Advice on when to apply?

[RW771]

Hi everyone,

Here is a quick rundown of what I currently have:

2 secured cards - both $0 balance

1 Home Depot card $1500/$3000 CL

1 furniture store card $2500/$3000 CL

1 Kohl's card - $0 balance

My most recent FICO score (EQ...which always is my lowest) is a 649. I closed on my first home back on 12/07/11 but it hasn't shown up on my CR's yet. I am wanting to apply for a major credit card and hoping for a decent CL. My question is should I wait and pay down the Home Depot card and furniture cards first? Would that help my chances any? Or should I apply now before the mortgage hits? I worry that a 649 may not be strong enough to qualify for much, if at all, but I'm pretty sure my scores will be higher with EX and TU. I'm willing to wait a bit if need be, but I'm getting married in July and we're paying for the wedding ourselves and wanting to put all the wedding expenses on the card. Any advice is, as always, very much appreciated! :-)

[learnin113]

---

@RW771 wrote:

Hi everyone,

Here is a quick rundown of what I currently have:

2 secured cards - both $0 balance

1 Home Depot card $1500/$3000 CL

1 furniture store card $2500/$3000 CL

1 Kohl's card - $0 balance

My most recent FICO score (EQ...which always is my lowest) is a 649. I closed on my first home back on 12/07/11 but it hasn't shown up on my CR's yet. I am wanting to apply for a major credit card and hoping for a decent CL. My question is should I wait and pay down the Home Depot card and furniture cards first? Would that help my chances any? Or should I apply now before the mortgage hits? I worry that a 649 may not be strong enough to qualify for much, if at all, but I'm pretty sure my scores will be higher with EX and TU. I'm willing to wait a bit if need be, but I'm getting married in July and we're paying for the wedding ourselves and wanting to put all the wedding expenses on the card. Any advice is, as always, very much appreciated! :-)

---

Your UTI is a bit high.  How are your inquiries?

[Cdnewmanpac]

My guess is that any card you get with your current score and higher utilization isn't going to have a high enough credit limit to put a dent in your wedding. Your home isn't going to be a huge hit initially, certainly not as much as your utilization is hurting you. In 6 months, if you focus on paying off your home depot/kohls, you should see a bump on the mortgage and a big bump from the lower utilization. I bet that would be enough for a card with a decent limit. Won't help for the wedding, but like I say, not sure the card limits you will get will help either.

[Anonymous]

---

@Cdnewmanpac wrote:
My guess is that any card you get with your current score and higher utilization isn't going to have a high enough credit limit to put a dent in your wedding. Your home isn't going to be a huge hit initially, certainly not as much as your utilization is hurting you. In 6 months, if you focus on paying off your home depot/kohls, you should see a bump on the mortgage and a big bump from the lower utilization. I bet that would be enough for a card with a decent limit. Won't help for the wedding, but like I say, not sure the card limits you will get will help either.

---

+1.

Your utililization is what's going to be hurting. Try to follow the advice given here - only carry a balance on one card, and keep it at 1-9% util. I'd be surprised if it didn't give you a score jump, at least a minor one.

If I was you, I'd work on paying off my cards as much as possible in the next few months and let any possible inquiries you might have on your reports age. If you have any baddies on your reports, try to GW them. Then, in 3-4 months, try to apply for a card. If you applied for one right now, you'd most likely just get another one with a low limit. And I doubt you want your wedding reception to be at a McDonalds, so a toy card wouldn't help.

[RW771]

I only have 3 inquiries in the past year...my mortgage, the Home Depot inquiry and furniture card inquiry. I literally just got all 3 since December and hoping to pay down both the HD and furniture cards with tax money I get back (fingers scrossed). I know that paying down the balances on the 2 cards will help lower my utilization but I just wondered what advice you all may have as far as applying for another card soon. The house thing was pretty unexpected...we ended up using all the money we had been saving for the wedding to buy a house, but we couldn't fit in our tiny apartment any longer and we had to take advantage of the awesome interest rates! Still doesn't help that we're back to sqaure one planning for a wedding in less than 6 months but we're really hoping we can get a major credit card soon to help!!!

[learnin113]

See if you can get into your local CU.  They tend to give higher limits, but I still think your score need a 50 pt boost.

[RW771]

---

@learnin113 wrote:

See if you can get into your local CU.  They tend to give higher limits, but I still think your score need a 50 pt boost.

---

Both of the secured cards I have are through CU's I belong to here, and the first one will be a year old in March and the other in June. I'm really hoping that after the 1 year mark one or both will turn into an unsecured card and give me a decent limit. Yep, I'm thinking I'm definitely going to need a point boost...I guess just paying down the balances on the 2 cards is really all I can do considering that's all I have on my CR. Thanks for all the advice!

[dalebb]

ok,, il never understand why some ppl wait for what they want to fall out of the sky, if u want or need something go for it, banks or CU's r not mind readers. if u need this go talk to them, and if the turn u down, try try again. take charge of ur credit life and get what u want,,,, just my 2 cents

[Anonymous]

---

@RW771 wrote:

Hi everyone,

Here is a quick rundown of what I currently have:

2 secured cards - both $0 balance

1 Home Depot card $1500/$3000 CL

1 furniture store card $2500/$3000 CL

1 Kohl's card - $0 balance

My most recent FICO score (EQ...which always is my lowest) is a 649. I closed on my first home back on 12/07/11 but it hasn't shown up on my CR's yet. I am wanting to apply for a major credit card and hoping for a decent CL. My question is should I wait and pay down the Home Depot card and furniture cards first? Would that help my chances any? Or should I apply now before the mortgage hits? I worry that a 649 may not be strong enough to qualify for much, if at all, but I'm pretty sure my scores will be higher with EX and TU. I'm willing to wait a bit if need be, but I'm getting married in July and we're paying for the wedding ourselves and wanting to put all the wedding expenses on the card. Any advice is, as always, very much appreciated! :-)

---

Before I suggest some cards to apply for how do your credit reports look across all 3 CRA's? Do you have any baddies? How is your fiance's credit like? Also if for some reason you can't get the credit you need can you postpone the wedding till next year?

[RW771]

---

@dalebb wrote:

ok,, il never understand why some ppl wait for what they want to fall out of the sky, if u want or need something go for it, banks or CU's r not mind readers. if u need this go talk to them, and if the turn u down, try try again. take charge of ur credit life and get what u want,,,, just my 2 cents

---

Trust me...it's taking all I have not to go ahead and go to the bank or apply online for a card. But if I get denied, or it's that 1 inquiry that put me over the top with too many inquiries, then I'm stuck trying to figure out alternate ways to obtain financing for the wedding. So I'm trying to play it safe but at the same time do it as fast as I can since July will be here before we know it!