Thread: One Year Credit History: Increase Limit or Apply For New Card?

Hi there,

I moved to US about one year ago. I am a resident (trainee doctor). I got a student credit card from key bank (that I have a checking account with) about one year ago and I have been using it judiciously (Never had a credit utilization of more than 40% and always paid on time).

I checked my credit score 3 months ago and the experian score was 715 (I did not check transunion and equifax). I had 4 hard pulls over last 1 year (2 for cell phone contracts, one for credit card and one for car loan), all were approved. Of these, 2 checks were pretty recent i.e. only a month old.

Now, 2 weeks ago I got this mailer, offering me a pre-approved offer for CHASE freedom. Till date I have been ignoring multiple pre-approved offers from Capital One, American Express, CHASE SLATE. But I fell for this one and I applied. But unfortunately I was denied. I called Chase and asked for reconsideration, and was denied again. Reason "Not enough credit accounts opened long enough to establish enough credit history".

Now I am wondering if I should apply for another credit card or increase credit limit on the current student credit card (which has a credit limit of only 300$). Both would involve another hard pull (already there are 5 hard pulls over last one year). Please advise. If you think I should apply for a new card, the which one should I apply for having one year of credit history?

Any help will be appreciated!

Welcome to the forum!

Have you asked KeyBank if there is any scenario where they can first try a soft pull? If you haven't done so already, I would recommend asking if they can check your account to see if you will qualify for any sort of increase, even a small one, using a soft pull only. Most card issuers will do this but given that you are newer to credit, it may not be an option on your account yet.

Since you were just recently rejected for the Freedom, you may wish to try this strategy: a 20 year old student successfully convinced Chase to re-consider and approve him after being denied 2x.

If you want to try for a new credit card, I would advise waiting since you have 2 hard pulls within the last month. Ideally, it would be preferable to wait 6 months after, when the value of those two inquiries diminish.

Since you are still a student, your best bet for next time may be to apply for a student card since the approval will be easier. The limits on them will be low but at least the odds of approval are better. You can compare a few sponsored offers on this page: credit cards for college students.

For a regular, non student card, you may want to check out the Citi Forward. There are two versions - regular and student - but several students on the forum with little to no credit have reported getting approved for the regular version. To give you an idea of its target audience and age range, it was originally launched in 2009 as the Myspace card. It is listed on the CCF's sponsored offers section for cash back cards.

Good luck!

-CCG

wow you are a doctor or at least you said you are a trainee. having a student card is great. are you still a student or are you training full time?

you mentioned key bank. you also mentioned you got offers from capitol1, American express and chase slate. you keep ignoring offers but yet you want a credit card so you have to start somewhere. I would certainly NOT ask for an increase on your student card

what I would do if I were you, when you have time go to your key bank and tell them you want a professional key bank credit card to replace your student card.

I would also fill out 1 credit card every 2 months unless you get approved.

the one I would suggest to you depends on you. do you want a lower level credit card or do you want something executives carry?