Just launched an account at these forums to chronicle my credit journey, the most recent step of which was getting the Discover IT Secured card. I was given the option for anywhere from $200-$2500, put down $500 for the deposit. Pretty excited about the 2% cashback on gas & restaurants (both of which make up a huge chunk of my spending), and especially about the cashback match after a year. Compared to my Capital One Journey student card (1% cashback, but boosted to 1.25% when you pay on time, which I will always do) I should fare much better in terms of rewards.
The background info:
- I'm building credit from scratch as a young college student. I don't have any particular immediate need for credit, but a) I want to be prepared when the time comes, and b) I'm an obsessive compulsive freak (hence the screen name), especially about my finances. And I had already gone through everything I could to make sure I'm maximizing my savings accounts (have WAYYYY too many earning promotional interest rates on up to $X), so figured credit/cashback was the next thing to do to satisfy my obsessiveness. Only started working on credit in April of this year, so very new to this and a very thin file.
- So far my "file" includes:
- A secured card from a local credit union with no rewards. $500 deposit/limit. Opened in April but closed just a couple weeks ago when I also closed my checking/savings with said credit union. Just got this because I knew I should start building credit and didn't have the werewithal to shop around for the "best" secured card.
- Capital One Journey student rewards card. $300 limit, mentioned the cashback structure above (1% + .25%). Opened in mid-July. Basically got this because I read that it was easy to get and wanted to try to get something that was unsecured before I quit my job to go to school and thus wouldn't be able to get a card (I'm under 21, so CARD act issues...)
- Now this Discover card, opened just a couple days ago. $500 deposit/limit. If my spending habits stay the same (though I am trying to cut my restaurant spending), the extra cashback over the Capital One card will easily outpace the interest I would've earned on the $500 deposit, even with the most massive of interest rates I've found.
Anyway, lots of helpful info here so thought I'd join up to chronicle my successes/possible failures.
