My Recent Credit Journey

[marleyak]

I am new to the community and this is my first post, I wanted to share the journey that I have had this last month.

Back on June 4th, I was shopping at my local Old Navy and while I was checking out the cashier asked me if I wanted to apply for there Credit Card. I always say no because for the last few years I have had horrible credit and was always denied for everything. Well this time I told the cashier to go ahead and try and I got approved for $400, I was very shocked.

So I immediatly came home and decided to do a lot of googling. I found this site and have been reading different posts and I have learned so much (thank you!!) I then decided to try for a Walmart Credit card because I read on here about the free TU Fico and that GE gives good CLI's. I applied online and was approved for $400!

Then after a little more reading I decided to apply for a Barclaycard, because I saw that they are really good with recons and I was worried about being denied instantly and I was denied. So I used to backdoor number on this site and they ended up approving me for $500 through recon!

I was so excited, that I decided to do some searching about Capital One and their CLI successes and saw that they SP ( Ive had a capital one card initially $300 , credit steps to $500, since last February)  so I used the executive office number and was able to be approved for a $250 increase bringing that card to $750. I asked for a $2000 limit but I am happy that they gave me anything.

Using the Walmart TU fico, my score is only 612(which is about 30-40 pts higher than this time last year), so I think that I have gotten some pretty great treatment. I am finished apping for at least six months (new barclay card and all) but hope to have my CS go much higher by then due to much better debt to credit ratio.

Thanks to all of  you!!

[Hightechredneck]

I used my NFL Barclay card hard for the first four months, Had an initial CL of $500 on the 5th statement, they upped my CL to $2000 with mid 600 numbers.

[Scott90]

That's great! Congrats on your success with the approvals and CLI's! And I agree that this forum is great! A lot of knowledge is here.

[marleyak]

Did you PIF before the statement cut for your barclay card during those 4 months?

Thanks!

[TiggerDat]

Congrats.  From here it only gets better.  Try the Cap One EO in abother 6 months and they should approve a higher limit then.  I even had recon success with their EO on a new card in their Prime category.  3-4 cards reporting is best for you score.  I would never recommend you get such cards as FP, Credit One, or Matrix.  You should be able to well with what you have.  Those fees they charge are not really worth it.  I avoided all that by getting a Merrick Bank secured card.  Many banks now have secured cards and most don't charge an arm and a leg for them.  If I had it all to do again I might actually have chosen a secured card with a local bank as they are easier to unsecure than Merrick.  Merrick was nice and gave me CLI's, but they don't pay interest on the deposit, they don't waive the AF, and they don't unsecure ever.

Last year I went on a spree of opening cards, then this year I did the same thing twice.  I have ten times in limits to what I had a year ago.  It took about 6 years to get to this point.  Some have done it faster, others have taken longer.  Overall, I am happy how it has worked out.  I don't have all great cards, but I have arrived.  I have a real Amex, a cobranded Amex, and a Visa Signature card, so I am doing pretty good!  I don't plan on closing anything out at the time, but I will simply wait and see and I will garden.