Comment by Xirdus
16 days ago
My first US credit card was a 4-3-2-1% rewards program and I had literally zero income at the time. I was told by the banker, "oh you can't do that right away, you must first get a secured card to build your credit score, after a year you can try applying for real", but I told them I don't care and to send the application anyway, and I've got it.
Ever since then, I wondered how much of the "not qualifying" is due to misinformation like this.
Most true not qualifying are either
1. People with proven bad credit.
2. People asking for a lot of money without proven good credit.
3. People asking for more specialized credit, such as lines for businesses or lines for high earners.
The question is what percentage of overall population are 1, 2 and 3 combined, and is it big enough to warrant the perception that high reward cards are only for high earners/spenders.
My instinct says hell no, not even close.