Take the risk to apply for Sallie Mae Mastercard?

[Anonymous]

Hello, all.  I am looking to apply for my first credit card and the rewards of the Sallie Mae Mastercard look very appealing. However, I am unsure whether I would realistically get approved for this card.

As for my credit situation, my Equifax and TU scores are 681. I have no inquiries, no late payments, and my average account age is 8 years. All of the accounts in my credit history are student loans that are currently deferred (I'm a current grad student) and the newest of these is over 6 years old.  I would like to take advantages of the benefits of this card as soon as possible and I have not seen another card with comparable rewards; but I am conflicted, given the scores and circumstances that seem to have been approved & denied.  I am thinking that my low income (grad student stipend) and not great credit score mean that I will probably not be approved for this card; but, I do not have any experience with this, so I thought I would seek some advice.

Thank you in advance for any help!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello, all.  I am looking to apply for my first credit card and the rewards of the Sallie Mae Mastercard look very appealing. However, I am unsure whether I would realistically get approved for this card.

As for my credit situation, my Equifax and TU scores are 681. I have no inquiries, no late payments, and my average account age is 8 years. All of the accounts in my credit history are student loans that are currently deferred (I'm a current grad student) and the newest of these is over 6 years old.  I would like to take advantages of the benefits of this card as soon as possible and I have not seen another card with comparable rewards; but I am conflicted, given the scores and circumstances that seem to have been approved & denied.  I am thinking that my low income (grad student stipend) and not great credit score mean that I will probably not be approved for this card; but, I do not have any experience with this, so I thought I would seek some advice.

Thank you in advance for any help!

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Credit score is within range of approval.  What income can you report?

[Anonymous]

This card seems to be made for students or recent graduates so I can't imagine the income requirement being extremely high. But then again I'm not certain. Your AAoA is great, TU score is probably ok I got it with a 696. If you think its a great benefit for you then give it a try, especially if you have 0 or very few inqs on TU System might deny you for lack of credit card accounts on file but there's always the recon option. Nothing beats a failure like a try! GL

[Callandra]

If you have at least 10k income, you should be okay. My bigger concern would be the the lack of no CC history. Barclays tends to like 6-12 months CC history. Have you looked at student cards to build your history?

[steel_string]

Sounds like your credit report is actually quite good for someone with no cards. I think I would probably go ahead and give it a shot. I wouldn't expect them to give an instant approval, but a call to the 24 hour credit analyst number might get the job done. If they decline over the phone, try for one of the easier cards from an issuer that doesn't pull TU and then try for SM again after six statements have reported to TU. The worst case scenario would be that Barclay sees a six month old Barclay HP and one six month old account with a better FICO score than you have now.

[CreditCuriosity]

Problem I see if you don't have any CC history, unless I missed something.. Barclay's like to see 1 year of CC history at least..  Unless I missed you have any CC history I see it being a decline personally.  If you do indeed have CC history of over a year you have a good shot

[Anonymous]

What Barclays likes is up to Barclay and subject to change They were ok with me having three months of CC history. There are always exceptions. I've been reading how Chase *likes to see a year of history* since I first came around here and they approved me with none.

But like I said before you having 0 CC payment history may be an issue and if so recon is worth a try. Worse they can say is no and then you figure out alternatives.

[CreditCuriosity]

I just see 0 CC history as a sticking point personally.. It is only a TU pull though..  I think it would have to goto recon as well if approved, aka wouldn't be instant.. Just my thoughts of reading tons of barclay's stories, but hey I could be wrong as there are always exceptions as we all know.

If OP doesn't mind using a TU pull and willing to recon then go for it.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply.  My annual income is only $15,000, which sort of concerns me.

[Callandra]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply.  My annual income is only $15,000, which sort of concerns me.

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When I applied for their Rewards MC, I put down $17k for income and I still got approved for $1.5k.