Credit unions are usually the most generous with initial credit limits.
Not sure what you consider high. I got an initial CL of $7K on a Citi forward card about a year and a half ago. At the time, scores were between 700-750 depending on which report you looked at. Income is fairly good. At time of application, AAoA was about 8 years. On the negative side, I had multiple accounts with late payments from about 4 years ago, but none of them were Citi accounts. I did have prior cards with Citi that had been closed in good standing several years ago. On recent applications with Citi, I've received higher initial CLs. I got an initial CL of $17.5K on my Aadvantage card early this year.
With Amex, I got an initial CL on an SPG card of $19.6K in 2011. That was with about 6 months of history of fairly heavy spend on a PRG card. And I had older accounts with Amex that had been closed in good standing.
Having little to no credit history, I would expect you to receive lower initial CLs. The good thing is that with Amex you can usually grow the CL fairly quickly. At 61 days you can request an increase up to 3x the initial limit. Read the sticky thread on the Amex 3x CLI at the top of the forum.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
@Gizmo7 wrote:Thank you for this information. For someone with zero credit history and an income of $50,000, what do you think the average startin CL would be? Maybe $2,000?
I probably wouldn't expect much more than $500 for a starting CL with no credit history. My first CC was from my CU and had a $500 limit. I know FirstPremier cards generally have around a $300 limit. Cap1 secured cards are around the same too, I think. I think Discover starts students with no credit history at $500.
I would suggest plunking $2000 into a BoA secured card. Also Discover will, on occasion grant approvals to first time cc.
The CU and other suggestions are good too.
The CU and other suggestions are good too.
@Gizmo7 wrote:Thank you for this information. For someone with zero credit history and an income of $50,000, what do you think the average startin CL would be? Maybe $2,000?
I think credit unions are your most likely bet for a high initial CL. If you can get an Amex revolver, that would be an in toward fairly rapid growth of your credit line. As a reference point, the $7K initial CL I got with Citi was with an income of $280K. As I said, I have some old negatives on my report. So that might have pushed my initial CL downward. But with no (or little) credit history, I wouldn't expect a large initial CL.
I also agree with the suggestions from others above.
@09Lexie wrote:
I would suggest plunking $2000 into a BoA secured card. Also Discover will, on occasion grant approvals to first time cc.
The CU and other suggestions are good too.
If your individual has free cash laying around which can afford to be tied up for a year, I'd suggest doing exactly this: the 1-2-3 rewards package aren't the best in the industry but they're incredibly servicable for a while and BOFA is pretty good about PCing the card around to various things after it graduates, very very flexible product as a result.
If you can't get it immediately but can deposit cash over time, get a Cap One secured card; otherwise a no-file can possibly qualify for a Cap One unsecured.
Then wait six months and figure out what your next step is, ignore the monthly fee cards they don't serve any purpose in this scenario, a no-file can do better than a last resort tradeline.
+1 to the CU suggestion too, having CU's is nothing but goodness.
I had no credit when I applied for the Citi Forward for Students card and got an initial CL of $3k. Reported income was my graduate stipend, which was under $20k.
