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Hello All!
I have crept around the myfico forums for a few months now. I quit using most forms of credit about 7 years ago when I left the Finance industry and began bumming around. A few months ago there weren't any open accounts reporting. Now that I have opened my own business and have planted some roots I am beginning to build up my credit. My credit was 594 two months ago when I began taking on this project. I had no open accounts so I applied to CapOne and received a Chase Platinum with a 22.99 apr and a 300 CL. My TU credit score (from CreditTracker and CreditKarma) is 671. When the statement went out the card had $265 balance and my payment (PIF) just posted to the card but would not yet me on my credit report. I am planning to now keep the balance a lot lower on this card. I don't actually have any financial use for credit cards beyond using them to boost my credit score so keeping the util% on the CapOne card really low will not be a problem going forward. I am looking to add another unsecured line fo credit with hopefully a larger CL to my portfolio. I was hoping for some advice on who I should send an app to and whether or not I should wait until after this months payment reports and my util% is much lower... Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to growing with the many of you on here doing something similar to me.
Two months is probably too quick... Give it another month or two then apply to Discover, IMO...
@Anonymous wrote:Hello All!
I have crept around the myfico forums for a few months now. I quit using most forms of credit about 7 years ago when I left the Finance industry and began bumming around. A few months ago there weren't any open accounts reporting. Now that I have opened my own business and have planted some roots I am beginning to build up my credit. My credit was 594 two months ago when I began taking on this project. I had no open accounts so I applied to CapOne and received a Chase Platinum with a 22.99 apr and a 300 CL. My TU credit score (from CreditTracker and CreditKarma) is 671. When the statement went out the card had $265 balance and my payment (PIF) just posted to the card but would not yet me on my credit report. I am planning to now keep the balance a lot lower on this card. I don't actually have any financial use for credit cards beyond using them to boost my credit score so keeping the util% on the CapOne card really low will not be a problem going forward. I am looking to add another unsecured line fo credit with hopefully a larger CL to my portfolio. I was hoping for some advice on who I should send an app to and whether or not I should wait until after this months payment reports and my util% is much lower... Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to growing with the many of you on here doing something similar to me.
@Anonymous wrote:Hello All!
I have crept around the myfico forums for a few months now. I quit using most forms of credit about 7 years ago when I left the Finance industry and began bumming around. A few months ago there weren't any open accounts reporting. Now that I have opened my own business and have planted some roots I am beginning to build up my credit. My credit was 594 two months ago when I began taking on this project. I had no open accounts so I applied to CapOne and received a Chase Platinum with a 22.99 apr and a 300 CL. My TU credit score (from CreditTracker and CreditKarma) is 671. When the statement went out the card had $265 balance and my payment (PIF) just posted to the card but would not yet me on my credit report. I am planning to now keep the balance a lot lower on this card. I don't actually have any financial use for credit cards beyond using them to boost my credit score so keeping the util% on the CapOne card really low will not be a problem going forward. I am looking to add another unsecured line fo credit with hopefully a larger CL to my portfolio. I was hoping for some advice on who I should send an app to and whether or not I should wait until after this months payment reports and my util% is much lower... Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to growing with the many of you on here doing something similar to me.
Hey Moose! Welcome to the forum
Great job on working on building back up your credit again! Considering you've only had your Cap One open for about 2 months, it may be best to nurture what you have before taking a big step toward a primer card. I advocate at least 6 months of total history, but others may think otherwise.
If you'd like to add another tradeline though, after you reduce the utilization on your Cap One card (preferaby 1-9%), are you interested in any store cards? Anyplace you tend to frequent that you can benefit from 0% interest and/or rewards? If so, consider that card as something to apply for. That's what I did when I first started out!
If not, use your Cap One card wisely, and at the 6-month mark find a card that you feel would benefit you rewards-wise. Chase may be a little out of reach, but Barclay's, Discover, BOA, or an AMEX charge may be best!
Good luck on your journey!
what else is on your credit?
if you had a score when you got your first card something is reporting.
Thanks for the responses everyone. I really like how everyone on here is so willing to provide advice. As far as store cards go I don't really have any use for them. I live in Key West most of the year so there isn't much of a nationwide store shopping scene down here. I suppose I could just open a store card and buy things online to get more positive tradelines. I am throwing around the idea of opening a Home Depot card. Would that be a possibility in your' opinions? I am also thinking of going to the bank where I have my business accounts and opening an installment loan of some sort just to have a little more diversity in my TLs.
As far as what else is on my credit report the only things that showed up were two closed accounts. A Range Rover loan from a CU 5 or so years ago and I believe another closed account from around the same time. I am not sure as I don't have the credit report sitting in front of me. I know I don't have any late payments, collections or otherwise negatives on the report. I assume the nearly blank report is why simply opening one revolving credit line would make my score jump over 70 points in one reporting cycle... That is speculation on my part. I am hoping to see another somewhat significant (although not another 70 point jump) increase seeing as my statement date for the CapOne card is tomorrow and there is only about $25 balance (8.3% util) which will report along with a PIF from last month. If I am way off here please don't be shy about telling me. I went to a Big Ten school for a Finance degree and I am the first to admit that I never was taught any of this stuff!
Again, I really appreciate the help already provided and would like to thank everyone else who contributes in advance.
Thanks, Creditaddict. I have no need for the installment loan. I was just thinking that paying the interest would be worth strengthening my portfolio. I was under the impression that an installment loan was somehow regarded to be of better quality than an unsecured debt as far as the algorythm goes.