Capital One Platinum - Approved for first card at 18

[Anonymous]

I turned 18 a few weeks ago and planned to start with a Navy Federal secured card since my membership application was just approved today. But reading around MyFICO convinced me to try for an unsecured Capital One card instead.

Sure enough, I was instantly approved for the Capital One Premium (MasterCard) card with a $300 SL and a 24.99% APR. It's a very low limit with a high interest rate, but I just wanted to get my foot in the door. Even better, I don't have to put up any deposit money to do it.

Prior to this, I had no credit file/history. My only inquiry was on TU from NFCU today. I'm currently a student making around $15000 annually.

I don't plan on applying for any more cards for a while. I'll just use the Platinum card for a few small purchases and pay it off in full every month for at least the next six to twelve months. Hopefully that will open up some better cards with NFCU and other lenders like AMEX.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on your success and Happy belated birthday. I too started with a $300 limit with Capital One this past January and now have over $63k of unsecured revolving credit. I really dont need it, but its there and I will keep it to show future lenders I can be responsible with high limits.

BTW I was approved for NFCU Cash Rewards in May, and yesterday requested a CLI and was instantly approved to a new CL of $18k. NFCU is good, so I recommend you build a few months of history with C1 then apply with NFCU.