topic Re: Credit Card for Students in Credit Card Applications

Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:12:50 GMT

Hello Everyone,

Need some advise here.

Have two kids in college and I have been trying to get them their own credit cards for a while but for some reason they keep getting denied.

Applied for the Journey student card from Cap One they were denied, applied for a secured credit card from Cap One denied again and applied with Discover student card denied as well.

Currently I have them as authoirzed user on my Amex and Cap One. The limit on Amex is 9500 with a balance of 5000 and Cap has 3500 with a balance of 1000.

They work part-time so income is around 4-5K per year as they are full time students, so not sure why they are getting denied.

Any advise or next steps will be appreciated.

Thanks

Raj

Re: Credit Card for Students

boosnark — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:42:33 GMT

It may be hard to comment unless you can tell us the reasons for the denial, so that a workaround can be found. Did they have a thin credit file?

Re: Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:45:37 GMT

It is a very thin file i am pretty sure.

Cap One said they will send the reason in the mail so should have something in a week.

Re: Credit Card for Students

boosnark — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:51:15 GMT

Sometimes applying in person where they do their banking helps. Sounds like a case of confirming identity as well, but I may be wrong.

Re: Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:22:37 GMT

I was thinking of the samething of maybe taking them to the credit union where they bank.

Re: Credit Card for Students

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:39:05 GMT

@ineedcreditbad,

Sorry to hear that. I may be wrong but the income of 4-5k a year may be the reason. There is another thread on here where someone with a solid score and an income of 12k kept getting declined because of income. I know you are trying to get the kids a secured card but that may be it.

Re: Credit Card for Students

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 01:00:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@ineedcreditbad,

Sorry to hear that. I may be wrong but the income of 4-5k a year may be the reason. There is another thread on here where someone with a solid score and an income of 12k kept getting declined because of income. I know you are trying to get the kids a secured card but that may be it.

I agree, but even with only $5k income I feel like they should at least have been approved for the secured card?

Re: Credit Card for Students

BluePoodle — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 03:19:11 GMT

@ineedcreditbad wrote:
Hello Everyone,

Need some advise here.

Have two kids in college and I have been trying to get them their own credit cards for a while but for some reason they keep getting denied.

Applied for the Journey student card from Cap One they were denied, applied for a secured credit card from Cap One denied again and applied with Discover student card denied as well.

Currently I have them as authoirzed user on my Amex and Cap One. The limit on Amex is 9500 with a balance of 5000 and Cap has 3500 with a balance of 1000.

They work part-time so income is around 4-5K per year as they are full time students, so not sure why they are getting denied.

Any advise or next steps will be appreciated.

Thanks

Raj

Do they even have a credit score generated yet? You mention you have them as AU on a couple of your cards, how long have they been AU's? It takes 6 months or a little longer to generate a score first. Also, do they have any student loans in their name? If they receive scholarships, I believe that is also able to be counted as income.

My DD was an AU on a few of my CC's for about 6 months before she applied. But she had 2 years of history from her student loans so she already had a score. She has an annual income of about $12K that is not counting her scholarships. We didn't add those but I have read from other posters thas we could have.

Re: Credit Card for Students

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 03:39:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@ineedcreditbad,

Sorry to hear that. I may be wrong but the income of 4-5k a year may be the reason. There is another thread on here where someone with a solid score and an income of 12k kept getting declined because of income. I know you are trying to get the kids a secured card but that may be it.
I agree, but even with only $5k income I feel like they should at least have been approved for the secured card?

@Anonymous,

There may be other factors such as scores that the company looks at and we may not know. Even for a secured card, the lender has to be comfortable the line will be paid back for the card to get approved. But this is just speculation as we don't know what the denial letter states...

Re: Credit Card for Students

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:11:18 GMT

@ineedcreditbad wrote:
Hello Everyone,

Need some advise here.

Have two kids in college and I have been trying to get them their own credit cards for a while but for some reason they keep getting denied.

Applied for the Journey student card from Cap One they were denied, applied for a secured credit card from Cap One denied again and applied with Discover student card denied as well.

Currently I have them as authoirzed user on my Amex and Cap One. The limit on Amex is 9500 with a balance of 5000 and Cap has 3500 with a balance of 1000.

They work part-time so income is around 4-5K per year as they are full time students, so not sure why they are getting denied.

Any advise or next steps will be appreciated.

Thanks

Raj

They should have put 15k or a little bit higher! Thats what i did for all my cards on my sig! I counted financial aid as income .

Re: Credit Card for Students

JamesB95 — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:26:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@ineedcreditbad,

Sorry to hear that. I may be wrong but the income of 4-5k a year may be the reason. There is another thread on here where someone with a solid score and an income of 12k kept getting declined because of income. I know you are trying to get the kids a secured card but that may be it.

@I disagree. I make less than 12k a year ( I won't be this summer, but, can't apply that till then), and, I was approved for Discover IT Chrome Student $500, and 7 months later I applied for Capital One Journey and was approved for $500. Also approved for PayPal Credit @ $500 and Walmart for $600 all this month. Also a NFCU cashRewards this month for $500.

Income between 7k-12k is not a deciding factor for low limits. I'm an example. I have an overall limit of $2,600 (so far).

It HAS to be another factor involved. I even have 6 student loans open from the Education Gov sector (so far).

Also note: I do not have a great FICO score right now, either.

Re: Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:49:44 GMT

Thanks.

They do have student loans and they been an AU for over six months.

I am guessing it is issue of income, will update everyone this week once I have the denial letters.

Re: Credit Card for Students

abhowmick18 — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 06:19:44 GMT

two of the biggest things that stood out to me were the following

1) large amount of utilization/balance

2) part time/low income jobs

As a college student myself, its frustrating to see that they're getting denied for cards since you want them to start building a solid profile for now. One suggestion I will give is try to first get rid of the balance as soon as possible and minimize utilization (overall) and keep it within 10-30% as well as being able to pay it off in full at the end of each month. Since they're authorized users under your profile, it'll help start their profiles as well as long as they keep healthy habbits.

A 2nd tip I will give (at which your discression is solely up to you) which my other friends/classmates have done is since they're still under 21, for income amount putting down anywhere from 15-20k. Yes its a lie, however it does help increase their chances of getting approved for a card. They'll start off at a low spending limit (anywhere from 500-2k, depending on card) but as long as they keep the healthy habbits they can get CLI's within 3-6 months easily.

Hope all works for the best!

Re: Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:53:29 GMT

So this is the reponse I got from Cap One

"Based on your application information, proportion of revolving account balance(s) to income is too high"

So i have them as AU on my Amex and Cap. The AMEX has a high balance and Cap One doesnt, would it make sense to have them removed from Amex and just keep them on the Cap One as AU?

Re: Credit Card for Students

BluePoodle — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:02:52 GMT

@ineedcreditbad wrote:
So this is the reponse I got from Cap One

"Based on your application information, proportion of revolving account balance(s) to income is too high"

So i have them as AU on my Amex and Cap. The AMEX has a high balance and Cap One doesnt, would it make sense to have them removed from Amex and just keep them on the Cap One as AU?

What was the credit score the cap one letter stated? Do you have plans/ability to pay off or significantly down your Amex card any time soon?

Re: Credit Card for Students

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:47:10 GMT

try to recon

Re: Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 20:47:06 GMT

The score was 664 by Experian and yes the plan is to pay off the card in the next few months.

Re: Credit Card for Students

ineedcreditbad — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 20:48:01 GMT

Is there a number I can call to recon because when I call the customer service they are of no help.