What to do next? Young credit, looking to grow

[B335is]

Welcome to the forum. A lot of people use store cards as a stepping stone to better cards. Plus if it's something you absolutely want, don't let other people's opinions on here deter you. Macys is a good addition for a variety of reasons. They offer a lot of financing options for jewelry and furniture at no additional hard pull and they consider credit limit increases fairly often. Plus all the star rewards they will send you. If you decide to apply, do it in store. They have a quirky verification process if you apply online and people seem to get better limits in store (and are considered for the Amex version). However, I never got Macys until my credit was more established so I can't comment on approval chances in your case.

Getting an Amex should be a top priority for you. Amex considers you a member from the day you first get approved for one of their (Centurion Bank issued) cards. So if you get approved for one of their cards in 2015, fast forward to the year 2025 and decide to apply for another, it will report as an open date of 2015 (even though its the year 2025). I would go for PRG first because it has a generous bonus offer and first year annual fee is waived. You can always downgrade it when the annual fee kicks in. The charge cards are a bit easier to get, but if you are instantly approved, turn around and apply for the revolver card (like Blue Cash Everyday or Delta) immediately. A lot of people get both with 1 hard pull. Have you tried their prequalifier? They may want 12 months of history but if it returns a prequalified card, I would go for it.

[B335is]

By the way, I disagree about Credit Karma. The "matched offers" are highly inaccurate and reflect information solely taken from Transunion. It provides a Fako score and I've found the credit card reviews to be written emotionally, not factually. It's ok to sign up for it, but take the information with a large grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@boosnark wrote:

I would avoid Store cards for now. Always check with Credit Karma to see if you still have  a "thin file." The credit card pre-qualifiers are generally useful and will tell you if your records are available for soft/hard pulls. As the previous posters have mentioned, I would start with one good no annual fee card such as the Chase Freedom or Amex Blue. Add one charge card to the mix, but I would apply for that after a couple of months of history. There is no rush really. I had one single credit card for the longest time (ca. 20 years) in college and after graduation. On hindsight I could have done better, but that single card racked up my score quite significantly over the years due to a pristine payment history. It was a college Amex Green Card by the way.

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I've read that what Credit Karma has to say is largely innacurate- do you think it's worth signing up for? 

Is the Amex Blue generally regarded as "easy" to obtain? How about relative to something like the PRG?

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credit karma's SCORES are largely inaccurate because they use a different scoring model than FICO but the reports they give are perfectly accurate and are the same you would get anywhere else. I'm also an 18 year old college student and before I signed up for myFICO, I relied heavily on credit karma as they update your report every week so it's easy to stay on top of util, aaoa, and hp's.

[CreditDunce]

CK's matched offers are worthless, they are just getting paid to push the product to you.  However, I did get a pre-approval offer for several Amex cards from CK last year.  The pre-approval offers were different from the marketing offers in that they showed the APR rate I would be approved for.  Sadly, I didn't get the pre-approval from CK until the week my Amex card arrived in my mailbox.  Once the Amex showed up on my credit reports, the pre-approval offers went away.

If one of your parents has an Amex, ask to be added as an AU.   They don't even have to give you the AU card.  I think you have a very good shot of being approved for an Amex in the fall, but locking your MSD in now can't hurt.

I think the consensus is the ED/EDP are all relatively easy to be approved for.  The green/gold/PRG/Delta Gold might be a little bit easier to be approved for, not much.  If you can make the spend to get the bonus, I would apply for the PRG in the fall.  If you don't spend that much, then I would just get the Gold and save your sign up bonus for later.  In January, you can then apply for the ED or EDP card.  The back dating will not be much, but it is better than nothing.  The trade off is it will be an extra EX HP.

[chalupaman]

I'd avoid Wells Fargo altogether. Their college card isn't worth it and the benfits on there are kinda lame compared to what else you could get, especially with Amex and Chase.