When to apply for 3rd credit card?

Anonymous · ‎11-20-2016

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum, but have read very useful information on here, so I thought I would join in

I'm a 25-year-old medical student with no real income (since I'm a student), but I also don't have a loan, as my parents are generous enough to pay for my education.

About my credit history:

I was approved in Feb 2016 for the amazon store card ($1700), then made the mistake of applying for the Chase Freedom Unlimited on July 2016, since Credit Karma stated my chances of approval as "Very High", but Chase told me was my credit history was not enough and told me they needed to see "at least 9 months".

Amazon store card history: I always pay on time and my max usage was around $400, but I paid it off already.

Now, I waited until today to apply for a Discover Student Card, and they have asked me to upload proof of my identity. I'm now waiting for their response. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read a post on this forum that proof of identity probably means an acceptance.

My question is when to apply for a 3rd credit card and what card would be best.

I'm worried about graduating from Med School and not having access to low interest rates due to not enough credit history.

Thank you everyone.

austinguy907 · ‎11-20-2016

It's hard to say what you would be eligible for with Chase saying they want to see a year of history with your existing accounts. As for Discover you should probably upload the ID informatio they're lookig for or give them a call and answer any questions. Sounds like they're 99% approved and just waiting on the confirmation from you. If you have your FICO scores i.e. www.discoverscorecard.com (EX) or when you get your Discover and login you'll have your TU FICO as well. then we might be able to come up with something.

newhis · ‎11-20-2016

CreditMD, the "problem" is that you don't have income, but the good news is that you are not in school debt.

You need a card that can grow without hurting your score. Discover is a good option, but you got the 'student' version, that card will grow slower than a regular discover.

I don't know if you can put as 'income' the money your parents are using to pay for your education. Are they helping with living expenses also?

I think you should go with an Amex card (Everyday for MR points or Blue Cash Everyday for cashback) and read about the secured loan trick:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secu...

Go to Amex, try the pre-qual option and see if they offer you a card. Good luck.

Anonymous · ‎11-20-2016

Yes, my lack of income is my problem and that is why I decided to try out a student card. I list my "income" as $25k, given that is what more or less reflects the amount of money available for me. Plus, I list $12k in total money available at the moment in all of my bank accounts. Also, my parents also cover my living expenses.

About the AMEX, when would be a good time to apply, given that I just applied for a Discover credit card?

Thanks for the quick reply.

Anonymous · ‎11-20-2016

I'm having trouble with registering an account for the Discover Credit Score. However, according to the Amazon Synchrony Payment website, it shows my Fico score as 719 and then it says: " Your FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion Data was pulled on 11/13/2016.Synchrony Bank uses FICO® Scores, along with other information, to manage your account."

About the Discover card, I'll give them a call tomorrow and update the thread.

Thanks for the quick reply.

austinguy907 · ‎11-20-2016

Your TU looks alright for pushing up the limit on the Synch card down the line. It should be a good starting point with Discover as well with the approval since they usually pull either EQ/EX. Scorecard will give you your EX score which will be helpful in knowing whether or not to go for AMEX. AMEX primarily pulls EX for approvals.

newhis · ‎11-20-2016

CreditMD, some questions/info:

- at this point you only have 1 card reporting on your reports TU/EX/EQ and some HPs?

- do your parents have an old credit card with perfect payment and low util?, it may help to give you some points/history (not Amex)

- 719 is almost the same score my DW and I got after 6 months of getting our first cards in USA, 2.5 years later we are at 800

- 740 was the score that gave my DW the lowest APR for a car loan with a local credit union.

- a friend just got Amex BCE with EX 660 (only $1,000) and less than 8 months credit history, his score is this low because util.

Sometimes there are problems reporting the cards and they don't show on all bureaus.

Have you tried to pull your reports for free (once a year, well now once a month for EX users), or by using CK for TU/EQ? Just to make sure that your card reports to all 3. Maybe you had trouble getting into Discover scorecard web site because there is nothing on your EX report. You can try CCT for $1 trial and pull your reports/scores from TU/EX/EQ.

You can have a 800 score in as little as 2 years (my guess) from a no score/clean report, so don't worry much about getting many cards to get good scores and low interest offers in your future.

Have you tried the Amex pre-qual page?

Good luck.

Anonymous · ‎11-20-2016

Based on Credit Karma:

Transunion is 763

Equifax score is 780, since a $2.5k (3 year term) personal loan that I opened in Oct 2014 to help me build credit only shows up under Equifax.

I'm not sure why an AMEX without a credit limit that was opened before I was even born shows up under my TU and EQ scores. I know it's from my parents, but I'm guessing that helps me with the credit score.

I tried to free anual credit report for TransUnion and it showed every detail, but the score page appeared blank

For Experian, I think I had seen it about 2 months ago, but I don't remember.

For Equifax, it showed online delivery unavailable (apparently, I failed in verifying my own identity)

I tried the AMEX, but no luck: "we could not find Pre-Qualified Offers for you at this time"

austinguy907 · ‎11-20-2016

CK scores are junk most of the time unless you can compare them to a FICO 8. Mine tend to be inline and slightly lower than FICO but, they're different scoring under Vantage which is the TU/EQ version of Fico so they can make money off of their scores instead of paying FICO to generate one. Anyway, you probably gained some history under your parents by them putting you down as an AU on their account. Annual credit report won't give you a score unless you pay to upgrade to get a FAKO since it's going to be a proprietary score from the CRA not FICO.

I would check:

credit sesame - TU

credit.com - EX

They should give somewhat of an idea of where they stand.

AMEX never showed any pre-quals for me for many years and ended up cold apping and got $10K out of them. For whatever reaosn their pre-qual page hasn't been very reliable for many on here as well that end up apping and getting approved.

I would find out what Discover wants and then proceed with AMEX either Everyday or Blue Cash depending on which rewards structure fits what you're looking for. I went with BCE for the cash back instead of dealing with points and the ED points top out at 1.5% after 20-30 transactions per month vs the cash back catagories that go up to 5%.

CYBERSAM · ‎11-20-2016

You can apply for Capital One! With your portfolio it should be an approval. Worst case scenario you can ask your parents to add you as AU but your on the right track. Just make sure you don't have any late payment and you'll be fine.

Don't worry about prestige credit cards yet, once your done with school they all going to be begging you for your business 😎