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I started my journey with a Discover secured card in April with no credit score. My deposit was $200, and it graduated last month with a CLI to $2,000 after 7 months of use. The deposit refund arrived about a week after I got the message. Love Discover.
I used the card often and paid all but $2 multiple times a month, leaving my statement balance at $2 each month except for one month where I messed up the timing and had a $20 balance. Oh, and there was another month where I left $1.90ish and Discover just waived it, leaving me with a $0 statement balance, haha... So yeah, not as perfect as planned but I guess Discover still liked what they saw.
I kept checking the "other" thin-file friendly issuer, Amex, for a prequal, but always got turned down until the $200 limit changed to $2,000 on my credit reports a few days ago. I was suddenly offered the Gold card, Everyday card, and Cash Magnet. Gold card was a no-no because of the AF and I thought really hard for 20 minutes between Membership Rewards (because of some really nice discount offers I missed at SlickDeals...) and cashback. Cashback won, for now, because I'd rather save money than get help spending it. SL is $2,000!
Next things on my list are to grow the CLs until I could get the 5% CB Amazon Prime card (might just apply for the store card first if I can't help myself though), and hopefully by then I'll have a decent enough file to get started with low APR credit union cards and grow the CLs on those -- because that's the endgoal for me with this, to have a fleet of low interest APRs to choose from if I ever really need the credit, instead of all this 24% stuff from big banks that'll bankrupt me. Meanwhile, I hope the 28 cents in interest I pay Penfed every month is helping to build a positive picture of me there for when I actually end up applying for something.
Cheers to all the other foreigners and newbies and rebuilders! We'll get there!
Congrats on approval !!!!
Thanks!!!
CONGRATS on both approvals!!!!
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Thanks!!!!
Actually I like your trifecta..
You got discover early enough in your build that they should treat you right... and ditto for Amex...
Id garden for a year or more with this combination......
This particular combo actually could grow quite nicely if you don't go trying to add more cards for awhile...
Both Disco and Amex are pretty amicable to thinner and clean files.... and Discover *loves* attention not shared with a lot of friends....
(I.E being more of a daily driver or carrying your largest balance)... and Amex.. you might be eligible for a 3x CLI in 61 days..... (esp since you got a 2K approval not a 1K approval.. 1K is oftentimes borderline with Amex or even sometimes their version of Cap Ones "Credit Steps"....)
And Penfeds a conservative bank but can be very good in the longer haul.. and if you have the income but also they are a bit DTI sensitive... so you picked the right group of cards at the right time... I think your wallet is brilliant...
On the Amazon card.. Waiting an additional 6 months or so is an option.. Chase for their mainstream cards tends to like a year of experience with credit and your current limits tend to be a factor with them.. For me it was a relatively easy approval but they didn't give me a great deal or CL on that card.. and its a HP to get it increased usually.. so .. i haven't touched it.. Good enough for my AZ shopping though as a PIF card
-J
Congratulations on your graduation and your approval!
Total CL: $321.7k | UTL: 2% | AAoA: 7.0yrs | Baddies: 0 | Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping |