Balance transfer card

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, could use some help... on May 14 I applied for the BoA Alaska Visa Signature and was denied because of an open collections account which I've disputed and lack of revolving accounts. I called the recon line and they  reviewed my report again and said there's nothing they can do.

My Exp FICO from denial letter is 650

My TU score from CreditKarma / Chase Journey is about 740

My EQ score from CreditKarma is about 730

My Exp and EQ both have an open med collections from Aug 2015 which I've disputed (says so on my reports) for ~$800. On Exp and EQ I also have 3 closed med collections from May-Dec 2014 that I paid in mid 2015 for like $10-$30 each (minimal)

On TU I have no collections - was able to get them to remove the account I'm disputing

No other baddies - no missed or late payments or bankruptcies

I'm an authorized user on my husband's following cards:

CapOne Quicksilver one opened July 2014, 74% util - $8500 limit

Chase Freedom opened Feb 2016 - 9000 limit - 9% util

Chase Sapphire REserve opened Sept 2016 - 16,000 limit - 22% util

DiscoverIt opened Feb 2016 - 11,500 limit - 0 balance

On my Equifax I Also have 3 credit card accounts from BoA (closed at my request), FNB Omaha (says lost or stolen), and Mandees (account transferred to another bank) all from 2005 and 2006.

On Amex website I prequalify for Amex ED and Amex BCP but with no special offers

On Discover website I prequalify for Discover IT but with a huge APR range (13-23% so not sure if it's real)

Citi, CapOne, Chase aren't able to find offers for me

BoA shows me the BankAmericard but again, huge APR range

I know I should've just applied for another BoA card the same day I applied for Alaska but didn't think through it.... lesson learned.

I would love to get the Amex BCP because of the 6% on groceries and the 12 month 0% balance transfer offer advertised on the main page (though it said no special offers on prequalify page)

I'm looking to transfer about $6000 from my husband's CapOne to a new card under my own name since BoA seemed to recognize that I didn't have any cards of my own... 

Thoughts on best cards to apply for given all this? Barclaycard RIng sounded possible because they look at TU and I Have no baddies on there, but I also don't have credit of my own. Amex BCP would be great, and Citi SImplicity would be great but Citi seem to pull from Experian

Thanks!!

[CreditInspired]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone, could use some help... on May 14 I applied for the BoA Alaska Visa Signature and was denied because of an open collections account which I've disputed and lack of revolving accounts. I called the recon line and they  reviewed my report again and said there's nothing they can do.

My Exp FICO from denial letter is 650

My TU score from CreditKarma / Chase Journey is about 740

My EQ score from CreditKarma is about 730

I'm looking to transfer about $6000 from my husband's CapOne to a new card under my own name since BoA seemed to recognize that I didn't have any cards of my own... 

Thoughts on best cards to apply for given all this? Barclaycard RIng sounded possible because they look at TU and I Have no baddies on there, but I also don't have credit of my own. Amex BCP would be great, and Citi SImplicity would be great but Citi seem to pull from Experian

Thanks!!

---

First, we need FICO scores to offer any real assistance. You can go to CCT and get your scores for a 1 week trial for $1. Cancel on day 7.

Second, it's difficult to discern whether you have credit or not. If you have "no" credit, IMO, it is going to be extremely difficult to get a $6K SL with any CCC.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. So from CCT, FICO Scores are:

EX - 643 (4 inquiries, 1 falling off July 2017)

TU - 745 (1 inquiry, 1 falling off July 2017)

EQ - 641 (2 inquiries, 1 falling off July 2017)

And yes, as mentioned, the only credit I have are the credit cards under my husband's name on which I am an authorized user which are all reported on the 3 agencies for total $45k with 24% utilized overall... and the 3 credit cards from 2005-2006 that were closed.

No negative remarks other than the 4 collections of which 3 are paid, and one was marked closed as per CCT reports (which is news to me, but good I guess) -- though it was not paid. The unpaid one was the largest amount of ~850.

The card I get doesn't have to be the full 6k amount - I'm not expecting that. Amount is not as important as getting some credit of my own.

Our household income is around $150k.

[CreditInspired]

My suggestion is to see if you "prequalify" for the CCs you're interested in, especially Capital One CC -- not Credit One -- and Discover CC. If you're not approved, hopefully you're offered the secured CC. When was the $800 collection disputed?

I trust other MyFICOers will come along to give their expert advice and offer other suggestions. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! It was disputed 2 months ago.

Yeah, I tried the prequalification searches that I mentioned in my first post and they didn't seem to yield much :/ Cap1 says they can't find an offer for me, and Discover has an offer but the APR range is so huge that it just seems like a generic offer... not even sure if it's even a true prescreening

Do both Cap1 and Discover offer secured cards if denied for unsecured? Not sure if it works in my favor that I'm an authorized user on cards from these banks 

Is there any credit company that looks at just TU?

[Anonymous]

Believe it or not, I called BoA back again and explained the situation for a second time. As soon as I mentioned to her that TU had dropped the collections from my account she asked if she could pull that, and if I was responsible for some of the high balances on my husband's cards (to which I said no).

She had been talking about the Platinum Plus but I said I wanted the Visa Sig, and she came back after 5-6 mins of holding with a $5000 offer saying she re-evaluated the decision based off of the TU report!

Then, I went online and applied for a BankAmericard with the balance transfer rate and got that approved for $5000 too!

I'm now trying to see if I can get a BankAmericard Cash Rewards card with that TU pull - milk it for all it is worth. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

Boa rocks, great job on getting second chance.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

Woooo - got them to approve me for the cash rewards card too, also $5000.