Up to date: April 2024
This guide is for those new to the U.S. and who do not want to spend weeks studying scattered information.
The article will explain: how to open a credit card, how to increase your Credit Rating (credit history), how to get free miles to fly for free.
Opening a credit card:
When you arrive, it’s best to go to Bank of America and ask for a Secure Credit Card (you put your money in, usually everyone puts in $500).
You can take a risk and try to open a Credit Card right away, but 50% of the time you may be rejected and then have points taken away from your credit rating.
Sometimes there are specialists in the bank who are lazy to work (especially at the end of the working day, so come in the morning), they may say that you can not do, just go to a neighboring specialist or to another branch of the bank.
Once you opened a Secure credit card, from that point on you have a credit score, but you don’t see it, you don’t see it until 6 months later.
But there is a way to see your credit rating at a glance.
Take into account that it is better to take the first card without a subscription fee, as it can never be closed, otherwise the Credit rating will collapse.
Credit Score Fico (Credit History, Rating)
To see your credit rating, you need to register in 2 sites (applications):
To register on these sites, you need an SSN, it can be done by this company visakrokit.com.
It is advisable to report the SSN number to the bank after you have made the SSN.
Once you can sign up, you will see what you get points for and what you get points for.
Increasing credit history
In order for your rating to be high you need to:
- Spend up to 30% of the amount that is allocated to you as a loan.
- Pay off the amount you spend on your credit cards as soon as possible (just transfer from debit card to credit card).
- Use different financial instruments, then we will tell you what they are.
- Keep as much money as possible in your checking account balance (Checking account)
A credit score looks at how much you know how to use different financial tools, the more the better.
Different financial instruments:
Leasing agreement – renting an apartment, buying a car on credit.
Loan – You can buy various items on installments on popular sites like Amazon, Ebay, Walmart, American Airlines, … Usually the item must cost more than $50-100 using virtual cards in installments:
Free Miles for Credit Card
Once you start to have a credit history, banks will start sending nice envelopes to your address advertising new credit cards.
Do not take them for yourself under any circumstances. Also, do not take credit cards that are offered to you in different stores.
Ignore the 1-3% cache backs for physicist they are useless.
The thing is, once you take out a credit card from a bank, you can no longer take out a credit card with free miles from that bank because one of the conditions, you haven’t gotten a card from their bank before.
Even if the bank is unknown, there is another restriction, a maximum of 5 cards open in 24 months.
After 6 months of opening your first Secure credit card, you have a Credit Score, you can already apply for your first credit card with free mileage bonuses.
But it is advisable from the experience of most to submit on the 9th month.
It’s best to apply online through Pre qualified, a popular thing the last few years where you submit a pre-application and if the card isn’t approved, the points aren’t taken away from your Credit Score.
What are Miles (or points) in credit cards.
Roughly speaking these are the same dollars that are most advantageous to spend on plane tickets.
On average, 1 mile = $1 – $1.2.
Example:
70k miles = $700-$840
If you take tickets in advance, a round-trip airplane ticket on America will cost approximately 180$.
And it means that having opened a card with 70 thousand miles 700$ you can fly up to 4 times to different cities of the USA even long flights Los Angeles – Miami.
1. It is better to get your first card with Delta SkyMiles® Gold Amex (American Express)
- They give 60-80k miles. (different pages and days give different amounts, monitor periodically, I got 75K miles on December 26, 2022)
- They give free rental car insurance (Car Rental Loss & Damage Insurance), which means you don’t have to pay extra
- The first year is free, the next $100 a year.
- You only have to spend $2k within 6 months (not like other cards for 3) to get the bonus.
2. Second Citi Premier® Card credit card
- They give 60-80k miles. (different pages and days give different amounts, monitor periodically, I got 80K miles on January 5, 2023)
- Subscription fee of $100 a year
- You have to spend $4k within 3 months to get free miles.
3. Third Chase Sapphire preferred credit card
- They give 60-80k miles. (different pages and days give different amounts, monitor periodically, I got 80K miles on March 11, 2023)
- They give free insurance for rented cars (Auto Rental Collision Damage). And there are many other travel insurance policies.
- Subscription fee of $100 a year
- You have to spend $4k within 3 months to get free miles.
4. The fourth Capital One Venture is analogous to Chase Sapphire preferred, it is very difficult to get at the beginning.
- They give 50-75k miles. (different pages and days give different amounts, monitor periodically, I got 75K miles on October 25, 2023)
- Subscription $95 per year
- You have to spend $4k within 3 months to get free miles.
We already know for a fact that if you have a credit history of less than 1 year and 9 months (with 9 months average) they won’t approve the card, that’s what they look at, unlike others.
When there was a credit history of exactly 2 years, approved.
