Brother keeps getting declined

[Anonymous]

Long story short- my borhter has about 8 closed credit cards, only one in the last 3 years. He has an auto loan with perfect payments and a home loan on an investment property with perfect payments. AAoA is 2.5 years and his scores are right in the 680 range.

He was declined at the Citi branch for a card and was also declined for the Amex Everyday Cash card. I am not sure how I can help him or what card he can get?

Which bank/brand card do you think he can get? He needs something now to help build his credit back up because he now only has those two loans and no credit cards.

Any advice is much appreciated!

[Blodreina]

Maybe Discover or Capital One; they might let him in the door.  But you're rght, it can be somewhat difficult to build credit without active credit cards.  It's kind of like trying to get a job without job experience (or no recent job experience).  Eventually, someone will approve; after maybe a year of current payment history on a credit card, it becomes easier to get other cards.  

Might be a good time to review his reports to make sure there isn't anything that might have caused the denials (e.g., collections, recent late payments, etc).

[Sandman771]

There is always the secured route. Many local credit unions offer this method as well as Discover, Cap One, and Open Sky. Also Wells Fargo and BOA do this too I think. PNC even does it, but not online. You have to go into their local branch. Not something they advertise. Good luck to him. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short- my borhter has about 8 closed credit cards, only one in the last 3 years. He has an auto loan with perfect payments and a home loan on an investment property with perfect payments. AAoA is 2.5 years and his scores are right in the 680 range.

He was declined at the Citi branch for a card and was also declined for the Amex Everyday Cash card. I am not sure how I can help him or what card he can get?

Which bank/brand card do you think he can get? He needs something now to help build his credit back up because he now only has those two loans and no credit cards.

Any advice is much appreciated!

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Capital One Platinum or QuickSilver One are sure to approve him.  Or his pick of store cards.  

[medicgrrl]

+1 on checking Cap1 and Discover.

[Anonymous]

Check on prequalified offers from Chase, CapitalOne, Discover, etc before applying.. or how about getting a secured credit card, etc.

[Anonymous]

Citi and Amex are at the higher end of credit cards. They like you to have experience and your brother doesn't currenlty have that. I also agree that he should look into Capital One and Discover, especially Capital One. Should be able to get the Platinum or even the QuickSilverOne. Also check with whoever he banks with, they might have a card that he is more likely to get approved for due to his relationship with them. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short- my borhter has about 8 closed credit cards, only one in the last 3 years. He has an auto loan with perfect payments and a home loan on an investment property with perfect payments. AAoA is 2.5 years and his scores are right in the 680 range.

He was declined at the Citi branch for a card and was also declined for the Amex Everyday Cash card. I am not sure how I can help him or what card he can get?

Which bank/brand card do you think he can get? He needs something now to help build his credit back up because he now only has those two loans and no credit cards.

Any advice is much appreciated!

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Which lenders does your brother have the closed cards with and are those cards reporting as COs on his reports?  Aside from store cards, I had to go the secured card route first before I got an  unsecured card approval.  Also, it helped that I paid off all my collections. How many INQs does he have and the scores you reported are they FICO or CK?

[morgacj2004]

I would have him join a Credit Union like PenFed, NFCU or USAA. He should then be able to get a CC. Discover and Barclays seem to like thin files. 

[Anonymous]

Some good posts already.  To summarize everything:  What kind of closed accounts?  Are they "closed by borrower", charge offs, ??

Discover and Barclay like thin files, Discover may be the easier of the 2. If he wanted to go on a spree, I'd likely try the Barclay first(as they can be inquiry sensitive), though it might not matter if you were doing them on the same day.  

After that, Capital One, anytime.  Check their prequalification page.  If you want to be REALLY conservative and go for only ONE card now(which will open many doors later, even in 6 months or less), a Cap One online prequal(if available) would be my top pick.  If you want more, I'd go for the previous 2 first.  If your brother is really hungry, a 2nd Cap One 6 months after the first usually will still be low hanging fruit.  

Credit Unions and store cards are also worth consideration.  For store cards, Walmart, Amazon, and Lowes can give some nice SLs(sometimes after CLIs) with Synchrony.  A number of others can as well.   

I think once your brother breaks through, before long he will be able to have his pick of cards.  I've summarized much of the low hanging fruit here.  3-4 cards are said to be optimal by some, though he doesnt necessarily need that many right now.  I think in 6-12 months after a spree here, your brother may start to pick up prequalfications from more lenders,