From no credit to 730 in 9 months.

[siris]

Hi all,

This forum has been extremely helpful to me in starting out my credit history, so I wanted to share what I ended up doing to build up my credit, this may help someone or give them ideas.

Starting Point : I am 26, I am a US citizen, but was living abroad, so did not have any credit history at all (No CC, no loans, no nothing...). My family did not have very good credit scores, so I could not really use the "authorised user" trick, and also kind of wanted to build it up on my own. I came to the US to study for two years (graduate degree) but plan on staying here post-graduation, so needed a credit history. About the same time my CC lines started my student loans started as well (Approx 35k/year).

September 2013 : Arrived to the US, immediatly opened a Savings and Checkings account in a credit union.

Applied for Discover IT for Students : Under consideration, then approved with a $500 credit limit.

My monthly spend is around $1000, I put everything on my card, but would pay off the card every 5-6 days to try and keep util under 30-40 percent.

November 2013 : Applied for Capital One Journey for Students : Approved with a 500$ credit limit.

To maximise rewards, I would use the Discover for all purchases on the rotating 5% categories, and the Capital One for the rest (1.25% cash back)

I kept paying off my cards two to three times a month to keep utilization under 30%

CK Credit Score 670 (This seemed odd)

Asked rep to increase Discover limit : Denied

December 2013 : CK Credit Score 633 (Seems more appropriate)

Auto CLI for Discover, limit up to 650.

Tried applying for a department store card : Denied

January 2014 : Applied for CITI Dividend Platinum for Students : Approved with a 2000$ credit limit.

Used it for rotating categories as well, but was really useful for giving me room to breathe with my CL and dropping my utilisation.

CK Credit Score 682

Febuary 2014 : CK Credit score 633

March 2014 : CK Credit Score 705

Applied for Chase Freedom : Instantly approved with $3000 CL

April 2014 : CK Credit Score 699/FICO 708 (Via Discover)

Applied for Chase Sapphire Preferred : Instantly approved with $5000 CL

May 2014 : CK Credit Score 735/FICO 730 (Via Discover)

Asked for CLI on Capital one : Raised limit 2000

Auto CLI on Discover : Raised limit to 800

Now :

Total Credit Limit : 12,800$

I use mostly the Freedom (on 5% categories) and Sapphire Preferred for everything else.

To make sure my older accounts don't close I put monthly payments on them. (My Netflix subscription is on my Discover, Spotify on Capital one, etc...)

In the near future, I plan on not doing any more apps (I have 7 hard pulls less than one year old, its a little much, but was worth it)

All my cards are on full balance auto-pay at the end of the month, with my limit I don't have to do mid-month payments anymore, but I still try to keep total utilisation under 10%, so if I buy something big (airplane ticket for example) I will try and pay it off right away so as not to hurt utilisation.

Hope this helps other people who are starting off!

Siris

[alvon123]

congrats on your success

[chalupaman]

Awesome and really encouraging. I still really want a Chase Freedom someday.

[milkshakes]

super awesome to see! great post especially as a positive datapoint to others who are new to credit!

thanks for sharing

[ExplicitElicit]

Congrats, you're doing amazing! I'm young as well, with only 8 months of credit but have been working really hard, I guess working at a bank kind of puts everything is prospective. Hope you continue the success!

[dho]

#Congrats

Wow young and smart!

[BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest]

Sweet! I have to garden if I want to be in your shoes in the near future thanks for posting this is very encouraging.