Why did I get a modest credit limit with little to no credit history at 18 years old?

[Anonymous]

Here is a little background information on me: I am a 18 year old college student and applied for my first credit card (Discover IT) and was accepted for it. I work part time and make around $7000 a year and I was given the CL of $1,250 and was suprised by that. I have been an authourized user for three of my parents credit cards for quite some time now. Another thing is that when i try to check my FICO score through the discover app it says my credit history is too young and check back in 6 months to see my credit score. I was given the a FICO XD score of 700 on my application for the discover card. My questions are why was i given such a modest limit because ive heard people only getting a $500 CL for their first credit cards and why i was even approved for this card if my credit history is too young. And my second question is how long should i was before i apply for another credit card (Chase Freedom Unlimited).

[Anonymous]

I'm also an 18 year old college student, with about the same income as you. I'm international so I had zero credit history. Started with a Discover student card in July with a $750 limit, that's now $1500. I have a Capital One Journey at $500 (will receive credit steps, got the card in Sep), Chase FU at $500 (Got in Oct), Amex ED at $2k and an Amex PRG (NPSL, got both last week). I had to recon Chase but everything else was an instant approval, most of my friends got the exact same cards in the same timeframe. I'm guessing being debt-free and on-time payments mean that banks are willing to give you a chance

[Anonymous]

For the most part, Discover seems to go off of score and relationship. Congratulations on the approval! Discover would not give me a Student card when I started building.

I fondly started out with Cap1 secured, Fingerhut Freshstart, and Von Maur. My cards started out low $200, $30 loan, $200

Interesting story I got approved for $4,800 being a student with 6 months of credit history from my bank. I have found that score and relationship have a lot to do with what you get as you build your credit profile.

[HeavenOhio]

Congratulations on the approval.

$1,200 on a first card at age 18 and a $7,000 income is a good approval, especially on a good unsecured card. Being an authorized user (AU) probably helped you with that.

I'm kind of surprised that being an AU didn't cause you to have scores, though. You might want to sign up for a service like Credit Karma. That'll allow you to see what two of your three reports look like. Ignore the VantageScores that they provide because they're not relevant. Also, it's likely that the account age and utilization stats that they provide will be off.

If you're interested in Chase, month 13 of your credit history is a good time to start considering them.  ragkapur99's Chase card came unusually early in the game. Chase likes to see some "experience," but they don't like to see too many recently opened accounts. And they'll flat-out deny you if you've opened more than five new accounts in the past 24 months. You might want to consider a second unsecured card once you have scores, then consider a Chase application six months after that.