To Discover or Not?

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

This is my first post at MyFico. But I have been lurking for little over a month. Thanks to you all, I now am a member of Alliant CU. I have a membership app pending with NFCU (want one of their CC), and have a Cap. One Q1 $3K Limit.

My background:

2013 – Shortsale of home (prevented foreclosure which had started) Chase Bank

2014 – April BK7 filed – Credit Cards included in Cap One 18K, BofA $24K, Macy’s AmEx $1.2K, Lexus Visa 4K. Car also included in BK $30K

Currently

Do not have a car loan. Finally got a job at a University in another Country and only come home for about 1-3 months out of the year. Use a family member or friend’s car.
Student Loans totaling $14,500. Dropped from $50,000 because of a judgment I received against insurance company. BK Trustee used the money to pay down my student loans. My payment on my card is $0 because of the Income Drive Plan. I plan to start paying a little bit here and there within the next month.
No Credit Cards until Aug 28, 2016, when I applied for Cap One again. Couldn’t believe they gave me $3K credit limit after I burned them so bad. They'd even started a law suit against me, which prompted my filing BK.
Only one inquiry on each report -- App for the Cap One card.
Salary – about $20K, but I have no bills (no rent or mortgage, no car payment, no car insurance, nothing). My school takes care of my housing, utilities and even my laundry is paid for.

Current Fico Scores from CreditCheckTotal – TU 643, EX 653 EQ 667 (Cap One Credit Card has not yet hit my reports.

Questions

Should I apply for Discover It now or should I wait for a little bit until the Cap One card has reported and hopefully my scores go up?
Should I wait to apply for Discover It until after my is completed with NFCU so that I can see what my CL would be if I am approved with one of their cards?
This is what I would like in my wallet eventually, Cap One QS regular card, NFCU Cash Rewards, Discover It and a Barclay Card. Can you guys recommend a plan to achieve these cards?

Burned2manybridgesB4 · ‎09-28-2016

I'll tell you right now, with everything listed, you'll see $1k tops, if you're even approved at all.

2014 – April BK7 filed

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

Welcome to the forum, ItsPossible!

All I can do is share my data points when I was approved for Discover It:

BK discharged: 11/2015

Credit One approved 05/2016 $400 SL

Capital One approved 06/2016 $3000 SL

Apped for Discover It: 07/08/2016

Scores at time of app: EQ 659, TU 603, EX 668

Inquiries EQ 4, TU 2, EX 6.

Discover pulled EQ and EX on me.

Approved for a $1000 SL.

Good luck! I love my Discover card.

Edited to add that I think your scores will take a jump when your Cap1 reports, at least mine did. You can see my 06/13/2016 scores in my sig, and that was prior to Cap1 reporting, and I believe Credit One reporting to EQ caused that score to go from 632 to 665, then it actually dropped to 659 when Cap1 reported.

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2016

@Bella007. I really appreciate your sharing your datapoints. Thank you so much.

Based upon your input, coupled with prodding from a friend who has a Discover It card, I applied today. CL $5500. I could not believe it! Sooo excited!! Cool thing is, my friend referred me. So she gets $50 and I get $50.

It may have helped that my Cap One QS1 hit my credit report today. My FICO score jumped 37 points for EX. Not sure how much the other two FICO scores increased yet. But Vantage 3.0 jumped 20 points for EQ and 18 points for TU.

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous. I really appreciate your sharing your datapoints. Thank you so much.

Based upon your input, coupled with prodding from a friend who has a Discover It card, I applied today. CL $5500. I could not believe it! Sooo excited!! Cool thing is, my friend referred me. So she gets $50 and I get $50.

It may have helped that my Cap One QS1 hit my credit report today. My FICO score jumped 37 points for EX. Not sure how much the other two FICO scores increased yet. But Vantage 3.0 jumped 20 points for EQ and 18 points for TU.

Wow, that's a great credit limit! Discover can really be a strange beast! Plus I'm thinking based on the starting limit they've given you, that it will grow nicely.

Congrats and enjoy your Discover card!

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2016

@PhantomBrigade. Thanks so much!!! I am really excited. I couldn't believe my eyes. Thought I needed to change my contacts. And I took screenshots of the congratulations page and the credit line page. Keep opening them up to look at them. LOL!

baller4life · ‎09-30-2016

Congratulations and welcome to the forum! I requested that your thread be moved to Approvals. 😃

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2016

Wow! Congrats!

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2016

@ItsPossible - congratulations! You are off to a great start with your rebuild. Just remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'd personally take a break and no more apps for at least 2-3 months, use what you have. Both CapOne and Disc are great with CLI's and based on your starting lines I'm sure they will be showing you some serious love. I don't see any Chase Cards in your BK info so something with them could be on the horizon. Garden and grow with these two cards. Most (not all) of Chase's card are now under their silly 5/24 rule so if you open 5 or more accounts in a 24 month period they will auto decline you for almost all of their products (like the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve). Both are great cards with TONs of perks and Chase's Ultimate Rewards Program is probably the best out there.

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2016

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your approvals!

Now that you've been approved for the IT and Cap 1, I would hold off on applying for anything else until you receive a decision on your NFCU application. After a resolution, I suggest hanging out in the garden to allow your credit profile time to rebound from the approvals. Good luck on your credit journey and enjoy teaching abroad!