<p>Apparently a $10,000 yearly income isn't good enough to qualify for a student credit card these days. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>How do other college students go about establishing a credit history?</p>
<p>Credit unions are easier to get qualified for small loans and such.</p>
<p>IDK. I applied for a couple cards when I started college and didn’t have much besides monthly money from my parents, and got rejected. A month ago I applied for a credit card through my bank (PNC) and got one, presumably since I have a job (I estimated my yearly income to be around $10,000). </p>
<p>So yeah, try getting a card through your bank if you haven’t tried. Also consider a secured credit card. Gas station cards are easier to get as well but have horrendous APR and pretty much no benefits, so use them wisely. You might also be able to get one if a parent co-signs it. I know that if you’re under 21 you either need a steady income or a co-signer now.</p>
<p>^So glad I got one before all these new rules came out.</p>
<p>your best option would be to have a co-signer</p>
<p>I have no income, and a summer job that is only going to get me $1000. I have three credit cards. Two have rewards systems too. I think you might be applying to the wrong places or aiming for too nice of a card. Just find a nice, simple, no-frills card with no annual fee.</p>
<p>I got one card last October, and two this June. The two this June are the rewards one, and I think that has something to do with me having a summer job now.</p>
<p>The CC’s with the best rewards programs have more stringent applications.</p>
<p>You might have luck with credit cards aimed at younger people: Financial One, for instance. But note that these credit cards typically have the crappiest interest rates if you forget to pay your balance in full. So don’t mess up.</p>
<p>Then you just move on up as the credit score improves.</p>
<p>ALSO, a big first step if you’re having trouble is asking a parent to authorize you on one of their credit cards. Their consistent payments of balances due will appear on your credit history as if you’re the responsible one. </p>
<p>ONLY do this if you KNOW your parents are reliably paying off their balances and they don’t mind allowing you access to their credit limit. If they mess up, it hurts your score. If you go on a spending spree, they are liable.</p>
<p>I applied for a student visa credit card from my bank, a crappy card specifically for students with limited credit history. And I am 21.</p>
<p>I’ll probably wait a year and then reapply for a credit card with my grad student stipend. I don’t want to trash my credit score with a bunch of denied credit card applications.</p>
<p>It’s a shame you didn’t authorize yourself on a parent’s CC (you could even do this as a minor) and then immediately get a CC when you turned 18. (assuming you were blessed with financially responsible parents). I’m a year younger than you and my credit score is in the upper 700s. </p>
<p>I hope others who are 18 realize they should be getting a CC asap. Even just a purchase or two a month will build your score for when you actually need it. And always ask for a credit limit increase every 6-12 months. Chase/Discover have nice autopay systems and you never even deal with the bills.</p>
<p>I should probably add that I immigrated to the US three years ago. (Focus on immigrate, not on a student visa.) My parents are living overseas and never had a credit card.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply for a credit card before because all banks I asked required physical presence in the US for three years preceding the application, a regular income or a qualified co-signer. I had neither.</p>
<p>Bank of America offers secured credit cards against a balance in a savings account. That’s what I am doing.</p>
<p>"I don’t want to trash my credit score with a bunch of denied credit card applications. "</p>
<p>That hurts your credit? I didn’t even know that. I am glad I have only applied for my secured card. O.O</p>
<p>^^^Hard pulls, if numerous, can hurt your credit score. It’s not a major factor, though–a missed payment is much more significant for instance. </p>
<p>Some companies will check your credit history even though you didn’t request it via an application–this doesn’t affect your score because it’s a soft pull. This happens a lot; one example is when an employer checks your credit history, or if you’re pre-approved for a credit card (they had to check your history to pre-approve you, but this pull didn’t affect your score because you didn’t ask them to do it).</p>
<p>The increase in your line of credit and the potential to make consistent credit card payments due to a successful credit card application is much more significant to your score than the effect of a few rejected applications. The actual rejection doesn’t matter; it’s just the hard pull.</p>
