Questions and Answers

Lucky and OMAAT readers,
I need some expertise here. I am a freshman in college looking to get into the credit card “game.” Lucky, your post addressing college credit cards has gotten me really excited. However, when I applied for the Citi ThankYou college card, I was denied. I think this is because of my annual income being to low. All I entered was the money I made from my job last summer, as technically I don’t have any other official forms of income. Now, I am a full time student. However, my parents are planning to pay whatever bills my credit card produces. I will absolutely not have a problem paying the small amount I plan on charging with this card. How do I make it clear to Citi that I have financial resources without lying about my income? Can I put my monthly allowance from my parents down as income?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this stuff wasn’t mentioned in the post. Thank you in advance!

The application forms ask for your household income, technically, so if your parents home is your permanent address may be allowed to include their income.

Also, try applying for a department store credit card, making a few small charges and paying them off. That will help establish a credit history.