EPTArmed with the thought that I make 1800 dollars per month before tax (lol, I know...) and a student, I researched some student credit card and applied for one (from Citibank, if I recall correctly) online. I received an instant rejection despite all the "reviews" saying how easy it is to get one.
Oh well, Citibank is evil, I thought. Then I decided to try my chances with Chase - which I have a checking account. I chose their lowest credit card option with the minimal rewards, filled my application carefully... and another rejection.
Then I realized the problem is not so much that my income is abysmal, it's actually that I have been in the states only for a bit more than one month. I could just wait, but I'd like to build up some credit in this country ASAP. After researching some more, I noted two places where it is particularly "easy" to get credit cards. One is through the university, the other one is through grocery stores. After some googling I found that University of Washington does have an alumni card - which does not have any rewards on it whatsoever (although I don't really care at this point). However, I recall that the first credit card I got in Canada was through the university as well, so I submitted another application.... and got another rejection. After this I tried grocery store... same result.
I despaired. I fully understand that submitting too many applications hurts my credit rating (although according to many, only a very small amount), but I want to get a basic credit card to build up my rating, then get another card with good rewards such as cashback. However, the past a few weeks felt like when I was applying for graduate school: I kept receiving rejections.
I contemplated getting a secured card. But then I realized even the cheapest option I can find (at Well Fargo) asks for 19 dollars per year for two years until I can "graduate" into an unsecured card. A simple calculation told me that I would need to spend 3800 dollars with a 1% cashback card in order to get the cost of the secure card back. Due to the semi-temporary nature of my stay in the states, it's awfully unlikely that I will be able to spend that much money using my credit card.
Anyways, I know that since I have already decided to get a card, I shouldn't give up. After asking around in my department, I was told that I could try the Washington State Employee Credit Union. I gave it a lot of thoughts (because I got a lot of rejections already), but I decided to give it a shot. It turned out that I am considered an employee of the State of Washington and I am pretty much automatically approved. What was even better was that they gave me 5 dollars for applying (to apply for the credit card I have to have their saving account... and for the saving account I need 5 dollars deposit... but they have a promotion for students so they gave me 5 dollars instead of me depositing it).
As I write this right now I am still waiting for the card to be mailed, but since I can access their online banking already it's going to only a matter of time
TL;DR? Making Friends > Internet.
