My available credit is too low, what's a good second card?

[AkiraTakamedo]

Hey all. I recently discharged a Chapter 7, and I got approved for a QS1 at $1000. I was a little disappointed because I've heard stories of people getting much higher limits coming out of bankruptcy. That was a few months ago, now I tried to do a limit increase on it and they only gave me a whopping +$100 for a total of $1100.

The fact is I don't have a lot of breathing room in case of an emergency, and as a matter of fact my card did get maxed out very briefly (was paid back a week or so later) due to some purchase obligations my fiance wasn't able to do alone. I decided that this wasn't a good situation to be in, so I tried some apps. First I tried the Barclaycard rewards, was denied, then I tried the Discover It, also denied. I did burn them in the bankruptcy. Finally I tried the CapOne Platinum, a card that I've gotten mail offers for in the past, and to my shock even that was denied. I guess they were all automatically denied without hard pull except maybe the CapOne, I don't know.

I'm at a loss, I would like some additional credit in case of emergency but I'm not sure what my options are right now. What are some other options besides the ones I don't want to consider (Credit One, etc.)? I paid in full Chase and AMEX before bankruptcy, but I know those aren't available options. I'm not crazy about store cards typically (except maybe Target, I do go there a lot) because they feel gimmicky to me.

My score according to Discover was around 635.

[Scupra]

Chase and Amex are not options just yet. I'm pretty shocked Cap1 didn't give you a 2nd card. Is your corrected utilization reporting? You should try to recon the Barclay denial, they are great with them!

Even better than a card I would start building an emergency savings. That way you aren't dependent on credit. It's a bad habit. I know it's probably not the answer you wanted to hear. Good luck!

[AkiraTakamedo]

I've actually been simultaneously starting to build savings, it's just not a huge amount right now.

Even though I burned a Barclaycard Apple Visa, will I really have possible luck reconing them? CapOne confused me, too. I figured the Platinum was a shoe-in. How good are they with reconing?

[Pway]

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@AkiraTakamedo wrote:

I've actually been simultaneously starting to build savings, it's just not a huge amount right now.

Even though I burned a Barclaycard Apple Visa, will I really have possible luck reconing them? CapOne confused me, too. I figured the Platinum was a shoe-in. How good are they with reconing?

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You used to be able to get the QS1 and Platinum right after each approval.  It seems as though Capital One is only allowing one applicaiton approval per six month time frame.  

[AkiraTakamedo]

Would that then mean an auto denial without pulling credit?

[AkiraTakamedo]

Also I called each recon line today, not really expecting to get anything but just to make sure if they were auto-denials that at least they didn't pull the credit report. Well, Barclays and CapOne didn't and the reps were very helpful on the phone. Barclays said I should try in another year and CapOne explained about their six month application policy.

Discover, however, told me that despite a rejection with 'status of existing Discover account' they in fact DID pull my credit report. The rep offered no recon and said he could run the application again and said it may pull my report yet again. When asked when a recommended timeframe was to try again, he said he couldn't give me one. Discover may not be getting my business in the future.