Credit Cards

[tigif]

Hello everyone, I had posted a thread regarding my next steps here and was encoraged to head over here to ask which card would be a good fit for me. At this point I'm trying to establish a good payment history. I don't have any cards right now and according to the myfico.com card reccomendation page for a FICO window of 540-640, the three options they presented are the Discover IT card which shows as "FAIR" credit needed. The other two are the Citi Dividend and Citi Forward cards, both showing a credit needed rating of "GOOD". I did some research in this CC section on the Discover card and it seems like in general, folks are pretty happy with them but I wanted to touch base and get your input.

I'd greatly appreciate any reccos you guys could provide, thanks a ton!

-Mike

[guardmama04]

You should try for the Barclays NFL card (no annual fee and rewards)and they seem to be pretty good at re-establishing. Also capital one has a couple of cards also--(cash rewards) but they have some fees. Barclays accepted me with a 600 credit score and some old baddies. Good luck!

[Stephen_Dashman]

I remember applying for the Barclays average credit MC in October but was told after reconning that I should try again in a few months after having some more revolving credit history. I only had just opened the CapOne Platinum about a few weeks earlier and my scores were around 620-630 at the time. I would probably recommend the Capital One Cash Rewards and Platinum, maybe the Walmart Store Card if you're interested, and the Barclays NFL card might be worth a shot (I wasn't too interested in the rewards but you might be). Good luck!

[PleioneG]

Walmart store card and Amazon store card. They're both owned by GE Bank and they generally like to see scores in the 600's.

You'll have an even better chance getting a Capital One card. They're very lenient to people with scores in your range. I'd say get a Capital One and keep a good history with them for maybe 9 months to a year and then shoot for one of the GE backed store cards. It's how I did it.  

It's possible you can qualify for a Discover It but I'm not entirely certain on your chances.

[Stephen_Dashman]

Here's also some more GE Capital Retail Bank financed cards. I've heard many of them are pretty easy to get. http://www.gecapital.com/en/our-company/retail-partners.html

[tigif]

I just got off chat with cap one and they confirmed that they do not report their secured cards as secured. I had read good things about the BOA secured card as well and confirmed on their end that they don't report their secured cards as secured either. Now I'm thinking that maybe rather than gamble for approval on a standard card, I go secured. I'm not in a situation where I need a credit line so do you guys think it would be a safe bet to open up the above two with a 1k deposit on each?

[Ron1]

My brother had a similar score and he got approved for $300 unsecured Classic Platinum with $39 AF three days ago. You don't have to get their secured card. 

By the way, Cap1 pulled all 3 CRAs.

link:

http://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/classic-platinum/?Log=1&EventType=Link&ComponentType=T&LOB=MT...

Ron.

[Revelate]

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tigif wrote:

I just got off chat with cap one and they confirmed that they do not report their secured cards as secured. I had read good things about the BOA secured card as well and confirmed on their end that they don't report their secured cards as secured either. Now I'm thinking that maybe rather than gamble for approval on a standard card, I go secured. I'm not in a situation where I need a credit line so do you guys think it would be a safe bet to open up the above two with a 1k deposit on each?

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Personally I think secured cards are a better route the store cards; this is especially true with the BOFA 1-2-3; however, it *does* report as secured for the first year until it graduates.  It's probably one of the most popular secured cards available (and the best too arguably) and it's well known anecdotally and it's been that way for the last decade I know from personal experience.

Ron1 is correct in saying you are likely qualified for Cap One and perhaps a few others for unsecured national bank cards.  Store cards don't always count for future lender underwriting; however, from a FICO perspective there's no difference.

[tigif]

Thanks for the feedback guys, MUCH appreciated!

-Mike

[Wolf3]

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tigif wrote:

I just got off chat with cap one and they confirmed that they do not report their secured cards as secured. I had read good things about the BOA secured card as well and confirmed on their end that they don't report their secured cards as secured either. Now I'm thinking that maybe rather than gamble for approval on a standard card, I go secured. I'm not in a situation where I need a credit line so do you guys think it would be a safe bet to open up the above two with a 1k deposit on each?

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One big advantage of secured is that you can get a decent CL.   IMO, opening 1 secured card with $2K deposit is preferable to 2 secured cards with $1K, but both are good strategies.   Regardless after a year, you should be good to apply for most unsecured cards and the bigger CL helps get a good unsecured CL.