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Hello, I've been helping my sister build a credit profile by adding her as AU to 3 of my accounts. I am using CreditKarma (as it is free and provides a rough estimate of what we need to know) to track her credit "worthiness." On CK she is showing scores of 754 and 8 months of credit history.
The reason I added her was to try avoid her needing to get a Secure card and skipping into easy-to-acquire credit cards (Amex ED/BCE mainly). With 8 months of being an AU on my cards, do you think at this point she could apply for a credit card and get an approval? Also, which credit cards, if any, should she apply for first?
Cards she is an AU on:
Chase Freedom: $7,500
Barclaycard Ring: $8,500
Amex BCE: $25,000
Thanks in advance for your help!
I would start with running the pre-quals at each bank that offers them and grab at least 3 but more if comfortable.
Chase... you can apply for 2 back to back if you have pre-qual and combine 1 of them into the other if you don't want 2 and get a higher CL right off the bat... if you have pre-qual for CSP, then you can apply for any co-branded card and have a HIGH chance of approval and higher CL too! (Marriott, United, Southwest, etc.)
Capital One - you can get 2 back to back again and can combine them after 6 months... CLI's by request at 2-3 statements usually and sometimes auto cli at around 6-7 statements
American Express
Barclay
Discover - Apply to them if you have any interest in them, should be good.
Thats how i got my sister started on her credit also, was just being an AU. We took it somewhat slow. We started personally with Discover Student, and after 2 mos. got her a Chase Freedom. From some of the readings on here, i would suggest maybe Amex or Discover since they like newcomers.
@SecretAzure wrote:
Thanks Skye, about how long was she an AU on your accounts for? I would love to get her Freedom but with no Prequals I would be lucky if she got Slate...I think.
I had her on my cap1 account which reported the whole history since opening. At the time i believe it was 1.5 years old. As for Slate, i wouldn't bother. Mainly due to the fact its basically a BT card.
Discover and Amex I am thinking she would be golden with either of them. They both love thin files. I would be suprised if she was denied for either of them. Should be like catching fish in a barrel on those two applications/approvals. Two is plenty to get her started nicely while keeping her an AU on your accounts.
@CreditCuriousity wrote:Discover and Amex I am thinking she would be golden with either of them. They both love thin files. I would be suprised if she was denied for either of them. Should be like catching fish in a barrel on those two applications/approvals. Two is plenty to get her started nicely while keeping her an AU on your accounts.
Bingo. She'd fare well with Amex as well.