Questions from a Newcomer

[Anonymous]

yea thanks. im definitely going to pay in full each month. i only spend what i have. plus i plan on keeping the balances low like below 25%, probably under 10%. 

makes sense that i should wait till the BoA is unsecured. then id have had the cap1 for about 13 months and the BoA for 12 months. their limits will be higher and have good payment records. and ill have no credit inquiries in the past 6 and 12 months(if i apply before the its unsecured id have a few).

[Anonymous]

hey dook

thanks for the advice/history.

1. is it easy to increase the limit on a secured card? im guessing it just involves me just sending them more money and no hard inq?

2. will having a limit of 2000-3000 in the BoA secured, give me a higher limit when the card graduates to unsecured after the year or whenever they let me?

3. the AMEX zync seems like a decent card to me in a year instead of the forward. it would help AMEX get to know me like you said, and its only $25 annual fee. im guessing its not too difficult to get because you have to PIF every month?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

hey dook

thanks for the advice/history.

1. is it easy to increase the limit on a secured card? im guessing it just involves me just sending them more money and no hard inq?

I think you just need to send money to them to increase limit. Different creditors have different policies so BOA might hard pull you for CLI.

2. will having a limit of 2000-3000 in the BoA secured, give me a higher limit when the card graduates to unsecured after the year or whenever they let me?

I saw many cases of BOA secured graduate from 500 to 2-3000 range but you're not guaranteed to get it. I have yet to see $2000 secured graduate to 6-7000 range so I don't think it helps to get higher limit now in hope of getting higher higher limit when graduate BUT I still suggest you increase limit now because you don't have to wait full year for BOA to unsecured before apply for another card. Also, you could risk getting same limit when graduate and that result in having 2 toys of 1 year history. Very bad position IMO.

3. the AMEX zync seems like a decent card to me in a year instead of the forward. it would help AMEX get to know me like you said, and its only $25 annual fee. im guessing its not too difficult to get because you have to PIF every month?

Zync is their starter card. It's not decent card but it's the cheapest way to get in with Amex for people with limited history or having blemishes in the past.

Forward is much better card than zync but if you can't get student version now, you are unlikely to get approved for regular version with short history.

---

[Anonymous]

ok thanks.

i guess over the next few months ill increase the limit to around 2k-3k.

i might look into the zync next year and wait another year or two for the citi. it seems like the cheapest way to get in good with AMEX.