definitely read up on all the wonderful advice above, but so you can have someone to relate to.
Im 19 now with exactly 1 year history beginning Nov. Started with discover secured at $200(same rewards as their gas card with matchback bonus) i PIF every month and made sure a pretty balance was reported every month and was upgraded to 2K after just 7 statement cycles and they returned deposit.
also unclear of the amount of time you’ve had an auto loan and whether or not they report to all three i humbly advise you to learn from my mistake of applying for cards too early (2 out of my 15 EXP hard inquiries resulted in approvals), i saw a vantage score and got too excited and took a bitter pill after 90% of my inquiries. In may i received my first FICO score at the very end of my 7th month of credit history and saw a high score again and ate more denials. I smartened up and waited for my first year to be established(depending on how long your auto loan was in place and if they have been regularly reporting to all three B’s this may have already happened). I just app spree’d right in the beginning of my 12 mo of credit history and was able to get an AMEX revolver approval for 4k and apple card for 5k back to back, and this was with 14 hard inquiries at 714 EXP, and 9 hard inquiries on TU with 711 FICO(only 2 TU approvals thanks to apple card lol).
Check your FICO’s and vantagescores to be sure where you stand, FICO score is the most accurate(also what most lenders pull) and what you read on credit karma or wallethub is a vantagescore which isnt the MOST precise but it is a good ballpark(in other words where i referred to, to make most of my mistakes :x).
If you’re smart and play time to your advantage you will achieve the same if not better results. Due to my mistakes of applying constantly and getting denied i would have had a higher score and probably might have gotten better SL’s(no complaints here though)
Discover secured is an amazing starter and 7 months will fly! and dont feel like you’re missing out on anything cause its the same as their unsecured version including cashback match, best wishes!
