cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

New to Credit- Any tips

tag
Prodr222
Member

New to Credit- Any tips

Hi, I´m new to the whole credit system and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me. I have a HH Greg charge card with a $3000 Cl that i opened up a year ago and a Wells Fargo Secured card with a $600 Cl that i opened up 4 months ago. Experian ¨possibly fako score is 723¨and my equifax is 681. Anways my debt is at 48% to credit because of my HH account which i used to buy a tv. I am studying abroad during the spring and am hoping to have enough credit to get a card without a froeign transaction fee. Before this i will have paid off the HH remaining balance. Any advice what to do/ what card to get. As always any general advice on how to improve my score.

thanks

Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
LS2982
Mega Contributor

Re: New to Credit- Any tips


@Prodr222 wrote:

Hi, I´m new to the whole credit system and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me. I have a HH Greg charge card with a $3000 Cl that i opened up a year ago and a Wells Fargo Secured card with a $600 Cl that i opened up 4 months ago. Experian ¨possibly fako score is 723¨and my equifax is 681. Anways my debt is at 48% to credit because of my HH account which i used to buy a tv. I am studying abroad during the spring and am hoping to have enough credit to get a card without a froeign transaction fee. Before this i will have paid off the HH remaining balance. Any advice what to do/ what card to get. As always any general advice on how to improve my score.

thanks


Get your overall utilization down below 9% and call in to GE (hhgregg) and request a CLI on that card. It will be a SP. I would app for a Cap1 card the offer no FTF's but it will almost certainly cost you 3 HP's. Go for the cash rewards card for average credit.

 




EQ FICO 548 3/3/16
Message 2 of 5
jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: New to Credit- Any tips

CapOne is the easiest card with no foreign transaction fee. Its 3 hard pulls and most likely won't have any credit limit increases after the first one. 

There starter/rebuilder cards have good rewards but a anual fee. Perhaps you can get in with chase or citi but there low end cards have foreign transaction fees. 

 

 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
Landmarkcu Personal Loan 10k
Message 3 of 5
Prodr222
Member

Re: New to Credit- Any tips

Thanks, Appreciate it. My whole idea is to get a Cap 1 because it seems like its the best choice no FTF´s and then try to get and american express zync. While the Wells Fargo card has been beneficial in helping get a credit score. It makes little sense to have a card where i need to have a certain amount of money in it as collaterall. Hopefully when i come back from my study abroad trip i can apply for a zync. Get rid of my wells fargo while having a revolver like Cap1. I feel like it would be a very good possible outcome for the position im in.

Message 4 of 5
mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Re: New to Credit- Any tips

To the best of my knowledge, there aren't too many cards offering no FTF. I have some of them as I spend huge amount of time abroad, but other cards have pretty huge FTFs, unfortunately. 

 

So, my list of 0 FTF cards (not exhaustive obviously) is the following: 

1) Capital One cards - as far as I know, all of them have 0 FTF

2) Bank of America BankAmericard Travel Rewards - has 0 FTF and chip and pin technology, that is very useful in Europe

3) Discover cards - as they state on their website, they don't charge FTFs, but you should keep in mind, that generally Discover is not as widely accepted outside the US as MC and Visa (and even Amex) are.

4) Some other high level cards, that might seem not to be for you now, like Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Preferred and others of the same league 

 

 

I think you should be fine getting 1 (maybe, not Venture or other high-end cards) and 3, especially if you lower your overall util. If you are a student, Discover More for Students might be a good option IMHO.   

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 5 of 5
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.