I've been rebuilding my credit for the past 5 months. I opened a few cards with awful credit 5 months ago and my credit is still low but I just put out a ton of applications targeting transunion (as that is my high score) and wanted to share the data.
Strategy if you are rebuilding your credit:
1) Apply with Capital One, they are a subprime lender and target people with low and bad credit. Try Capital One Mastercard, then wait a few months and apply for Capital One student Journey Rewards. You need to be a student for Journey rewards. I was asked to produce a student related document and lets just say they don't investigate too deeply 
. You get access to weekly credit scores with CreditWise (TU)!
2) Open a discover secured IT card. Great cash back, awesome company. You get a monthly TU Fico score (note there are different FICO models, im not sure which it is, it may be the generic CC one).
3) Open a student CC with Wells Fargo or a bank that you have an existing relationship with. Student cards are targeted to people no/low credit and combining that with having your checking with them boosts your chance. You could do a secured CC as well. If you get denied, perhaps try again after a few months of rebuild. If your parent is willing, have them add you onto one of their checking accounts at their bank, you will show up in that banks system as an existing customer.
Credit Cards for low/bad credit that seem to mainly pull TU. (I have 2 late payments within the last 8 months, 670ish score on credit karma and other sites, and some settled derogatory accounts over the last 5 years). I had a rent reporting service only on my TU, it didnt seem to boost score but did seem to improve my credit profile.
1) BarclaycardUS, they pulled only TU for me and I was approved for two cards, the apple pay card and wyndam one, with a score of 690 in their system, credit karma and other sites were reflecting 670 for me (note that those sites use Vantage score 3.0).
2) Try one of AMEX's basic cards. I got denied but they suggested another card and they opened it for me unsecured. It is nice that they will consider you for other cards automatically. They pulled experian which reflects between 550 and 650 for me.
I applied for a TON of cards as an experiment (16 or so, note that inquires are usually spread across the bureaus) and almost all denied me except Capital One, AMEX, and Barclaycard. Note: WF approved me because of my banking relationship and Discover was secured. I found that most of what is said online about who pulls who is accurate, noting that sometimes they pull two bureaus or change it up, and that geographic area can affect things. Try Penfed and NFCU as well, credit unions are good to do business with in general.
Pull Data and Approves/Denies. Note: My TU score as of these pulls was around 670 via vantage score 3.0, my experian/equifax scores were reported between 550 and 660, generally hovering around 600 depending on puller.
1) Amalgamated Bank of CH - Experian
2) CBNA - Experian
3) AMEX - Experian
4) Chase - Experian
5) Barclay's US - TransUnion
6) First Interstate Bank - Equifax
7) Bank of America - Experian
8) ELAN Financial Services - Equifax
I will update this thread when all inquiries post.
My recommended strategy if your credit is awful and you have a long-standing history of charge-offs and other derogatory marks.
1) Come up with 3, 6 and 12 month goals and a plan. Realize that rebuilding takes patience but that you can make dramatic progress in 3 months.
2) I recommend Dave Ramsey's debt payoff and financial plans, specifically the debt snowball (paying off smallest to largest), HOWEVER some of you may be desperate and willing to take some more calculated risks for quicker progress.
3) Unless your collection accounts are preventing you from opening secured cards, DO NOT pay them off unless you have a good income and excess cash flow ($50K+) or they are verysmall. If your budget is tight and you have any unsecured debts or collection accounts under $7K and especially under $2K do not worry about paying these accounts first. Unless you have a lot of assets or a loan is secured to a car or something, it is not worth it for collectors to sue you and paying off these accounts won't really help you score. Learn how to type up a good stop communication letter, know what to say when you get an unwanted phone call to order them to stop communicating and track calls and these creditors will not contact you, do not give out your phone number and mailing address. Change them if needed. NEVER agree to autodialers if you have the chance. Credit bureaus especially don't care about medical debt. In the long run, you want to settle these debts but focus on opening secured cards and stabilizing your finances first. I was disappointed that settling debts did not boost my score and have heard this at various points online. You may not be eligible for a car loan or home loan but who really cares. You will have all the power with the creditors and when you are ready try to settle them for 20% on the dollar via letters. Otherwise ignore them for a little while. Small ones are worth settling, waiting longer on large ones gives you more power.
