Good Card for Rebuilding

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. I just bought a house in November, mostly using nontradidtional credit. I only have one active credit card: A secured Visa from Applied Bank which I opened 7/09. Before that I had a First Bank of Delaware Master Card (Tribute Master Card) which was closed by the bank, not because of anything I had done - they just discontinued the program. That card is now completely paid off and I don't want another one like it (20% interest, plus $10/month "account maintenance" fee and $75 annual fee). My Applied Bank Visa is ok - 10% interest, $49 annual fee, no monthly fee - but I do not earn interest on my deposit, and I have had the card for going on two years with perfect payments but med to high util. It doesn't appear that they will ever raise my limit or "unsecure" the card.

I do need a :"real" credit card to rent a car for my upcoming Disney vacation. I got the Applied Bank card for the same purpose in '09. Does anybody have any suggestions for a good builder card? I have a  new mortgage, student loans, and this credit card on my credit - all in good standing. But as I said, the utilization is high on the one card I have. I also have quite a few inquiries because of the homebuying process, which for me was almost two years. My EQ score is 735, but I have no idea what my TU or EX scores are. I also applied for a Discover and an Amex Classic card about a year ago when my credit score bumped up into the 700's, but still got declined. I don't want any more fruitless inquiries.

Anny suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[vish1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone. I just bought a house in November, mostly using nontradidtional credit. I only have one active credit card: A secured Visa from Applied Bank which I opened 7/09. Before that I had a First Bank of Delaware Master Card (Tribute Master Card) which was closed by the bank, not because of anything I had done - they just discontinued the program. That card is now completely paid off and I don't want another one like it (20% interest, plus $10/month "account maintenance" fee and $75 annual fee). My Applied Bank Visa is ok - 10% interest, $49 annual fee, no monthly fee - but I do not earn interest on my deposit, and I have had the card for going on two years with perfect payments but med to high util. It doesn't appear that they will ever raise my limit or "unsecure" the card.

I do need a :"real" credit card to rent a car for my upcoming Disney vacation. I got the Applied Bank card for the same purpose in '09. Does anybody have any suggestions for a good builder card? I have a  new mortgage, student loans, and this credit card on my credit - all in good standing. But as I said, the utilization is high on the one card I have. I also have quite a few inquiries because of the homebuying process, which for me was almost two years. My EQ score is 735, but I have no idea what my TU or EX scores are. I also applied for a Discover and an Amex Classic card about a year ago when my credit score bumped up into the 700's, but still got declined. I don't want any more fruitless inquiries.

Anny suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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You said rebuilding, watz wrong with your credit? You wont get much fruitful advice before people know whatz bad on your credit and how old. Or did you just mean building instead of rebuilding?

How many inq do you have?

What was your util when you applied Amex/discover last year

[Anonymous]

Hi Som, to tell it to you plan and striaght dont look to your secured card company thats charging an

annual fee and a monthly fee to just offer you a unsecured card with less fees. There in the buisness to make money the last thing

 they wanna do is stopp that monthly and yearly payment they get from you. I know that cap 1 has a very decent 19 dollar annual fee

card. 24.9 % apr but the fee is waived for the first year. Plus really the apr rate shouldnt really turn you off to this card if your paying off every

month in full anyway. just somethig to consider

[Anonymous]

I do not pay a monthly fee. I don't mind paying an annual fee. I had major credit issues in the past, but they have all dropped off my report. I did not pay all of them off though. One card that was charged off was HSBC, so I don't think I can get any of their rebuilder cards such as Orchard Bank etc. Currently the only thing "wrong" with my credit is high util, new accounts, and about 10 inquiries. I have decent EQ score and I was able to qualify for a mortgage. So I said "rebuilder" because of my past problems, but more accurately I guess it would be a "builder".

[vish1]

I read that your util is haunting you and thats not because you are not pif but its more coz you have too little CL.

You can look at:

Amex Zync (looks like everyone is getting approved for this) or

Chase Freedom or

Citi forward

I wont apply for cap1 because they put an inquiry on all 3.

I would also add a GEMB backed store card (no AF and can get to about 2k CL pretty quick and are very helpful with util when you don't have a lot of high CL cards)

[daylove]

Just reduce your utilization and your credit will improve..adding a new card won't help.

[Anonymous]

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@daylove wrote:

Just reduce your utilization and your credit will improve..adding a new card won't help.

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Actually, adding a new card will lower my utilization.

Maybe I should have explained that my utilization is so high because I have such a low limit. Renting a car for a vacation maxes it out, so the card is almost useless to me. Applied Bank charges $100 to raise my limit, so even if they offered to I wouldn't take the offer. Basically, I was wanting to eventually ditch the card I have and get a card that is worth having and was asking for suggestions on a card I could get approved for. I was not asking for any other advice on how to improve my credit.

Thanks anyways.

(Edited for Spelling Error)

[Anonymous]

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@vish1 wrote:

I read that your util is haunting you and thats not because you are not pif but its more coz you have too little CL.

You can look at:

Amex Zync (looks like everyone is getting approved for this) or

Chase Freedom or

Citi forward

I wont apply for cap1 because they put an inquiry on all 3.

I would also add a GEMB backed store card (no AF and can get to about 2k CL pretty quick and are very helpful with util when you don't have a lot of high CL cards)

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You read that correctly. Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into these

[thrasher865]

If you have the capability to PIF, then pay all but $5 of your balance, before the statement date.  Wait a week or two and pull your credit.  Your score should rise a bit.  Then try applying for a less "sub-prime" card.

[Creditaddict]

I would get your utility down and skip the worthless cards like Orchard, beginner Cap 1, best buy mc etc.

If you have no baddies anymore and scores in 700, go prime, citi forward, discover more, amex zync, gold.