What was your very first card?

[mediocrebadguy]

I forgot all about this until I read your post. Mine was an unusual one. My first card was a JCPenney card when I was 16. JCP was doing a pilot program of giving teenagers credit cards. My parents had to sign off on the application, but it wasn't an authorized user situation and they weren't responsible for any of the debt. The credit limit was something ridicously low, like $250. As soon as I turned 18, there was an instant CLI. (I believe this was when JCP had their own bank prior to selling their cards to GE/Sync). That card was my oldest card until Sync upgraded me to a JCP MasterCard and it hit as a new card on my reports.

My first "real" card as an adult was the Citibank Visa that let you put your photo on the card. They marketed the heck out of that card at the college campus that I was on in the late 90s.

[jamesteroh]

I actually was wrong about my first credit card now that I think about it.   It was with Macy's when I was a college freshman.   They would offeree students something like a $250 credit line.   Back then they only accepted AmEx 

[isik]

My first credit card was before I moved to the US, a student card I got almost a decade ago. My first card in the US was the BofA Customized Cash Rewards I got last december. I was surprised when I was approved for this unsecured card, with no credit history, without a job (yet), with a ok starter limit. 9 months later, I have 4 credit cards, and I can prequal for every card I want except the Chase Amazon.

[Jeffster1]

---

@stonedog23 wrote:

---

@Jeffster1 wrote:

Central Carolina Bank (CCB) Student VISA. I think I got a North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) VISA at the same time. 

---

Two North Carolina banking legends. 

---

Yes! I have wonderful memories of both. Two great NC institutions.

My parents opened me an account at CCB when I got to campus freshman year, and I got a small part time job shortly thereafter. I opened the NCNB account for my work money because there was a branch right next to my job. I kept them both, and opened VISAS right away. Those two Visas really simplified things when I did my Study Abroad a couple of years later. I had done a Study Abroad my senior year in High School the year prior, and ran out of spending money 3/4 of the way through the program. That was a nightmare. My parents had to wire me money.  

Loved my CCB and NCNB. 

[UncleB]

I applied for two cards my first week of college; one was Sears (from a paper application torn from a catalog) and the other was a Citibank Classic student Visa.

The Sears card was approved for $~700 (I felt rich!) but the Citibank card was declined due to them pulling a family member's credit report instead of my fresh/barely existent one.  After a few snail-mail letters between Citibank, Equifax, and myself and a couple of months of waiting I got it resolved and the Citibank Visa was approved for $500.

I was so excited to have that Visa, and it got plenty of use.  It had a $39 annual fee that I was more than willing to pay and no rewards.  After a year or so they dropped the fee, and a few years later the card would become a Citibank Preferred Gold Visa that I would keep until my BK in 2000.  For all the (sometimes warranted) shade Citi gets around here, they always served me well.

As much as I *love* getting rewards for stuff I have to pay for anyway, I (very) occasionally miss the simplicity of all cards being basically the same and pretty much interchangeable with no concern for points, etc.  I'm not willing to go back to that, though (LOL).

Side note:  I would absolutely love to still have that old Sears card and Citi card now.  They would both be 30 years old this month.

[simplynoir]

---

@UncleB wrote:

I applied for two cards my first week of college; one was Sears (from a paper application torn from a catalog) and the others was a Citibank Classic student Visa.

---

That there is the "I walked 5 miles in the snow every day to go to school" equivalent in the credit world. From paper applications to Skynet making the credit decisions man what a time to be alive 😂

(I remember having a few of those paper apps as well myself 👴😐)

[Anonymous]

---

@UncleB wrote:

I applied for two cards my first week of college; one was Sears (from a paper application torn from a catalog) and the others was a Citibank Classic student Visa.

The Sears card was approved for $~700 (I felt rich!) but the Citibank card was declined due to them pulling a family member's credit report instead of my fresh/barely existent one.  After a few snail-mail letters between Citibank, Equifax, and myself and a couple of months of waiting I got it resolved and the Citibank Visa was approved for $500.

I was so excited to have that Visa, and it got plenty of use.  It had a $39 annual fee that I was more than willing to pay and no rewards.  After a year or so they dropped the fee, and a few years later the card would become a Citibank Preferred Gold Visa that I would keep until my BK in 2000.  For all the (sometimes warranted) shade Citi gets around here, they always served me well.

As much as I *love* getting rewards for stuff I have to pay for anyway, I (very) occasionally miss the simplicity of all cards being basically the same and pretty much interchangeable with no concern for points, etc.  I'm not willing to go back to that, though (LOL).

Side note:  I would absolutely love to still have that old Sears card and Citi card now.  They would both be 30 years old this month.

---

Oh my, we surely don't want to be disclosing age 

[UncleB]

---

@simplynoir wrote:

---

@UncleB wrote:

I applied for two cards my first week of college; one was Sears (from a paper application torn from a catalog) and the others was a Citibank Classic student Visa.

---

That there is the "I walked 5 miles in the snow every day to go to school" equivalent in the credit world. From paper applications to Skynet making the credot decisions man what a time to be alive 😂

(I remember having a few of those paper apps as well myself 👴😐)

---

I know, right?

For what it's worth, the Citibank student Visa app was paper as well.  For our younger folks, back then the applications were literally everywhere on campus (there were little holders hanging off nearly every bulletin board in buildings with even minimum foot traffic).  Occasionally there would be a table set up with free gifts (t-shirt, 2 liter soda, etc.) if you filled out the app on-the-spot.  Quite different today...

I remember checking the mail every day waiting for a response (for the Citi app, this was an especially tedious process).  The excitement of checking the mail to find a 'thick' envelope from a obscure address was thrilling! 

(All that said, I do rather like the near-instant decision we often get today.)

[UncleB]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

---

Oh my, we surely don't want to be disclosing age 

---

Yeah, I certainly don't want to go there, LOL.

[Remedios]

I don't remember, I got three in one day while at the mall because I was told I needed a bit more appropriate clothes for school.

Mervyn's was one for sure. 

I paid them, never used them again, so assuming they got closed for inactivity or something. 

First big girl card, Providian I think.