Well as some of you may know I do part time work helping new immigrants establish credit. I've been doing this now for about 3 yrs. I reciently noticed something quite interesting with the FICO scores of some of my new creditees. While I don't have the actual score, this will give you an idea of how perplexing FICO can be, and also is a good hint for those newly starting out. Most of my clients just started with a Chase, FCNB, or B of A $300.00 Secured Card (Kept a low balance on it), and waited about 4-6 months and were given a Aria Card for $250.00 to $500.00. However a few clients decided to take the Net First $500.00 pay as you go offer, which ment a high balance on the card. However on the 3 people who took this option the offer from Aria was a generious $1,000.00 credit limit. The last client got it 90 days after the Net First Card was opened! While I don't recomend Net First, I do recomend anyone opening a secured card does it with $500.00 or more! As I said what a difference $200.00 can make!
RE: WHAT A DIFERANCE $200.00 M That's good information to know! Also, how did everything go w/ the client that you had that opened up the Fidelity Brokerage account? Did they receive the Am/Ex card? Just curious... I opened my Fidelity account w/ NO PROBLEMS! Just an FYI....I was told by 3 account reps that the minimim for the Am/Ex card (under cash management features) is now $5k (on a special promotion) and NOT $30k. I don't know the exact requirements Am/Ex goes through to qualify you for the card but I'm hoping that I get the card based on the fact that I have 3 accounts w/ Am/Ex (Gold au, corp, secured Optima) all in EXCELLENT standing along w/ other trades w/ long histories. All of my bad debt is paid also. We'll see........I'll keep you posted. If I don't get the card, then oh well.....I still need the account so...
Also... I wasn't able to apply for the Am/Ex card yet because I was only able to open my account w/ $2500. I have to wait for my tax refund to put more money in and make it $5k+.