Hello! New here...my story...

[lukepwnsall]

as an installment Loan you could always do one of those secured loans. where you take out like a 1 year CD and take a loan out to pay for it I think if you do like a 1k loan and 1k cd you only pay like 50-100 dollars in intrest(someone correct me if Im wrong) and To my knowlege that should look good on a CR as a small loan you took out and repaid. Its actually what my parents reccomened I do once I had turned 18 2 years ago to start off instead of a CC. 

Otherwise give that chase card some time to grow and Id ask in about 6months if your account is eligible for a CLI on a soft pull or it might be worth it for a hard pull depending on your payment history of the card and when that mortagage app is comming up. Chase tends to be a very grow on you company treat them well they treat you well. Max out the card and make min payments and they wont budge. Chase seems tho to be good on a CLI after about 6m-12m of cardmembership.

[Anonymous]

I just remembered that's what my college sweetheart did! He would take out $500 loans from his credit union to build his credit!  It worked. 

Besides BofA I also have solid relationship with Wells Fargo. They take care of my business and money market account, but they've never offered any other services. So I was shocked at Chase giving me a decent amount, more than four times BofA, to start out with even though I don't bank with them. 

Very good information to remember about Amex backdating! 

[Anonymous]

As someone mentioned, call Amex and try to recon (reconsideration) the application. It's a chance they could over turn the denied decision. The numbers are listed in Backdrop Numbers (click here). Good luck with your journey!

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Oh! Still learning to decipher some acronyms, etc 

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Welcome. Don't worry too much about it. You'll catch on.

I still don't know all of them. Here is a list of Abbreviations.

[codimom]

First of all, welcome to myFICO!  keep reading, ask questions and you'll be amazed at the amount of information you can gain from so many different sources.  I was once in your situation (well, still am a single mom, but the rest is so much better).  I personally think you are on the right track.  Start small, let the new cards grow and you'll see your score grow and grow.

one thing i will mention, as hard as it is, is to have patience.  If you make a plan, and stick to the plan, you will see your credit score, credit limits etc grow into a nice big number.  I still follow the rule of if I can't pay for it all, i won't use my card.  i do have a car loan, and I do have a mortgage, but anything else is charge and PIF.  A year ago i was posting here that I was inching closer to the 720 club, now I'm actually inching toward the 800 club!!! color me excited!

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Codimom!

That is so awesome that you were able to get your scores to excellent in that time frame.  I forgot to mention, I do have a student loan that is paid on time and in good standing.  Does that count as an installment loan?  It gets paid off this year!  I could pay it off now, but it shows monthly payments so I want to extend the amount of times I have been paying succesfully.

I do know a bit about patience.  I went without getting back to any type of credit cards for 5 years.  I went with all cash method.  But of course we know that method will hurt me in the long run for getting back into a mortgage.  I did sit down and wrote out my plan.  I have been obsessing over the details the past three months.  To be realistic it looks like I will not be able to go for the goal of becoming home owner again until early next year. 

[codimom]

If it were me, I would pay off that student loan and get out from under it.  I like the idea of borrowing a smallish amount for a CD and then paying off the loan... pay yourself interest almost!

I adapted many of the Dave Ramsey methods, but i adjusted them to meet the way my brain works. 

if you fail to plan, you plan to fail