My friend is a 24 year old college graduate making roughly $70k and has never had a credit card and is looking to choose his first. He has BB&T with several thousand dollars as well as Suncoast Credit Union with several thousand dollars (both long time established banking relationships).
Here are some general thoughts or questions:
-Should he skip a secured card and go right for unsecured?
-Should he try with his banking institutions and possibly get more favorable outcome? I've heard of first time credit card applicants getting 15k lines of credit with credit unions (example my friend for 15K with NFCU for his first ever card).
-Should be pull his annual free credit report to see if anything is on there?
Notes:
-He makes big purchases frequently such as flight school (assuming chas back would be best for this type of purchase).
-He travels frquently so rewards on airefar would be positive.
-Everyday purchases like gas and groceries are his most used expense category and heaviest weighted in choosing a rewards card.
-As this is his first card it will likely be open for a very long time (i.e. sign up bonuses are not a priority)
Current Open: NFCU AMEX $6,800 CL | Chase Freedom $3,800 CL | QS1 $1,300 CL | BankAmericard $24,000 CL (AU) | NFCU SSL $3,000 |
FICO 8 EXP, EQ, TU: 675-715 (depending on Utl.) | AAoA 3 Years 3 Months | AoYA 0 Months
Closed: American Honda Finance Installment $16,000 paid satisfactorily | Capital One Secured $700 paid satisfactorily | Wells Fargo credit card $3,000 paid charge off settled less than full amount (badie 2015) | Bank of America credit card $1,000 paid charge off settled less than full amount (badie 2015)
