention of ever carrying a balance. My goals here are to:
1) build credit in the most efficient way possible
2) earn rewards in the meantime
Some more info:
1) I have no other sources of credit and do not visualize having any soon (no student loans, auto loan, mortgage, etc.)
2) I have no car (no gas expense), no utilities expense (incl. in rent), no groceries expense (I eat at work), and no time to travel (have you guessed my city/industry yet..?)
3) I do intend to step up my purchases over the later part of this year, and want to do it in a way that helps my credit, not hurts it
Some of the things I'm thinking about:
1) I need to start building relationships with the big guys
2) I want to keep my credit utilization low, which means I need a much higher CL
3) I don't care about balance transfers, apr, overdraft/late penalties
4) I do care about rewards, but gas/groceries/travel/concierge are irrelevant
So... what should I do? Apply for 1 card? 3? Which ones do you recommend? What kinds of credit limits should I expect if I am accepted by the cards you recommend? Thanks for your time 
@Anonymous wrote:I'm 22 and have no debt or credit lines other than a USAA $1000 secured MC with an 8 month history, no baddies (pay in full each month) and a credit utilization ratio of ~15%. I started with this card because I had no credit history when I graduated from college last year (yeah, I know--big mistake). FICO 726.
Anyway, I now have 40k in assets saved up from working over the last 8 months, and a stable job paying six figures, as well as no intention of ever carrying a balance. My goals here are to:
1) build credit in the most efficient way possible
2) earn rewards in the meantime
Some more info:
1) I have no other sources of credit and do not visualize having any soon (no student loans, auto loan, mortgage, etc.)
2) I have no car (no gas expense), no utilities expense (incl. in rent), no groceries expense (I eat at work), and no time to travel (have you guessed my city/industry yet..?)
3) I do intend to step up my purchases over the later part of this year, and want to do it in a way that helps my credit, not hurts it
Some of the things I'm thinking about:
1) I need to start building relationships with the big guys
2) I want to keep my credit utilization low, which means I need a much higher CL
3) I don't care about balance transfers, apr, overdraft/late penalties
4) I do care about rewards, but gas/groceries/travel/concierge are irrelevant
So... what should I do? Apply for 1 card? 3? Which ones do you recommend? What kinds of credit limits should I expect if I am accepted by the cards you recommend? Thanks for your time
I would try for AMEX (Zync / charge cards) / Discover.
@Anonymous wrote:I'm worried about going with a charge card first beacuse I want to actually have a reported higher CL with revolvers (so I would prefer Amex BCE, but don't think I could get that). If I did a Zync or something I would be looking to just establish a relationship with Amex.
I am sort of considering Discover but don't know what kind of CL I should expect with such a short history.
Probably 3K or less.
First off, get your reported utilization to between 1-9% for extra fico bump (you know how to do this right?). Consider adding to secured card to increase balance to maybe 5k since you get interest and doesnt reset clock if i remember correctly. Once it reports higher limit, You should first app for nfcu and ask for higher credit line no matter what they give you. Nfcu is likely to be the most generous with initial cl. The key question is whether to wait for nfcu to report or go for other cards. My recommendation is go to Amex app for zync or other charge card depending how confident you are and do this around same time apping nfcu as Amex will almost certainly pull experian and nfcu pulls eq or tu. Your score is fine but your file is thin. Starting Amex early is good as it sets member date and makes new Amex not as big of hit on credit or maybe even helping because of backdating. Also Amex charge card npsl moves internal limit up quick and don't reflect on utilization for most fico scoring. Read about getting npsl limits up. Either wait 3 or 6 months, then app for a 2-3 more good cards depending on where fico is. Think chase or Citibank or usaa or Amex or discover. Pick cards that meet your needs but try to stick with issuers good with auto cli or soft cli and no af so you can afford to keep card long term. So in a little more than 6 months from now, you should have 4-5 cards with good limits.
LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
I just wish iPad formatting on this forum worked better. Makes my posts look like one run on sentence.