My Credit Story From None to 792

[youngcreditcarduser]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forums but I've been reading them for quite a few years and wanted to share my credit story.

When I was 18 I applied for a Southwest Rapid Rewards card and was immediately denied and was confused since I was financially responsible with my debit cards, I knew nothing about credit cards or credit score at that time. This inspired me to learn more about credit cards, what is the approval process, and how could I get approved for the Southwest Rapid Rewards in a futre application. This sent me on a huge research of how to increase my credit score and build credit including reading some post here from you guys!

My first approved credit card was a few days later when I applied for a Citi Forward card for college students, initial Credit limit of $800 with a 17.99% APR with chances to get CLI increased and APR lowered if used responsibly. I also convinced my dad to let me co-sign on my auto loan for $10,000 which I think also really helped me. My dad also added me as a additional card memeber on his amex which showed up on my credit history though at this point I'm still unsure if that counts towards my credit score or not but it was back-dated to 1991 and sometimes when I pull reports it tells me I have a 23 year credit history, so maybe it counts?

After a year I had a 685 credit score and I applied for the Chase Amazon rewards which was instantly approved for $1,000 and my citi forward was increased to $3k. A year after that my credit score was 720 and I got my first AMEX offer for 100,000 points and took that offer. I also applied for the discover IT for the low APR and 5% cash back and that was approved for $2k. After that I took a break from CC apps and fast forward to now when I applied again for my first CC, Southwest Preffered which was approved for 18k Credit Limit.! (My total credit is now about 28k). 

Basically guys, it really is possible to start building a good CC history fast at a young age just never miss a payment! ( I did forget once with my citi forward which was immediately forgiven, thank you citi!) And thank you to everyone on these forums for the help it has really helped!

[MoreRewards]

Congrats. You've got nice cards with good limit and great score.

[jaebsf]

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I hope it inspires others as they educated themselves on how the credit system works.

[ChargeItPlease]

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing.

[chalupaman]

Very inspiring story! Thanks for sharing.

[alvon123]

congrats!!!