topic Re: Good First Card in Credit Cards

Good First Card

nada9188 — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:04:54 GMT

I have two younger friends that are interested in getting a credit card. Both are 19, blank credit report, full time students, part time employed. One is attending a four year college and one is at a two year college.

Are there options other than a secured card?

What cards will approve a blank credit history?

Thanks

Re: Good First Card

mmduluth — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:08:57 GMT

I always tell my friends to app for the Cap1 Platinum. High interest rate of course but a small, $19 annual fee.

Re: Good First Card

Red1Blue — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:09:09 GMT

If you have good credit history, you might want to make them as authorized users on some of your cards and wait for them post on to their credit reports and then look into applying for the cards on their name.

Discover Student

Citi Forward

Amex Zync

Citi MTV

are good starter cards.

My daughter 19 has these cards now on her own after being an AU on my cards.

Amex Zync

Amex Blue - 4k CL

Citi Forward - 4k Cl

Citi Divident - 4k Cl

Discover - 1k Cl

BOA - American University Card - 750cl.

Re: Good First Card

andyaycw — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:34:03 GMT

The summer between high school and my first year of college, I applied for and was approved for two student cards from Citibank. I had a blank credit report and was approved for $1200 and $1000 for the Citi Platinum Select and Driver's Edge cards at the time.

For starting out with credit, I would highly recommend looking into Citi, as I've never had any issues with them.

Re: Good First Card

RyVision — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:03:24 GMT

No matter what card they get first, they NEED to get AMEX Zync. It will allow their future cards with AMEX (and they'll have them one day) to backdate to their original membership date with AMEX, giving them a longer AAoA down the road. I'm VERY glad I had an AMEX 22 years ago!

Re: Good First Card

andyaycw — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:13:25 GMT

FWIW as a reference point for the OP, after I had my two student Citicards for one year, I app'd for and was instantly approved for the Amex Blue Sky for $5700 back in August 2007. It has since been converted to a Clear after I realized it would be a better fit for my spending habits.

(Has Amex really tightened up that much in their guidelines that people with thin credit histories need to start out with Zync?)

Re: Good First Card

nada9188 — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:24:13 GMT

@andyaycw wrote:
FWIW as a reference point for the OP, after I had my two student Citicards for one year, I app'd for and was instantly approved for the Amex Blue Sky for $5700 back in August 2007. It has since been converted to a Clear after I realized it would be a better fit for my spending habits.

(Has Amex really tightened up that much in their guidelines that people with thin credit histories need to start out with Zync?)

I haven't read about anyone getting approved even for the ZYNC with a thin credit file. I just got my BCP with an AAoA of 1.6 years.

Re: Good First Card

real_madrid09 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:18:52 GMT

Cap1 secured card. Then 3 months later Cap1 rewards card. Keep one at 0% and the other 9%. You score will go up much faster.

Re: Good First Card

clocktick — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:36:04 GMT

My friend just applied for a student card with Cap One called Journey - a no annual fee cashback card.

The Discover will not approve the friend going to the 2-year school (from reading past posts on here).

Citi came through for me in college but that wasn't recent.

Re: Good First Card

andyaycw — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:31:39 GMT

@real_madrid09 wrote:
Cap1 secured card. Then 3 months later Cap1 rewards card. Keep one at 0% and the other 9%. You score will go up much faster.

For someone starting out with zero credit, especially for someone who meets the eligibility criteria for a student card, I am a firm believer that a secured card is not necessary to establish credit. I was able to build a substantial credit portfolio without ever having to resort to a secured card (unless of course my experience was atypical and I just got lucky.)

@clocktick wrote:
My friend just applied for a student card with Cap One called Journey - a no annual fee cashback card.

The Discover will not approve the friend going to the 2-year school (from reading past posts on here).

Citi came through for me in college but that wasn't recent.

Agreed - Discover would not approve me until I had one year of credit history - same with Amex.

Re: Good First Card

nada9188 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:34:53 GMT

I also believe that someone that does not have a flawed report, but a blank report does not need a secured card..

Question is what CC will approve the blank report with income around 15K??

Re: Good First Card

andyaycw — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:54:00 GMT

@nada9188 wrote:
I also believe that someone that does not have a flawed report, but a blank report does not need a secured card..

Question is what CC will approve the blank report with income around 15K??

We're still talking about the full-time students right? 15K is a heck of a lot of income so I don't imagine they'd have any difficulty qualifying for any student cards.

I'm a bit biased toward Citibank because they took a chance on me and they've grown quite nicely with me over the years. Citi Forward, mtvu, dividend platinum select, what have you.

Re: Good First Card

nada9188 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:56:59 GMT

Yeah. Im full time student and work full time and am at 26K-doesn't seem like a lot by any means.

More so than the income it is the blank credit report. I will have them give Citi a try.

Re: Good First Card

andyaycw — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:00:26 GMT

Ah well what I meant was, for a full-time student age 19 or so $15K seems like a lot. They must have their hands full working and studying!

With zero credit history, Citi started me out with two cards totalling $2200 credit limits, then a year later had bumped me up to a total of $6000, and that's when I got the Amex Blue Sky for $5700, and everything started getting a lot easier after that.

Good luck!

Re: Good First Card

RyVision — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:01:34 GMT

I'm guessing 6 months with either Citi or even Cap One with a good payment history (best if can be an AU on any good history card) that Zync wouldn't be hard to get. It's not as hard to get as a revolving account by any means really. Just food for thought.

Re: Good First Card

nada9188 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:08:06 GMT

@andyaycw wrote:
Ah well what I meant was, for a full-time student age 19 or so $15K seems like a lot. They must have their hands full working and studying!

With zero credit history, Citi started me out with two cards totalling $2200 credit limits, then a year later had bumped me up to a total of $6000, and that's when I got the Amex Blue Sky for $5700, and everything started getting a lot easier after that.

Good luck!

Thank you!!

This will be my recommendation to them. I will let you know the results once I can get one of them to app!