What card should I get for foreign gap year?

[Anonymous]

Here is my situation. Senior in High School with an income of around 6.5k. Maybe more with scholarships and such. I need a new credit card with no foreign transaction fees. Would love a CSP or Venture but not sure that is realistic. If it helps I don't keep balances on any credit cards and pay full balance weekly.

Suggestions on what card I should apply or look at?

Here is my current lineup.

Discover it (1.5k) CL (Oct 2018)

Eastern Bank Visa (1.5k) CL (Sep 2018)

Delta Blue AmEx (1.5k) CL (Nov 2018)

Authorized user on a few cards as well

FICO 

718 Experian (3 HP)

735 TransUnion (3 HP)

720 Equifax (2 HP)

[Anonymous]

Your file is way too young for those.

IT cards has no FTF, but not sure how its acceptance is in Israel.

You can look into QS1 or BofA's student travel reward card.

[Anonymous]

Even with an authorized card opened in 2015, it would still be too young? I'm new to the game. Just trying to figure things out!

[Anonymous]

check your AAoA, perhaps credit karma has it. It is young if your AAoA is less than a year.

[Anonymous]

What card are you Authorized user on, any of them have 0 FTF?

You haven't had the Delta long enough, or I'd suggest upgrading to the Gold version. You should have perhaps done that originally, as the AF is 0 in the first year and $95 after. That first year would have allowed you to assess whether the AF is worth keeping it, or then dowgrading to the Blue.

As others have said you may not be in a position right now to aquire a 0 FTF card. 

Last resort, you Discover does.

If you have an in with NFCU, I'd try them. All of their cards offer 0 FTFs.

Lastly, and I don't often refer Cap One, they do have the Journey Student Rewards MC. Which will have broader acceptance than Amex or Discover. It offers 0 FTFs as well.

[Anonymous]

I’m an user on my father’s Citi Premier. I would consider using that however then he gets all the points . I would also have to do a bank transfer to pay the balance on his card.

[K-in-Boston]

Sounds like a Citi Premier of your own or a Chase Sapphire Preferred would be ideal.  On the surface, an Amex Gold Charge card would be great and Amex is somewhat commonly accepted but you wouldn't get bonus categories for non-US locations.  You really do need a Visa or MasterCard in Israel.  Discover acceptance is going to be somewhat low; the network wasn't even available there as recently as 4-5 years ago.

With the categories, I think those are your two best options for cards.  Plus, if you want to travel around Europe or elsewhere by air or want to come home for holidays both points programs transfer to Air France/KLM and FlyingBlue still considers Israel to be "Europe" for all intents and purposes when you price out award travel.  That said, it's possible that you may want to consider the new Flying Blue card from Bank of America.

Have you tried the pre-qualification pages for Citi, Chase, and BoA?  I know technically they shouldn't market to you before you're 21, but since you do have established credit it doesn't hurt to try.  If nothing else, the worst you'd have to lose is a HP and a little pride if turned down for one of those cards.

Edit:  Also, you mentioned paying off the balances weekly.  Are you letting at least one of those cards report with a small balance when the statement closes?  If they're all reporting $0 on your credit reports, you're likely missing some points since not using your credit at all (as it appears on your reports) is riskier than managing your credit cards by using them and paying them (which would be shown by letting at least once balance show on your reports at all times).

[Kforce]

Another option is a no FTF debit card.

Easy to open a checking, savings that comes with a debit card.

Schwab Bank -- High Yield Investor Checking has a no FTF debit card on the "Visa" network.

[HeavenOhio]

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@Anonymous wrote:

check your AAoA, perhaps credit karma has it. It is young if your AAoA is less than a year.

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Never rely on Credit Karma for AAoA. They give you the average age of OPEN accounts, while FICO and VantageScore count both open and closed.

With a young file, it's better to zero in on AoOA (age of oldest account) and AoYA (age of youngest account). Doors start to open up when one's AoOA reaches a year. And it's always good that one's youngest account has a bit of age on it when applying.

OP, if you go with Capital One, don't grab a QuicksilverOne. They're too hard to deal with over the long term. You could probably get the Journey right now, and Quicksilver would likely be available come summer. Journeys can typically be upgraded to Quicksilvers at some point.

[Anonymous]

So here is what it is going to look like overseas. I am going to have a TD bank Premier Checking. We are going to keep a minimum of 2.5k in there as I get reimbursed all ATM fees and with TD bank there are no FTF’s.

Should I wait until maybe June until applying for a CC? Possibly apply for the CSP first if my income goes up due to scholarship or figuring out what type of allowances I will have from the family? Then if I get declined, shoot for a Quicksilver or BofA Travel Rewards?