Learning from my successes and mistakes

[ptilda]

I've been positively living on this site since I discovered it about a week ago or so. I'll spare my life story, since I've shared it before, but I do want to tell my approval successes and failures (so far) so it can maybe help others like me who are trying to rebuild.

I had no credit cards 2 weeks ago (mistake #1). Having no idea what my score was (mistake #2), I applied for a Walmart card and a Cap One secured, assuming I'd pay the 200 deposit. To my surprise, I got a $400 instant yes from Walmart, and got the CO with only the minimum deposit (successes 1 & 2). Then I applied for Amazon and got another $600 (success #3). So I went a little crazy thinking that while more HPs will hurt me now, they will help in the future. I ended up applying for several other cards and got an unsecured Cap One Journeys $300 (success #4) and secured Discover It ($200, success #5) when I applied for their It Student card. I was turned down for the Citi Student card and a couple of others before I realized I needed to stop because I was going about it wrong and now I had HPs allerting and wouldn't get much more for a while.

But I was wrong. As I kept reading these posts, I learned about the shopping-cart trick, and went crazy again. I got 3 retail cards with $250 credit lines each (successes #6-8). And then reading further, I applied for Kay Jewlers and Fingerhut. Kay gave me $3,000 (success #9) and Fingerhut gave me $600 (success #10).

Looking back, I should have started by applying for the "shoe-ins" such as Kay, Fingerhut, Walmart and Amazon. Those are bigger limits and will help me to build my Util since I don't really plan on keeping any balances on them. Thank God for Kay, or I'd be sitting with a bunch of tiny cards & that might hurt me in the long run.

So I'm looking for help so the next move is a success, not a mistake. Here is my game plan:

1. I've joined Affinity Plus CU so I can develop relationship there and later apply for a personal loan or CC.

2. I'm planning on using each of the cards once in the next 3 months or so, but paying them off right away just to be sure they stay active & show movement.

3. I'll request CLI on Walmart & Amazon after the 4th statement (as I've read here).

4. I'll put additional deposits of $50 on the secured cards (I think I read that the Discover allows it, but read in here that it doesn't, so I'll see) each month, and use them regularily (paying in full before the due date) so that they will hopefully give auto CLIs.

5. Gardening for at least 6 months to watch the impact of all this.

6. Once things are stable again, I'll apply specifically for cards I want & possibly will close the small retail cards since I think they will do more harm than good later on.

Thoughts anyone? I know going from zero to 10 CCs in less than two weeks is a little crazy. Anyone else have wisdome to share? My credit scores are below, but I've recently dropped to 624 (and then raised to 625 a day later) according to myFICO.

[coldnmn]

It will take a year before all the new inquiries wont impact your credit score. Two years before their gone. I'm not sure with all those inquiries gardening for six months is long enough. Congrats on your new cards! Credit is a journey not a race.

[ptilda]

For sure! I got an update & I'm down to 619 from 659 per myFICO. But I think it's worth it in the long run. a year from now, things will look pretty good overall (for my needs).