@KitCat10 wrote:
I'm 24 years old and the only credit card on under my name is my dad's that he put me as a secondary so I could get some credit. I'm trying to get my first credit card but I got this denial from Discover. I only have two hard inquiries from Dec 2022 and I'm not sure how I have too many and no revolving accounts at the same time. Is this something I can reach out to Discover about to reconsider especially since some of this just seems wrong or am I out of luck? I did do a pre approval with Discover and tried for one of the cards they said I was pre approved for.
Welcome to the board!
You could always try Discover's reconsideration line:
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Backdoor-Numbers/td-p/408066
... but I would have high hopes.
You're new to credit cards, which is a tough place to be. Most lenders won't want to touch you, until you have a least a year of credit history under your belt. Being an authorized user on your dad's card doesn't change this, even if it gave a nice boost to your scores.
Avoid the predatory subprime lenders. If you have deposit accounts at a bank or credit union, you might be able to get a basic card from them. As @Cowboys4Life mentioned, Capital One is the other reputable major national lender that gives unsecured credit cards to people with no personal credit history. Since you have a fresh inquiry, I'd wait a few months before applying. The best option is probably the Platinum. While it has no reward categories, it's unsecured, has all the basic features like tap to pay, and some bonus features like offers and virtual cards. You'll be bucketed, so the initial credit limit you're offered will be low, and very slow to grow, but even so it'll build your credit history and put you in a much better place for the next card. Avoid the Quicksilver One, which is a bit of a trap -- your first card should be a card with no annual fee that you can keep forever, in order to build your age of credit, but Cap1 is notorious for almost never allowing the QS1 to be switched to a no-AF card. Conversely, the Platinum is fairly easy to upgrade later to a Quicksilver, so it's not a dead end. (I speak from experience. The Platinum was my first card, and I was able to product change it to the Quicksilver after 6 months. I could even convert it to a Savor One right now, though it took almost 2 years before that option showed up. I was also stuck with a credit limit of $300 for 18 months, which was a bit of pain.)
Another possibility is Chase's Freedom Rise. Chase normally requires at least a year of personal credit history before they'll even consider you (or a long-standing deposit account relationship), but the new card is specifically aimed at people new to credit. Though this is more of a risk, because the card's so new we don't have a lot of data points yet. Just make sure to follow the recommendations, like setting up a deposit account.
If none of that works, the final fallback is a secured card. This really shouldn't be necessary if you have no negatives on your credit report, but just in case. Make sure to research the card first, and find one that known to graduate to an unsecured version, because you don't want to have to close the card or leave the money tied up forever. Discover has a good one.
