Good advice, I will definatly heed your warnings... thanks to all for their advice.

I am going to call Citi bank tomorrow... we will see how that goes. If they don't respond well to me... I'll have my dad call... hopefully they will do something for him. I don't know why, but for some reason this kinda pissed me off.

LOL.... I think that if I put down the household income I would be getting the Platinum Card... LOL

The best way for you to establish credit for yourself is to go see your personal banker. I advised my son to talk with the branch president and he started a $1000 cd in my sons name and let my son make payments every month of about $30 or so and still earn interest and build up credit. Then once the loan was paid my son got the $1000 plus interest to use as he pleases. Once my son did that he has established good payment history and then was able to walk into the bank and borrow money to replace the motor in his car. Credit cards are very evil in the wrong hands.

Wait, you have to make payments on CDs? I have two CDs and I don't think that I make any payments on them, I just get interest back from them...

you can borrow money on them. They are considered a secured loan. then you make the payments and when the amount you borrowed is paid off you get the money plus interest. You can also withdraw interest accrued anytime without penalty on a cd. I do that quite a bit.

Hrm... I never knew that... my cd is up in like a month anyways. My banker wants me to invest it all in a money market account.... I don't know about them yet to make a decision though... got to call Citi bank now. I'll post back and tell you what they say!

BLAH!!! I just called them, apparently they do not offer a co-sign... I would need to make 8,000 annually to be eligable... The guy from citi bank gave me a number for just a shell card... like a card that I could use only to make gas purchases... I'm thinking of that, but I'm going to go up and talk to my bank first. :(

Citibank specifically has a college program that allows college students to get a low limit credit card ($500 or so). Do you have a local college in your area? You will see the offers/flyers all over the bulletin boards from Citibank, Capital One, AT&T, etc. I began building a superb credit at 18 and am now 26 and have awesome credit! Just use it wisely and always make your payments on time.

Your initial credit card will have a ridiculous interest rate so just pay it in full if you can.

--Chris

I went to my bank (Bank One) and had them help me to apply for a student credit card. The lady said that it looked likely that I will get approved... my dad, needless to say, is a little less than pleased with Citibanks Service... I hope he drops them!

If you have access to a credit union, and everyone should since they are everywhere and better for the consumer in most cases, open a savings account there (called share account) then apply for a Visa if they offer it. Its a great way to start

If link posting is permitted..I can give you a link to a creditboard forum