My college student DD and I are evaluating some new cards for her to apply for this weekend. She already has a Disco Chrome Student that is 1y1m old, and a AMEX BCE that is 9m old. Both have been great, but AMEX is not utilized much at all (mainly got it due to the ability to grow via 3x).
Her spend is mainly eating out and gas, along with mostly non-category type of spend. She needs a more accepted card, such as Visa and MC. She has on occassion found places that don't accept Disco nor AMEX.
Her income will be around $16k after starting her new job with her college. I believe she was approved for the Disco and AMEX with only a $6k income last year. We will discuss changing her Chrome to an IT if any success with below card apps.
I'm thinking of suggesting the below cards for her to look at, and she may attempt a mini-spree of 2 or 3 cards. This concerns me for the Chase Freedom, so I'm not sure if she should even have it on the list or not. Thinking of doing the spree so that she will have gardened for a couple of years prior to graduating (that's the plan, anyway).
What are your thoughts or experiences with any of these for a college, low income applicant? Her FICO 8 scores are over 730, but should be higher after going AZEO after AMEX reported yesterday (if AZEO is a thing for 2 cards plus 3 AU cards).
If she goes for the 2 or 3 card spree, then does the below appear to be the correct order for applying?
- Chase Freedom (just because its C H A S E !!)
- PNC Cash Rewards (simple one card approach for Gas (4%) and Dining (3%) + SUB
- Barclays Carnival (can get a $250 SUB immediately with no spend due to a booked cruise, but not much use other than this)
- NFCU More Rewards (AMEX, so not ideal... but probably could get a nice SL)
My prefence would be PNC and Carnival now. NFCU can be down the line in a few months if needed, or as a backup if PNC or Carnival is denied. Chase will have to wait, but that's fine.
If Barclays and PNC are the target cards, I would go for them first. In that order. Barclays and spree don't belong in the same sentence.
@Duke_Nukem wrote:My college student DD and I are evaluating some new cards for her to apply for this weekend. She already has a Disco Chrome Student that is 1y1m old, and a AMEX BCE that is 9m old. Both have been great, but AMEX is not utilized much at all (mainly got it due to the ability to grow via 3x).
Her spend is mainly eating out and gas, along with mostly non-category type of spend. She needs a more accepted card, such as Visa and MC. She has on occassion found places that don't accept Disco nor AMEX.
Her income will be around $16k after starting her new job with her college. I believe she was approved for the Disco and AMEX with only a $6k income last year. We will discuss changing her Chrome to an IT if any success with below card apps.
I'm thinking of suggesting the below cards for her to look at, and she may attempt a mini-spree of 2 or 3 cards. This concerns me for the Chase Freedom, so I'm not sure if she should even have it on the list or not. Thinking of doing the spree so that she will have gardened for a couple of years prior to graduating (that's the plan, anyway).
What are your thoughts or experiences with any of these for a college, low income applicant? Her FICO 8 scores are over 730, but should be higher after going AZEO after AMEX reported yesterday (if AZEO is a thing for 2 cards plus 3 AU cards).
If she goes for the 2 or 3 card spree, then does the below appear to be the correct order for applying?
- Chase Freedom (just because its C H A S E !!)
- PNC Cash Rewards (simple one card approach for Gas (4%) and Dining (3%) + SUB
- Barclays Carnival (can get a $250 SUB immediately with no spend due to a booked cruise, but not much use other than this)
- NFCU More Rewards (AMEX, so not ideal... but probably could get a nice SL)
My prefence would be PNC and Carnival now. NFCU can be down the line in a few months if needed, or as a backup if PNC or Carnival is denied. Chase will have to wait, but that's fine.
I would use caution when applying for a credit card. While some banks maybe nice, but could be very strick on CLI. For example, I gotten a very good tip about Bank of America's Cash Rewards card from another thread. Someone applied for the student version and hasn't gotten an increase while the normal version of the card is pulling like weeds for CLI.
If you are just helping her to get her rewards, I would just change Discover Chrome to the IT bc next quarter (if I recall) is gas so it would not matter if you apply for PNC at that moment. As for the Amex card, you should have her chat online or phone up Amex to see if she can get it to switch to a Cash Magnet for 1.5%. You said that she isn't big using it for groceries so switch it to something that can help her in the meantime. I got accepted into Amex with the BCE and switch it within the month because I just realized that I won't be spending big on groceries any time soon.
On top of everything you have said, if it was me, I would apply for a Chase card (Freedom or Freedom Unlimited) for her to get rid of the 5/24 or you can have her go into a branch and apply for the Freedom Student (bring paperwork to show college status) and go from that route. Freedom Student is 1% and is good for 5 years of the bonus. If she is done with it, she can always PC it to freedom or unlimited. By the time that happens if you do Freedom Student, 5 out of 10 first month of paid on time can give an increase to the credit line for her. It should be enough time to wait 6 months and go after PNC.
But hey, it is just my opinion.