<p>A store tricked my fiance and I into applying for credit cards once, because they had specifically stated that we would only find out what financing we COULD be approved for IF we applied, and we even specifically asked before we filled anything out, “and this is NOT an application for a credit card, right?” and they said it was a purely hypothetical thing. He was approved and they sent him a credit card, which he canceled right away knowing it would hurt his credit because his dad told him that would be better than having a card he had no intention of using tying up his available credit, and I was denied-- I thought I was safe. Guess not, damn it. Because we don’t understand these things, as a general rule we avoid credit to avoid making a mistake. I make it a point to not have anything other than a secured card that gets paid off every month.</p>
<p>^^^No offense, but I think the advice of your soon to be father-in-law was poor. </p>
<p>Your available credit is not some absolute number. A credit card can’t “tie up” available credit, because it has its own limit that is a part of your total revolving line of credit. A credit card can only increase your total limit, and this is generally a good thing. It’s a good thing because creditors see that you aren’t approaching your credit limits each month; which means you’re less at risk for default–assuming these limits reasonably reflect what you can pay in a given cycle.</p>
<p>Having credit cards and holding onto them for a long time without cancelling also increases the average account age in your credit history. The greater the average age, the better, because this shows creditors that you not only consistently pay your debts but that you’ve been doing it for a long time.</p>
<p>Next time you are approved for a credit card–keep it. Even if you don’t use it, it helps.</p>
<p>Only those who truly can’t “handle” a credit card should avoid it. You will be very happy that you have multiple credit cards in good standing when banks are deciding what interest rate to charge on your mortgage loans or other important loans.</p>
<p>No offense taken, my future in laws are quacks. 
We were completely clueless when this happened and felt very stupid and panicked, we had no idea what the repercussions would be. We hadn’t researched it since we hadn’t actually planned on applying for anything. Won’t ever fall for anything like that again.</p>
<p>Was my being denied particularly bad? I didn’t have much of any credit history to begin with, and I am now making on time monthly payments on my secured card, I’ve never had a late payment or anything. Neither of our parents mentioned anything about repercussions to me. Whoops.</p>
<p>^^^Your rejection is meaningless. It’s simply one hard pull of many to come–and hard pulls vanish from your history quickly. I think it’s 1 year. There’s no meaning behind a rejection versus an application approval; the result of your application isn’t recorded in your credit history. </p>
<p>Hard pulls only matter if someone starts applying for 20 different cards. The later cards will see that you’ve been applying for tons of credit lines, and they’ll take this as a sign that you’re desperate for money/loans. They’ll assume if they approve you, your credit limit will be inflated beyond what you can actually pay off and that you are a major risk. </p>
<p>It only matters for a short time anyways. It makes sense that this isn’t a long-term issue, because someone who needs cash now doesn’t necessarily need cash next year.</p>
<p>The fact that you have a credit history with consistent payments is most important, followed closely by the average age of your accounts. </p>
<p>The only really important thing for someone in your position is NOT TO CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD. Since it’s your first account, it’s the oldest account you can possibly have. Once you get a loan that you start paying off consistently (like a mortgage or car loan), this will boost your score as well. But since you pay interest on loans, that’s not a good reason to take on a random loan ;).</p>
<p>What justtotalk said. Even if a card ends up being crappy compared to other cards, if it’s old just shred it but don’t cancel it.</p>
<p>not sure if this was mention but start with a secured credit card. Your credit score will lower if you keep applying. co-sing with another person. make payments on time. check your credit score. hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. Hopefully this is the only credit lesson we will have to learn the scary way.</p>
<p>Quick update:</p>
<p>In the past week I have been denied student credit cards from 3 different banks. Then I applied for a “regular” credit card from one of those 3 banks and it was approved with a $4,000 line of credit. I am a bit confused to say the least, but I am not complaining 
</p>
<p>I thought that student cards should be easier to get, but I guess I was wrong?</p>
<p>Well, if you’re a student and your “income” is $10k, it sounds extremely low. Did you remember to include financial aid grants and money from family into your income?</p>
<p>In any case, it’s great that you now have a credit card. Truth is, you won’t need too many. If you really used up the $4000 limit, do you think you can truly handle having more debt?</p>