Just got approved for first CC in close to ten years!

[Anonymous]

Hi yall! I've been lurking here for a while as I'm determined to clean up my credit report. I have two state tax liens that were completely paid and released several years ago (still showing but I got the official state tax release paperwork and sent to all four CRAs with a gw letter...fingers crossed), plus a dismissed bankruptcy (we didn't go through with it) from about five years ago. Before that we had a lot of unemployment and bad financial decisions on the part of my DH going back about 15 years. So literally I have not gotten one credit break for close to ten years! I kept reading the advice here, starting with the tax liens, and then saw that you could start rebuilding your credit with Fingerhut. I applied this morning not expecting a damn thing (you get used to rejection) and lo and behold I was approved for $400! Holy crap! I think I scared the representative, lol! 

So now reading threads looks like I need to keep a balance on there but pay it off every month? What's the best way to handle this so I can continue to grow my credit score (currently at 668). When should I apply for another card - I'm thinking Capital One since they deal with less than optimum credit. Any advice is appreciated! 

[uswala]

Congrats!

[b_diddy]

Welcome here, congrats and you don't have far to go with your current credit score ... Cap1 steps might be a good next move.

[coldnmn]

Congrats!  Capital One for average credit would be a good choice after a few months of the Fingerhut reporting. If your willing to get a secured card the link below is a good choice. It reports to the credit bureaus but doesn't unsecure. Doing that will help your credit journey. Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing.

https://www.sdfcu.org/emv-creditcards

[Anonymous]

Ah, thanks for the info! When you say a few months - is that like 6 months do you think? I've seen anywhere from 2 weeks to nine months in between credit approvals on these boards, so I'm trying to get a good feel for what I should do next. 

Any advice on how to best handle the Fingerhut account so I can make sure it works for me? 

[Anomalous]

Congratulations!

[roniram]

Congrats! You are on your way back to credit land!

[Creditaddict]

Go to Capitalone.com and go to credit cards and check for "pre'qualified" offers for yourself.

If you get "we coudn't find any offers but suggest these cards" don't do it.

if you get "congrats, we found these cards" pick one and apply.

You can also check on chase.com and citicards.com for the same thing.

These 3 banks are very good about approving the cards they pre-qual you for.

[Anonymous]

I don't think you have to wait, you *should* be approved at CapOne.

I'd just apply.

There is also the nice shopping cart trick, try that as well to pick up 3 more tradelines/cards.

Gettington and Fingerhut are basically the same company, I'd also apply for Gettington, they may use the same hard pull for you as they did for Fingerhut (I got a 2 for 1 doing Fingerhut and Gettington right after each other)

For credit use, I'd buy something for $20 and pay it off in a few months to get things rolling.  Then I wouldn't use those overpriced people again.  

After you get something like 5 tradelines going, wait six months and you should be ready for the likes of Walmart, Amazon, Lowes and another Capital One.  Six months after that you should be ready for the likes of barclays/Discover

Your score is actually pretty decent, you may qualify now but I believe your lack of credit history will stop you from getting approved from guys like Walmart even with a good score.  It *may* be worth a try though, even if only to get a free FICO '08 score every month from Walmart if you're approved for the card

[Anonymous]

Nice job, congrats