CC Advice

[Anonymous]

I am relatively new to this forum. I wish I was reading this forum from way before - anyway, now I know and going forward I will be well educated.

A little bit of history:

Been in the country for 4 years so credit history is short.

Oldest TL is 39 months

Had a couple of medical collections - Did a pay for delete and they are off since May 2009.

Had a charge off with capital one - made a huge mistake of paying it off in 2007 and it reported as paid collection - wrote a couple of GW letters didnt work - finally got to a supervisor at capital1 and he couldnt find the old acct so I disputed it - they removed it from all the 3 CRA's and sent me a letter too (which is now framed - just in case).

Last year July, my credit scores reported as EQ-593, EX-587 and TU as 597, now EQ-708, TU-? and EX-?

I have a few credit cards - BOA - used to be 500 CL - got a CLI last week to 1500 - 0 Balance

Capital one - CL is 500 - 250 balance

Discover with HSBC - CL is 300 - 0 balance

Macys - oldest TL - CL 300.00 - 0 balance

 Personal LOC from my Credit Union - 750 limit - balance 350.00

AU on my sisters cards - AMex - 1000.00 CL - 500 Balance and BofA - 4000 CL - 0 balance.

2 paid off cars on the Credit report.

I used to have first premier bank and orchard but closed them due to high fees earlier in the year.

As you can see I only have 1 prime card with BofA with only 1500 CL. I make about 50k a year and I need a couple of CC's with high limits to help me with building more credibility and stellar scores for when I am ready to purchase a home. I am in NJ - my TU has a lot of inquiries in the past year - I think about 3 or 4 - My EQ has 1 inquiry from Aug 2008 and My Experian has two inquries in the last 12 months. What CCC's should I apply with and who would approve decent CL at my scores who would look at EQ or maybe EX?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi Brother!

nice to see you managed to register and log-in... Welcome to myfico

As far as your questions go, one of the helpful people here should be down shortly to help

[Anonymous]

Ahhhh! I see you found me!!!! This site is addicting - like we discussed, after two or 3 more CC's that are prime, I will be done for a looong time - until maybe when I get the car end of next year!

[Anonymous]

Is there a reason you want to open new credit cards as opposed to building the ones you currently have?  I have 7 different credit cards and all but one sits idle.  From my experience, Capital one gradually performs a CLI... I started out with $500 and my limit is up to $2600.  That's over the course of a few years though.  My Chase card started with a $400 CL and well... is still at $400 over 2 years. 

Chances are I'll be closing my Chase seeing as it won't grow with me and I don't want to have hard pulls to see if I quality for a new limit.

[Anonymous]

Hi Cyan,

the main problem with both our capital one cards is that they DO NOT grow with us. My cap 1 is stuck at a 750 limit since may 2008!

[Anonymous]

Cyan,

It is true. My capital 1 has been stuck on 500 since I believe fall of 2007 and I called after cleaning my credit report and they said they have suspended CLI for indefinate amount of time. I am also not a big fan of Capital one and their banking practices so as soon as I pay it off (next couple of months) - it will be sitting - maybe one purchase every 2-3 months. I also called HSBC and they wont do it either and the card has an AF and it was recently opened in Dec 2008 and they are already pissing me off - it sits at 0 balance except for an occasional purchase here and there - closing it in december after it reaches its 1 year anniversary.

I guess I need a couple of stellar cards - in the past year - everytime I purchase something on a CC - it has been paid in full - the balances I carry are from 2008, which I have been working hard to pay down.

[Anonymous]

I'm currently seeking higher CLs as well so in case I do carry a balance or one is reported my total utilization isn't going to take as large of an impact.  For instance, if you go out to dinner and spend $50 on with a CL of $300... it really ramps up that utilization on the card itself.

I'm currently a fan of PNC bank although that name doesn't get around too much from what I've read.  Back in Februrary I applied for a credit card with a balance transfer of $800 and was declined.  I then went to one of my local branches to argue and push it forward and later received a card with a $1000 CL.  My main point of argument was in my bank account alone I had 10x the amount of a credit line I was asking for.

Since then my credit score has risen and I feel what happened before won't be an issue in the future. 

As some general advice, the most important thing right now would be to pay down the balances you currently have on your cards and use your highest CL card to carry a very small balance 1-9% from month-to-month to optimize your score.  This will set you up with a better credit score in which to attack a new card a few months down the line.  I just finished paying down all my credit cards at the beginning of last month.  It's tough but in the end it's worth it.

*EDIT*  Let me rephrase, you don't want to carry a balance with interest, you would want to have the card report a balance.  That would require some research to find out when the card gets reported.  You most likely want to make sure the card is PIF each month as to not get hit by an interest charge (if that's possible in your case).

Message Edited by Cyan007 on 08-17-2009 01:49 PM