advice needed- new to building credit

[alyssamarie]

I've been reading on here for the last month or so, and I'm trying to build up my credit. Sorry in advance if this isn't the right spot for this, I'm just looking for some advice from people who know more than I do!

I have one credit card, a capital one secured card with a $200 limit, that I opened 3 years 3 months ago (according to credit karma), back when I was 18 and couldn't get approved for anything else. 

Other than that, I have a few store cards.

$450 Victoria's Secret opened sometime in 2012, was not always used responsibly and I've paid several late payments on this card in the first couple months (usually just from missing the payment deadline by a day or 2, I'm pretty sure late payments were never actually reported though)

$800 Macy's (opened summer 13)

$750 American Eagle (opened summer 13)

$1000 TJX Rewards (opened summer 13)

the VS card is the only one I've had a few bumps with, others have been paid on time and mostly kept at $0 balance, and they all automatically increased my credit limit after a couple months too

Last night I also applied for the Walmart credit card (for the free score) and was approved for the store card, $900

and then I applied to Target and was approved for $1000 (they've denied me before so I decided to reapply again after getting approved for Walmart).

I also applied for Discover It student last night (my younger sister just got approved with no credit history so I figured I'd give it a try, and they denied me).

My plan was to pay off my cards in January (my Cap. One card is maxed right now, and I have small balances on all the others relative to credit limit), let that report and then I wanted to apply for a standard credit card in February or March (after all my accounts show up as paid off on credit karma, I just use it bc it's free). So basically this is the part where I want some input, what cards should I apply for and does this seem like an okay plan? My credit karma profile shows 2 inqs on it now, not sure which will show up from my applications last night, pretty sure at least discover will come up as a HP. I really just want to get at least 2 regualr cards with at least a 1k limit on each and then garden and wait for the inqs to drop off. I'm graduating college in May 2015 and I want to have a decent credit score by then since I'll probably want an auto loan and also because it's common for employers to do credit checks now. That reminds me, I also have 3.5 years of student loans on my CR but they are all "paid as agreed" since I'm still in school, so I'm not sure how that affects my score or if it does?

Any advice on cards that I might have a decent chance for approval? Or can you really know this without knowing my actual score? If that's the case, I'll update when I get my first statement from the Walmart card, and again in Feb. after all my cards are paid off and I'll see how that affects my score as well.

Thanks in advance and sorry if this is too long or in the wrong place! 

[llecs]

My 2 cents would be to stop applying. You have a great mix already. You're golden. But you need to let it age and certainly pay off the cards. Maybe in a year from your last approval you could try for something if a higher limit was the goal. The new credit is hurting your score and credit in the eyes of those you are applying with.

[alyssamarie]

That's a good mix even though I don't really have a real credit card? I wanted at least one before I stopped applying, also so they could all sort of age together and all the inquiries could fall off around the same time. I only have about $300 to pay off over all the cards so I'll be paying them off next month without any problem! Thanks for the advice by the way! 

I'm okay with adding new credit and letting it hurt my score for the next year or so, just because I don't really need a great score for at least a year and a half...and that's also why I wanted to get another card or two now so I don't put in any apps when I'll want my score to look good for a car loan or employment. But I also don't want to apply for cards that I won't have a chance at getting and adding more inq's for no reason! 

[notfancy]

With all of the new trade lines and inquiries, you're unlikely to get approved for a bank credit card. I'd suggest paying all of your balances off now, rather than wait til next month, but let just one card report a balance of less than 10% of it's total limit. Give it 6 months, using your accounts carefully and making sure to pay them all in full (after that one reports a balance of 1-9%) each month, your score will be really nice and you won't risk a denial or a crummy starting limit.

[alyssamarie]

thanks, I think I will do that! I am paying off the cards as soon as I can afford to! With Christmas just around the corner, I've had a lot of expenses this month but I'll have the money to pay them off in a couple weeks! 

I didn't plan on applying for the cards I just did recently, but I wanted to get my credit score with the walmart card and then after that approval I went for Target too... my plan for the last few months was to wait but I guess I'll just restart the wait now and go another 6 months like you suggested. It'll be nice to have my credit score on the walmart card so I think seeing my score improve a little bit each month will help keep me patient!

[alyssamarie]

Thought I would update with some new information!

I was on the apple website because I'm planning on buying a new laptop next month and I noticed that they have a 0% financing for 12 months promotion, so I decided to apply since I'm already going to be buying a laptop and I got approved for $1700! At first I thought it was just a one-time deal, but after looking on the forums I learned that it's basically a barclaycard that has special promotions with apple, so after I pay off my laptop it will funcion as a regular credit card. Is that right? If so, I'm set and I won't worry about applying for anymore cards for quite a while!