@Anonymous wrote:
Now, I am mostly interested in cash back rewards as I don't travel enough for travel benefits. I also want to avoid Discover and Barclays.
Given the information provided, what do you think I should go for, if anything? Just looking for an expert opinion here!
You really don't need expert opinion, you just have to understand how to do the analysis. Unfortuantely that's really not the info we need. We can't tell you your approval odds for any product as wel don't have access to the details of the underwriting criteria. We can guess based on your credit profile but keep in mind that it's jsut a guess. If your focus is on rewards then what are you major spend categories including noncategory? Run the numbers for your spend when looking at cards to understand the $ impact of the rewards you stand to gain.
Why are you avoiding Discover and Barclaycard?
@Anonymous wrote:
I am fairly new to the credit world, only been building credit for about 2 years, oldest account is 29 months old, newest reported is 3 months - averaging about 17 months.
So you have a young credit profile with at least 1 new account and probably more as accounts are considered new until 2 years. At this point you should probably cool your jets and let the new accounts age before worrying about applying for more credit. With a young profile like yours you're going to see more of an impact from having new accounts and credit seeking activity.
@Anonymous wrote:
My scores according to Credit Karma: Equifax-696 and TransUnion-683. My score according to Credit.com: Experian-714
You always need to consider the specific scoring model when referencing any score. Additionally, you need to consider the relevance of a given model/CRA combo to your creditors and the products you intend to apply for. CK's VantageScores are only relevant to creditors that use a TU or EQ VantageScore 3.0. Are you applying for products where those models/CRA's are used in the decision? If not, then those scores will not be relevant. Same applies to any model/CRA combo.
@Anonymous wrote:
* I received my FICO from a car dealership within the last few days and my TransUnion score was a 735.
* I will hopefully be purchasing my true FICO scores sooner rather than later
Again, you always need to consider the specific scoring model. FICO doesn't have just one model Different models evaluate report data differently and can have different scoring ranges so you cannot use a score generated by one model to determine a score generated by another model. Which FICO did the dealership use? Was it auto enhanced?
Don't rely on oversimplifcations such as "true". It's relevance that matters. Not all creditors use FICO's. Even with those that do they don't all use the same model. You cannot assume that all FICO models are equivalent.
@Anonymous wrote:
Given the information provided, what do you think I should go for, if anything?
What are you specifically looking to accomplish? Selecting a card is always about determining what suits the indivudal. Your prior cards should have been selected after careful consideration. What purpose are they not serving that you are looking to fill or are you jsut asking us to help you justify a new card app? You should have the reason based on your specific needs/wants first and then use that info to narrow down the cards out there based on how well they fit your requirements. It sounds like you're going about it backwards.
