So when I recieved my first CC around a year ago it had very low APR and was a fair offer from my credit union with only a $500 limit. At the time I thought this was great. Fast foward to now... and I am incapable of buying any plane tickets. This is tricky because I live in Japan with my SO, so being able to fly home and visit my family for holidays would be nice. It's been a while since I've visited...
I don't want my SO to use her card on me, and despite my parents wanting to buy my ticket for me- it's a hassle flying with a ticket bought on someone elses card, and a card you cannot produce/show at check-in in my past experience.
Discover it Miles card preaproves me- but I realize preapproval is thin and it doesn't mean they will accept my application. When doing a FICO check through Discover, my score is 690. My relatively young credit history (I made a poor decision on never getting a card until after college- or maybe a poor but good decision at the time 
). doesn't seem to impact my score too much, however I do have a utilization rate of 75%. Everything else though is green and I've never missed a payment. I suppose this isn't a horrible FICO score and they may know this with the preapproval, but I have a feeling if they pull the hard that utilization rate will be a "no thanks." Or it may wind me up with a $500 limit...
I realize the high utilization rate of 75% sounds bad . I am wondering if it's unlikely that, even though I'm "preapproved" when they pull and see high utilizations of 75%-90% that I have no chance??
The reason my utilization is so high is because my limit is so horribly low. The only things that charge to my card are phonebills, and a car payment I once made. My card generally sits at around 300-400 / 500. If my limit was 1000, it would be 300/1000 always, and result in a 30% utilization. But because my interest rate is quite low, I haven't been in a hurry to pay it off. Instead I make minimum-$100 dollar payments, and occassionally will pay 200 some months. Usually this is because I stave off remitting money to the states as much as I can.
In hindsight, I wish I had gone for a bigger limit right away. Accepting a low limit gleefully was not a good decision. :[
As high as your utilization is , and on a $500, i recommend paying it of asap, Discover can be quite the giver to young thin files even with some imperfections. I would risk an hp to find out, they may give you that dreaded $500 sl or they may blow your mind with $5k. One never knows until you try. I hope you can make it back home for the holidays 
