Planning early for 1-year credit history app round

[sponge_gto]

Hi everyone, first time posting after reading around the forum for some time. I'm asking for some specific advice on my planned 1-year app round.

My situation:

- I have a very short credit history coming in at 8 months despite being almost 26 y/o, as I only started grad school in the States since last fall. I am now a full-time student with $31k income and will probably stay this way for the next 4-5 years. I pay my credit cards throughout the month to keep utilization low and PIF the moment statements hit. No baddies so far. Current FICO from Discover and Barclay: 706.

- I started off with a secured Bank of America Cash Rewards, slowly picking up on pre-qualified offers from Discover and Capital One in the following months. In April I had a bit of an app spree whereby I got rejected for a Chase card mostly due to insufficient history, got the Sallie Mae on recon and got my hands on some cards through the shopping cart (no HP). (See sig.) In late May I made the mistake of applying for another Barclay card (after Sallie Mae) and met with no success. This sent me a clear message that I should stay in the garden for some time. I have no loans of any sort.

- My current card mix takes care of my daily spending (Sallie Mae) and protects me from FTF (Cap One and Discover) but I would like to acquire a few more cards when my history turns a year old. Mostly this is because I will be flying myself and the GF to Asia and Europe a couple of times next year and it would be painful to extract only 1.5% of rewards from at least $3k of airfare. Also I'd like to lock in on a 2014 MSD from Amex.

Please comment on the general plan of having an app round in November when I barely have a full year of history. I'd also appreciate comments on my chances of getting the specific cards listed in my sig.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and may this thread serve as useful reference for others in similar situations.

Edit: just realized the last line of my sig. isn't showing up. The cards I'm looking at are: Amex PRG, Fidelity Amex, BoA AAA Member Rewards, US Bank Cash+, Chase Freedom, Citi Dividend

[nachoslibres]

I'd put the Chase Sapphire Preferred on your list - especially if you are planning on traveling - as the sign up bonus would be great.  The only thing that would be concerning is that your card limits are low - and I'm pretty sure the lowest CL that the CSP is approved for is $5k.

[sponge_gto]

Thanks for the suggestion, I agree CSP is a good card. To be honest I don't see how 2X points with Chase is advantageous to 3X MR with Amex but I have no idea if I can get an Amex at all, not to mention the PRG.

[heyarrnold]

It also depends on who you fly with. Miles are great, but look at the transfer partners

[nachoslibres]

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@sponge_gto wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, I agree CSP is a good card. To be honest I don't see how 2X points with Chase is advantageous to 3X MR with Amex but I have no idea if I can get an Amex at all, not to mention the PRG.

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Like the previous poster said - it depends on the transfer partner and how much value you can get out of your URs or MRs.  And right now with the dividend bonus you earn 2.14 URs/$ on any travel (versus 3 MRs/$ on airlines with PRG), as well as 2.14 URs/$ on dining out.  So it would also depend on your spend.  Also, the PRG has a much higher annual fee than the CSP.

I'm not saying the CSP is better than the PRG, I'm just saying you can't just consider 3x MR vs 2x UR without considering every thing else.

[sponge_gto]

Great points above! I was only considering the point transfer potential of MR as I understand that it has a wide selection of transfer partners but upon closer examination UR transfer potential can be very compelling as well. Based on approval chances though, would I be right to place more hope on PRG than CSP?