Credit Cards

[dallasjetfan]

In the past 2 1/2 years since BK, I have rebuilt my credit from 490 to my current 634 which has been as high as 655. My utilization was around 90% a couple months ago. I will have it to 0% by the middle of August. I expect my score to go up quite a bit. I currently have:

Cap One Auto Loan
Cap One CC: $3550 CL
Juniper US Air: $2500 CL
Hooters: $1300 CL
GEMB Care One: $3500 CL
GEMB Walmart: $250 CL
GEMB Chevron: $400

My questions are: When can I start applying for "Prime" cards with higher CL's? What kind of score should I have? How long after BK before app'ing for "prime cards? I really only want one "prime" card with a $10,000 limit and low APR. I would just sock drawer the others. Thanks!!

Message Edited by dallasjetfan on 07-08-2008 08:29 PM

[voidman]

For a good prime card you should wait till your score improves further close to 700

[dallasjetfan]

That's what I was thinking. I figured I would see a pretty significant jump in score with my utilization going to 0%.

[cheddar]

---

dallasjetfan wrote:
That's what I was thinking. I figured I would see a pretty significant jump in score with my utilization going to 0%.

---

Don't take it all the way to $0 for maximum FICO points.  You'll score better at 1% than you will at $0.

[TheNewWorldMan]

What I would recommend doing is keeping a low balance on about half your cards at once. Let it report (we're talking an $8.49 Number Three combo meal), and pay in full. Then put another similar balance on one of your other cards, let it report, pay it off.

Getting your uti down will give you a significant boost. Do that, and keep your nose clean through the end of the year, and you should be in prime territory by then or the second quarter of 2009 at the latest.

[dallasjetfan]

I'm definitely not in any hurry to start an app'ing spree. I figured I would need to be in the 700+ area. Will the "prime" companies be OK with a 3-year old BK at that time?

[dallasjetfan]

At what point do the "prime" cards start sending pre-approval apps? Will they wait until after BK drops or do they want to see a certain length of time since BK and/or certain score?

[voidman]

---

dallasjetfan wrote:
At what point do the "prime" cards start sending pre-approval apps? Will they wait until after BK drops or do they want to see a certain length of time since BK and/or certain score?

---

I guess we both are on the same boat. that is, we are not looking for new credit but rather a prime card.

I am happy with the credit limit I have rite now, coz I use credit card for regular purchases and any big purchases are done with either check-card or check.

I was eager to get a prime card, my score per-se is good enough for a citi cash back card but i don't have enough credit history. So I went ahead and applied for one. Got denied for lack of history.

So I think, i will not be approved any of the prime cards as of now, coz the only pre-approvals i get is from Cap 1.

My plan is to wait for any prime card preapprovals to show up in my mailbox no matter how long it takes coz I think it a good history is relative from CCC to CCC
e.g. BoA may consider a year of credit history to be good, but Citi wants 18 months of credit history. So similarly prime CCC may have different sets of requirements for bk.

Well, it may not be a answer to your question, but this is what my plan is.

[dallasjetfan]

At this point, I wouldn't mind a $10,000+ Cap One card since I have had good experiences with them. I would like to get rid of or sock drawer my Hooters and Juniper. Both are zero balance and both over 21% APR which is ridiculous. Cap One just gave me another $300 today on my $3250 CL bringing it to $3550. Not what I was looking for, but I guess I will take it. Hopefully, my scores will jump up close to 700 by the end of the summer after paying off 95% UTIL.

[voidman]

well, with your score around 650, it will be difficult to get anything around 10k rite now. As you said wait till the score reaches 700. and yeah you need to get the until down.