@Jerry45 wrote:I agree. I travel often, so I want to get a solid Travel or rewards card. I have waited 6 months, I can do another 6. Thanks
Travel is maybe the one place where it makes sense not to wait.
If you use Amex partners, getting a charge card might not be a bad idea and you only need six months to do that; alternatively, while the vast majority of people pick the 1-2-3 Cash Rewards for their secured card from BOFA, there's no reason you can't put the Travel Rewards package on there instead and I believe someone here as done precisely that and they intimated they could do either when I added the package to my own secured card 2ish years ago. It isn't a bad little card for a travel one (second tier admittedly) but you can get it now and it graduates so could slide it to Cash Rewards or Better Balance later if you upgrade to a different travel card.
If your travel arrangements are typically with Chase partners, then it may make sense to wait.
My credit building timeline looked like this:
Month 1: got BofA secured card
Month 8: denied for Citi card
Month 9: denied for Chase cards
Month 10: got BofA non-secured card + Discover More card
Month 11: got Amex Delta card, denied for Barclaycard Rewards for average credit
Month 13: Bof secured card graduated, got second Amex revolver
Never got denied for a credit card again.
Bottom line: don't bother with Citi or Chase till 12 months, Amex is possible with 10 months, BofA and Discover very much possible with 9 months.
So that depends on what cards you're targeting.
@Jerry45 wrote:Forgot to ask if you had only one secured card when you started out? I have two, and wonder if it speeds things up at all
2 > 1; builds up payment history faster, also factors into a couple of other things which impact your score but 1 is too few for optimal building. 3 is possibly somewhat better but 2 is 95% of the ballgame or more.
@Jerry45 wrote:Thanks. I kept my limits on my 2 cards low, on advice here when starting out payment history and Utilization were more important than high limits. Does having limits of only $300 apiece effect me down the road?
FICO wise not in the slightest.
Convenience wise: it's easier to manage higher limit tradelines when trying to max out the revolving utilization portion of the FICO algorithm.
Lender underwriting: some lenders will underwrite their own limits based on ones you already have... which is limiting when some cards only come in a Visa Sig or World MC version with a 5K minimum CL in many cases.
End of the day limits will expand with time use, especially with known tricks such as picking up an Amex revolver, or if you can't get one of those for whatever reason, a GECRB card vis a vis Walmart can be used to goose limits over time. It really isn't worth worrying about when starting, can build a 1K tradeline to 9K with Amex in under a year after opening it, and at that point you have basically whatever you need for underwriting in the future where it's all income and use to determine your CL's.
@Jerry45 wrote:Wow. Great Advice. I am self employed, and I always heard Amex was tough in that regard. Last Thing I want ot do is supply a Bank with my tax returns, if It can be avoided
Being self-employed there's not much choice you have in the matter if they ask for it as that's the traditional way to prove self-employed income whether it's for a car, a mortgage, or in this case a credit card.
Really though, the trouble self-employed people tend to get into (in my opinion) with Amex is they run business expenses through a personal card, and that typically has their expenditures outstripping what Amex expects for their reported income, and that's a trigger for a Financial Review.
As I learned recently, being sorta self-employed in one of my money making ventures (anything for a buck, again, whee!) it's better to just toss all the business expenses on a completely seperate business credit card which isn't used for anything personal... and in this day and age, doesn't appear to be that hard to do either. I simply use a Chase business checking account and a Chase Ink cash card, and my Amexes are strictly personal and are used as such and I absolutely don't mix and match. Even better is the Ink isn't reported to personal credit, so the various other lenders won't think there's something odd going on since most lenders report payments to the bureau these days. Hard to go wrong with a business card unless it posts to personal credit, and admittedly for some folks that can be an advantage, but not in my current case.
Much simpler for taxes too when it comes to claiming and proving deductions with the IRS if they get contrary, is just good business sense... so I wouldn't worry much about Amex as long as you use the card responsibly.