My sister filed chapter 7 and it was discharged on 3-28-16. We have managed to get her a Cap 1 Plat, QS1, and a Cedit one card with normal SL's for each. I want to get her atleast 1 more. BofA and Amex have been burned in the CH7. Her scores are:
Exp 597 Inq = 6
TU 569 Inq = 6
EQF 610 Inq = 10
UTIL 9%
AAoA is about 1.5 yrs.
Any recommendations for another card would be appreciated. She would prefer it to be a major but a store card would be useful if it was like Kohls or WM. She was denied for Walmart SC when her TU was 544. Her inquiries are from when she bought her car before the CH7. Her scores have gotten a little better but not much.
Any advice would also be very helpful.
JMO. I'd start using the Cap1 cards and let them grow. The CLI's will start coming in. Hitting the luv button and credit steps. Go slow. Look at my siggy and the score changes.
Waiting is an option too. Her QS has a good limit. She is putting alot of money through it and getting the cash back. She is not using the Credit One or the Cap 1 platinum. The platinum has a 2k limit. She wants to leave it till she can PC them and merge them.
I advised her to wait. She did end up getting a kohls card but I told her to wait on any others. She only has a year and then all her inquiries but a couple will be gone. By then she should be in the 600's and have a better chance. She is like me in the respect that she is struggling to see why she should avoid store cards and go for V/MC. I will keep at her though. I don't want her to make the same mistakes I did.
@MyLoFICO wrote:I advised her to wait. She did end up getting a kohls card but I told her to wait on any others. She only has a year and then all her inquiries but a couple will be gone. By then she should be in the 600's and have a better chance. She is like me in the respect that she is struggling to see why she should avoid store cards and go for V/MC. I will keep at her though. I don't want her to make the same mistakes I did.
I think that's good advice... it's a marathon, not a sprint. I can also speak from experience that a bankruptcy doesn't happen in a single day, and you can't recover in a day, either.
Just one parting thought... when the time comes, tell her not to be discouraged if she has to start out with the store version of some cards before getting the MC/V version. While the MC/V version is often preferred, there's still plenty of value in the PLCC, especially for somebody who is rebuilding. 
@UncleB wrote:
@MyLoFICO wrote:I advised her to wait. She did end up getting a kohls card but I told her to wait on any others. She only has a year and then all her inquiries but a couple will be gone. By then she should be in the 600's and have a better chance. She is like me in the respect that she is struggling to see why she should avoid store cards and go for V/MC. I will keep at her though. I don't want her to make the same mistakes I did.
I think that's good advice... it's a marathon, not a sprint. I can also speak from experience that a bankruptcy doesn't happen in a single day, and you can't recover in a day, either.
Just one parting thought... when the time comes, tell her not to be discouraged if she has to start out with the store version of some cards before getting the MC/V version. While the MC/V version is often preferred, there's still plenty of value in the PLCC, especially for somebody who is rebuilding.
Oh yeah, she still wants the WM store card and she knows there will be a few but not like me. I am steering her clear of getting a card just because she can. I have an Old Navy with a $5k limit I will never use. I was just too excited about getting the APPROVED! message and did not know any better. Now I get to reduce those limits in hopes of getting better CLI's on their MC/Visa counterparts with Synch and let those account age off and close themselves over time.
CH7 Discharged 1-2001 here. I paid that price, never again. Long live the 700+ FICO! lol