18-21/ college student thread

[Anonymous]

Looking to connect with other like-aged forum members to talk about our experiences building credit at this age.

My ultimate goal right now is CSR by Jan 2019, but I'm in the garden for now.

[Anonymous]

Dawn it...I just turned 22.

[Anonymous]

Like OldMan, I am also an old man.  But here are some things you might want to tell people up front, to get the conversation you mention rolling:

When did you open your first card and which card was it?

When did you open your 2nd, 3rd and 4th card?

At what point in the timeline did you get your first FICO 8 scores and what were they?

Have you implemented the Share Secured Loan Technique?

What do you do with your CC balances?  Are most of them $0?  What is your utilization?

[sueblue34]

I’m so glad you started this. You will gained valuable knowledge early on from this forum and hopefully it will prevent you from making a lot of the mistake we’ve made.

I’m still rebuilding so I won’t comment I’ll leave it to the gurus here. Lol

We need one for kids teens too.! I need to start figuring out where to get my 16 year started

[Anonymous]

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@sueblue34 wrote:

We need one for kids teens too.! I need to start figuring out where to get my 16 year started

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The Teen VISA Platinum at DCU Financial is the only one I know of targeted at kids under 18:

https://www.dfcufinancial.com/personal/cards/credit-cards/teen-and-student-visa

I'd be curious to see if somebody is willing to open one on behalf of his kid and see if it creates a record in the report.

[Anonymous]

LOL, 22 is welcome.

When did you open your first card and which card was it? 

Summer of 2016, Discover It Unsecured  for SL $750 lol, it grew fast

When did you open your 2nd, 3rd and 4th card?

Fall 2016/ Winter 2017/ Spring 2017

At what point in the timeline did you get your first FICO 8 scores and what were they?

 My first FICO8 .... mmmm probably Transunion  681 back in Fall 2016 ...

Have you implemented the Share Secured Loan Technique?

Yes!

What do you do with your CC balances?  Are most of them $0?  What is your utilization?

I always PIF every month, Util is less than 8% on each card, less than 5% across the board . Haven't paid a cent of interest.

[Anonymous]

When did you open your first card and which card was it? 

Summer of 2016, Discover It Unsecured  for SL $750 lol, it grew fast

When did you open your 2nd, 3rd and 4th card?

Fall 2016/ Winter 2017/ Spring 2017

At what point in the timeline did you get your first FICO 8 scores and what were they?

 My first FICO8 .... mmmm probably Transunion  681 back in Fall 2016 ...

Have you implemented the Share Secured Loan Technique?

Yes!

What do you do with your CC balances?  Are most of them $0?  What is your utilization?

I always PIF every month, Util is less than 8% on each card, less than 5% across the board . Haven't paid a cent of interest.

[sueblue34]

I need to look into this. I just bit the bullet and added her on my Amex as auth user. The limit is only 1k so I won’t use it I’ll leave it to her

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Looking to connect with other like-aged forum members to talk about our experiences building credit at this age.

My ultimate goal right now is CSR by Jan 2019, but I'm in the garden for now.

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I'm assuming you have part time while in college, but In my opinion I'd avoid student CCs as I have compared them with other regular rewards CC which is better than student CCs.  Yes I'm a college student, and 21 y/o.  Discover It Student is the best student CCs out there due to their revolving 5% cashback categories but for me, the regular Discover It because of its 14-month 0% interest which I will actually use for a future big purchase.  My take on CCs are the rewards itself and how it will be useful for my categories of purchases, not just because I want more credit limit.

Just make sure to pay them in full, at least the amount of whatever in the statement (not minimum), and pay on time.  Do not close the oldest card.  Only use the CC if balances can be paid in full by statement closing.  Keep balances low.  Do NOT be tempted to buy what can't be afforded.  That is my rule of my CC usage.

Here's my experience:

Right after getting employment at my civilian job, I applied for Cap1 Platinum and got approved for $300 CL.  First mistake before this CC was applying for multiple CCs with rewards and I had no credit history back then which ended up with 8 HPs.  After 5 months of statements, Cap1 gave me an increase to $500 CL.  At the same time I applied for PenFed Power Cash Rewards which ended up in denial due to multiple HPs and insufficient credit history, and USAA AMEX cashback which got approved with $5000 CL and I already had relationship with them for 10 months.  I looked up on this forum to learn more about credit, why this, why that, regarding recon, strategies on how to get approved or getting increased chances of approval and other good stuff.  After 1 year and 3 days from getting approved on Cap1, tried Barclays Uber Visa and got denied due to insufficient credit history.  Called the recon line and got denied again, lady offered to move it to another department and got approved for $500 CL.  Will stay in the garden for at least 6 months.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Like OldMan, I am also an old man.  But here are some things you might want to tell people up front, to get the conversation you mention rolling:

When did you open your first card and which card was it?

When did you open your 2nd, 3rd and 4th card?

At what point in the timeline did you get your first FICO 8 scores and what were they?

Have you implemented the Share Secured Loan Technique?

What do you do with your CC balances?  Are most of them $0?  What is your utilization?

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I'll add more to my previous post

1.  Opened a Cap1 Platinum MC back on April 14, 2017.

2.  Opened a USAA Cashback Rewards Plus AMEX back on October 25, 2017, and 3rd card (Barclaycard Uber VS) on April 17, 2018.

3.  Got the FICO scores on April 16 just for other people to see how I will fare on getting an approval with Barclays.

4.  No I haven't, but I've been thinking about getting an installment loan.

5.  I usually keep them at ~5% or less, spread among multiple CCs.

[Anonymous]

Hi EarthQuaker.  Great to hear all those very encouraging answers, especially about the way that you always PIF and keep your reported balances low.

Regarding the SSL, have you paid it down to under 8.99%?  Is it with Alliant?  I am guessing that you got the SSL Technique fully implemented before the end of last year.

Regarding gardening:

      * I would stay in the garden until your age of oldest account is at 25 months.

      * If you do that, two side benefits will be that all of your accounts will be at least 12 months and all of your inquiries will be ignored by FICO (both are good for your score).  I am basing that on the dates you opened the cards, though it occurs to me that your SSL might not be 12 months old this summer.

      * Is there a decent chance that you might buy a home in the next 18 months?  If so, I'd stay in the garden until you own the home.

Credit scores:

      * I see that you are getting your credit scores from your cards (and thus are getting them for free).  Nice choice.  Free is good!

      * But it looks like you have not seen your EQ score.  Have you thought about taking a look at that?  You could do that via Credit Check Total for a buck.

      * Do you have free tools that enable you to frequently pull your reports (in addition to scores)?