I have done about as much as I can right now to improve my credit scores. I have some baddies (CO's) left with balances, but I can not afford to PIF and probably will not be able to before the SOL is up on them anyway (the most CO is from 5 years ago). I am to the point where the best way to improve my credit is to get more credit and use it wisely. Therefore, I am trying really hard to find a reasonable credit card to apply for, especially since a recent policy change at work will require me to pay for my own travel expenses, for which I will get reimbursed for later (the corporate card that I previously had access to no longer exists due to a recent merger).
Since I have had baddies with bascially every CCC out there, I am having a difficult time even though my Ficos have reached the mid to upper 600 level now. The only CCC I have not had a baddie with is Citibank. I had one CC with them that was paid and closed about 6 years ago, and I have had a student loan with them for almost 5 years now and have never been late. It looks like they may be my best shot, but I have a feeling they will still reject me when they see the unpaid baddies that remain on my CR's.
Does anyone have any application experiences to share with Citi? I have checked whogavemecredit, and there seems to be some promise since there have been some scores similar to mine that were gettting approvals. I don't know what kind of baddies these people had, though. Also, it seems that most of the time, they were pulling EQ, which is my best score at 680, but I didn't see many in my region (Wisconsin), so I don't know what the odds are of them pulling EQ for me.