When to take next step? (Advice Please)

[Anonymous]

Hi all.

Thanks for this great community. I have learned a lot.

A few months ago I never had credit, nothing on my file at all.

Income, $25,000.

Nov17 I applied for an unsecured card with NFCU.

Approved, $500 SL.

End of Jan18/start of Feb18, I applied for a Discover IT.

Approved, $2000 SL.

I'm PIF, autopay set up etc, I'm really only charging about $10 a month on them

I want to apply for an Amex, and then CF and CSP.

How long should I wait until I apply for my next card?

I read Chase doesn't like it if your history is less than a year old.

What about Amex?

I don't have any real scores yet since my credit history is so young.

CK tells me (today): TU 681 EQ 674. They have only risen a few points since Dec17.

Bonus Question: Will NFCU/Discover not like it if I don't truly use my card for everyday things, and just put Neflix/Amazon giftcard autoreload on it like I do now? Would they rather see me put more money through it? I would like to get my CL raised of course, so I want to make them happy. Maybe if I only use $10 a month out of $2000 they will think I am playing the system etc? From their point of view, why should they raise my CL if I only ever spend $5 or $10 a month?

Thank you for all the advice you give!

-- UPDATE--

Here's an update, it felt long a long wait to see my first credit score!

I read it can take 6 months of reporting if you had no history of credit.

So, around 6 months later...

My EX score is 717!

I'm very happy

[Zolomon]

Whichever has the best benifits that fit to your spend habits should be your primary spend card while the other can be your netflix bill card. I would be more inclined to use the Discover.

Your scores are literally just a reflection of the age of your credit history - you have no negatives. Just keep using your cards wisely and your scores will rise with time. I'd say wait for another CLI with your Discover, preferably til you hit 5k, then in 6 months to a year, apply for either the CSP or Amex before any other card. Just make sure that when you apply for CSP, you're not already 5/24 (5 cards in the last 24 months - denial).

[Anonymous]

Thank you.

So your advice, wait until July/August (when my Discover willl be 6 months, and AAoA 7-8 mo.) to do my next app?

Ok, I'll do that.

Will it be a problem if I don't use either card for any normal spending habits, and have 1 on Netflix and 1 on Spotify/Amazon Giftcard auto reload/etc?

I don't want to come across to the card companies and credit bureaus that I am trying to do the minimum just to build credit, but honestly... that's what I'm doing.

I don't want to spend a lot of money doing building my credit.

But in a year or two, I'll be making more, spending more, and looking to buy or rent, that's why I want my credit built

[Zolomon]

Use your Discover for what you would normally use debit or cash on, and pay the discover back at the end. From my experience, the creditors just want gauge how responsible you are with debt. They won't penalize you for spending what you can only afford.

There are 100k salaries with 500 scores, and 25k salaries with 700 scores. It's all about time and management.

I envy you. Building from a clean record. I wish I was more responsible like you when I started.

[Anonymous]

Again, thank you for your advice

From reading around here, I was surprised that I got accepted for a $2000 SL with Discover.

So yeah, I hope the rest of my 'journey' goes well!

[Anonymous]

Congrats on your growth! We all learn loads from each other. I’m glad it’s benefiting you! I will stick with the AMEX question since it’s something I know well:

American Express as of late has been approving applicants who’s Experian FICO scores are around 625. If you have nothing bad on your credit report and it’s just a little light on the AAOA you could be ready to apply for a Gold Delta Skymiles AMEX or BCE and get approved in the next few months. The Delta AMEX has a starting SL of $1K and the BCE has a limit starting at I believe $500.00. With you being approved for a Discover at a $2K SL, you should be fine to get one of those. AMEX or any other bank likes seeing another company with those SL’s. I might be stretching it, but I have seen a couple of people getting approved for the Platinum AMEX with scores of 630 (might be out of the price range with the AF, but still good info). When I got my AMEX early last year I had a score of 638 and was approved immediately.

Being that your credit is new, you should benefit from keeping all of your accounts current and playing the credit game. AMEX is closer than you may think.

If a CSP or CSR is on your list, make sure you don’t have 5 or more new CC’s opened in the last 24 months before applying. Good luck and I hope I was able to give you some good insight.

As always, we can’t guarantee approvals, but you are just about there! ☺️

[beutiful5678]

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wrote:

I don't want to spend a lot of money doing building my credit.

---

I'm confused about what you're trying to say here. The only way you'll spend more money just to build credit is if you pay interest (or if you get cards that have annual fees and you don't use the benefits to make up/justify the annual fee).

You can take either approach and spend just as much as you normally would, you just have to manage it appropriately. Pay your balance off in full every month and you'll never pay interest. This is true whether you run all your normal spending through your credit cards or you run minimal spending through your credit cards.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Millionairelynch.

I'm interested in the BCE, I don't want (wouldn't benefit yet) from the Platinum enough to warrant the AF!

beutiful5678 - Maybe my situation is a bit strange.

I'm out of the country for a year or two.

I realized I have no credit, and that I need it for when I get back since I want to advance my life. (House etc)

Where I am now, I just pay for all my regular stuff with debit.

So I just signed up for stuff like Netflix, Spotify, Amazon auto reloading giftcard balance - cheap monthly payments, to put on these cards to show activity. Ideally I'd put through $1 or $0.01, whatever will build credit for me. But as I said earlier, I still want to make these companies happy, I want CLIs So that's why I'm putting through $5 - $10, to make it a bit more 'real normal use', although it's still far from it.

I couldn't really use my Discover card where I am now, it wouldn't be accepted. My NFCU would, but I'd probably be charged a foreign fee.

It's easy for me how I have it set up at the moment, about $300 in a checkings account where my 2 credit cards autopay in full each month from. If I spent more on these cards, I'd have to transfer money to my checkings account, which would be a chore.

The $300 I have there for now will last a while, I don't mind topping it up every 6 months or so, but yeah I don't want to do it every month.

(I believe it's nice idea what I have set up, but I'm new to this and happy for input!)

[Blackswizz750]

You are in a nice spot. Just chill for a year and let you current lines grow. You can have Netflix and other subscriptions hit your cards, it counts as a swipe. Just use you cards as a debit card, just pif. As your income rises you will be thankful you are not spending a portion on minimum payments along with interest.

After a year, you may realize, you don't need another card or have other credit cards goals. Good luck on your credit journey.

[Anonymous]

What's up! First, congrats. Second. Let your accounts age for 7-10 mos. Remember CRA report your payments one month behind. So it's good to have 6 on time payments. Third, when you're done. You have two options - apply for 2-3 cards or apply for 1 card and then apply for another card in 7 mo. Keep doing it for 2-3 years. You can do same strategy with 2 cards at the same time. Don't worry about CLI. Wait for auto CLI or ask after 7mo. You can get auto especially with Disco.