Hello everybody, first post, very excited to be here!
So I've been looking to find a new primary card, and have been looking at three different cards.
I was prequaled/special offered for:
Amex BCP, $250 cash back 1k over three months.
Amex PRG, 50,000 points, 1k over three months.
Chase Sapphire Preferred, no special incentive over the (already great!) 40,000 bonus.
Stats:
TU: 739 Equifax: 753
AAOA (TU): 5 yrs,
2 credit inquiries,
Chase Freedom as an authorized user with $10k limit (on my line), which I have been paying dilligently for 5 or so years. The account overall is 24 years old (parents), but they really almost never use the chase line.
Sam's Club Mastercard with $5k limit, about 6 months old.
Handful of deferred federal education loans, about $7k total.
About 5% utillization overall.
No "baddies", always pay in full.
Here's my background: 21 year old college student graduating in December. I have a job offer lined up for post grad in consulting, but will look for even more options in the fall during on campus recruiting. Worst case scenario salary-wise soon would be about $70k plus signing, relocation and performance bonuses. My income currently, is not so strong. I get about $1800/mo from my parents, make about $500 from a job. (I have a ton of scholarship, but not sure that counts because it is through my school).This summer I will make about $700/week. All in all, about $30,000 in yearly income for the time being. Feel like this might hurt a lot unless I can find a way to spin my story.
I'm torn between these cards. I currenlty spend most of my money on food, split pretty evenly between restaurants and eating out. I will be travelling quite a lot once I start working, however, and I do like to travel. I'm convinced that the Chase UR are better than the Amex MR, but frankly, having a relationship with Amex seems like a great idea, and they have solid benefits. I'm also not sure I'd make the $4k over 3 months on the CSP without basically having my parents do a lot of it for me.
So the options are: 1) get one of the travel cards now (which one!) and make that my primary, or 2) apply for the BCP, and use that while my expenses are lower and focused on food and get a travel card (either one of those or even the AMEX SPG, which I probably won't qualify for now) in a few months closer to when I'll be travelling a ton?
I'd love your feedback on anything about this, including chances and other cards I should be looking at. Thanks guys!
