Hi,
First time poster. I’ve read a lot of posts on here and I’ve learned a lot about credit. Things on this forum I should have learned in school but whatever.
I’ve had a horrible experience with credit in the past. Defaulted on cards and had a horrible score to show for it — talking low 500s almost 400s bad. I was completely turned off by the idea of ever having credit again. I blamed the banks for my poor judgements horrible financial decisions. I realized that I needed to grow up and be an adult and decided jump back in but slowly and ended up with a $500 BOA secured card.
Fast forward 3 years later I can admit I’ve had high credit utilization but always paid my bills on time including some stretch of months PIF. I also never missed a payment. I never even asked for my deposit back or requested a CLI. Was just happy to have it and build my credit (low 500 to 670) (CK scores)
Now about 6 months ago I got a cap1 unsecured for $300 and it auto CLI to $500 which triggered me to find out why BOA never did that and how to request a CLI on boa (I only use mobile) link is on desktop so I did it. No increase but I did get a deposit refund (secured to unsecured conversion?) and the reasons for no CLI was not enough accounts, high utilization, length of accounts (guessing cap1) and 2 bad marks from 6 years ago which have been fully paid off. I thought me banking with boa would have made a difference guess not.
I was looking at the these forums and decided to get another card to increase my total accounts and total line of credit. So I tried the pre qualifying pages on Chase, Citi, & BOA all showed me cards but all got 7-10 letters = denied so I just went and got a discover secured ($300) and then I saw the shopping cart trick. I saw that the store cards don’t have a fee so in my head I’m thinking just having these store cards would increase my total line of credit and lower my utilization. I was approved for a few (Overstock $250, Express $250, Wayfair $750, and Victoria Secret $500) I don’t shop at these stores so my question is — will having these cards without using them (never buying anything) look good on my report in the long term aka they will be activated but never used or should I hold something on them?
Thanks for reading I know that was long I appreciate any help!