4) Open 3-8 secured credit cards. This may sound crazy but you want to start establishing good payment history ASAP. Many of these companies will approve you for CLIs after 3, 5, 7, 12, etc. months of good payment history. Select which cards you want in the long run and try to get in the door with those companies so you can move up later. I wish I had done this first. You can take these cards off unsecured later and get your money back. It will do far more to help your score than paying off the collections first. Your profile will show a lot of positive activity and high credit limits.
5) If you have a parent or someone else willing, and arn't a target for a debtor to come after your assets (debts over $7K or so), ask them to add you to one of their checking accounts. When banks and CCs run your credit they will see this in their systems, you can report whatever balance is in those accounts as liquid assets in your applications and banks, especially the ones you have the account with will see the account in their system. It could be a good foot in the door for those banks. Also, once you have the credit card open, you can always have yourself removed right then.
6) Learn how to send letters to the 3 credit bureaus and accurately track your score, it really isn't that difficult, you will need to learn how to dispute things on your credit file (always do this with a mailed letter and try to include anything that looks like proof that you can). In addition learn how to communicate via letter with collectors. Work on disputing negative information and getting it removed ideally or at the least correct. Ask for verficiation of debts. If you pay something off ensure you have an offer letter in hand before you pay and that you will receive a zero balance letter. Send these to the bureaus on your own so your credit is properly updated QUICKLY. If you can, re-etsablish a good relationship with your creditors and ask for negative information to be removed.
ALWAYS try to have negative infomation and accounts DELETED when you pay them off. Paying them off really won't do much but having them deleted willl! YOU have the negotiating power as you have the money. It is against federal law to pay for delete and not report inaccurate information. Companies will tell you this. But there are ways around that. I sent a letter and to Capital one asking two late payments to be removed and was denied, I called and received the same answer, HOWEVER I then mentioned that my address had changed the person that could delete them because that was a different situation.
It never hurts to ask, and dont be afraid to ask multiple times. Technically a bureau cant just removed accurate info, but if for example your address changed and you werent receiving statements, or your phone/email, or you were medically unable to receive mail, anything along those lines, you can try to use that. Give the company or collector a reason to be able to LEGALLY delete the item. All they care about is being paid. It is worth far more for you in the long run to pay more and get a pay for delete. Settling does nothing. However, if you wanted to try an alternate strategy. You could settle for a low amount, then go back later on and try to offer more to have the amount deleted and considered paid in full. You can go back to the original creditor who may be kinder. Collectors violate the law, so they may be better for getting a delete but the original creditor will likely be more considerate. I might even try opening secured cards with the negative marks that you have specifically so that you can use that relationship to boost your negotiating power, or even move your banking there (Capital One online 360 banking is free and helps some with them).
Come up with any excuse you can when you ask for a delete, use clever wording, and spin things in your favor, this is what the credit companies do. If you are trying to make things right then you have a right to have your report improved in my book. Use a family illness, anything military related, job loss, loss of income, address or contact changes, extenuating circumstances, mental issues (say you had anxiety or depression, since most people have those anyways). Most likely this info won't be verified. However including proof helps. If you are denied, try a different mailing address, office, phone number, etc. The most critical thing you can do is get negative marks deleted. However, realize that ultimately unless you want to buy a home within the next 2 years, that most of the damage is done and will have less and less impact after 2 years. NEVER finance a car and certainly NEVER take out a massive car loan, so you shouldn't need to worry about getting a good auto interest rate. What is most important for a home loan is having a clean record for the past 2 years and good income for the past 2 years though there are exceptions to both with 6 months being a very very firm minimum requirement. By the time you settle debts, save up for a downpayment and establish your CCs it will take about that loan anyways.
Welcome to the boards!
Might I suggest that you next time break this up into two separate threads....one for your applications/denials/approvals, and the other one on your "strategy" into the rebuilding sections.
These super long posts tend to get over looked because of the length of the threads, and you may not get very many comments because the folks click on it, and see how long it is, and it all runs together sometimes.
Good information, and thank you for sharing and taking the time to type it all out.
Might I suggest that you next time break this up into two separate threads....one for your applications/denials/approvals, and the other one on your "strategy" into the rebuilding sections.
These super long posts tend to get over looked because of the length of the threads, and you may not get very many comments because the folks click on it, and see how long it is, and it all runs together sometimes.
Good information, and thank you for sharing and taking the time to type it all out.