@Anonymous wrote:Thanks! I am super excited about the navy combo. I hope my scores are not too low to get approved for a nice CL.
I was adviced to become a member today and wait till the end of the month to apply for credit card. Does it matter?
-Citibank $3,400/$4180; Credit Union $ 560/$1500 LOC; -Capital one 0/$2500
-Macys 0/$100; -Kohls 0/$200; -TJMaxx 0/$300
Experian score was 561 as of 1/1/15 On 2/26/15 EQ:626 TU:639 EX: 628
Just my 2 cents and personal experience; I app'ed for the membership and as soon as I was approved I app'ed for a CC and auto loan refi, and was approved for both. My CC limit was low at about 2K (compared to many others here), but my auto loan refi was somewhere around 18K, I can't remember now.
Anyway, another thing that would work in your favor is that my scores were even lower than yours, at around 613 or something in the MyFICO ScoreWatch score. Then about 2 weeks later they even approved me for NavChek at 2.5K, but Creditaddict said I probably could've received that as well when I app'ed for the other stuff. I was, and still am, impressed with what they gave me as well as their excellent customer service.
I was especially shocked that they approved me since I have a BK that was discharged back in 2012, but since I've had a pretty clean record since then and a nice salary of 60K+ that I think really worked in my favor. But even with those positives, many banks and CC companies still turned me down, when NFCU gave me the thumbs up, so I'm a VERY happy camper. Hope that helps.
P.S. Creditaddict is the resident guru around here on NFCU and hasn't steered me wrong, but then again none of the vets on the site ever gave me (or anyone I could see) bad advice, so you're in very good hands. Good luck with NFCU, not that I think you'll need it.
P.P.S. If you don't mind me asking, how did you get in and who let you in on this awesome secret that is NFCU? I myself, heard about it on this site and got in because my brother's a mechanic in the Army.
Starting Score: 611 (02/28/2014 EQ MyFico) 608 (Barclays TU 03/28/14)
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the encouragement! Seeing someone with a similar CS with positive feedback is encouraging! My brother is a federal government employee. He has been trying to get me to join NFCU for a while, but I've hesitated. Joining this forum and seeing the awesome remarks about NFCU, it was impossible to hold out any longer.
If you dont mind me asking, do you have any other credit cards?
-Citibank $3,400/$4180; Credit Union $ 560/$1500 LOC; -Capital one 0/$2500
-Macys 0/$100; -Kohls 0/$200; -TJMaxx 0/$300
Experian score was 561 as of 1/1/15 On 2/26/15 EQ:626 TU:639 EX: 628
Glad to hear. I do have other CCs, but at the time I had 1 other CC before I got my nRewards NFCU CC, and it was a Credit One CC. The terms were ridiculous and the APR even worse, but it did help my CS and I've since closed it with a dismal CL of $500 and an APR of about 25% if I remember correctly. I asked them to lower the APR and they refused, so I closed my account. I still think it was 1 of my best decisions on a CC.
As for my current line up I have:
| Credit Card 03/04/15 | Balance | Limit | Utilization |
| Amazon | 790 | 800 | 98.75% |
| Credit One Bank | 0 | 500 | 0.00% |
| Barclays | 1781 | 2050 | 86.88% |
| nRewards (NFCU) | 553 | 2500 | 22.12% |
| Christian Financial CU | 2795 | 3000 | 93.17% |
| NavCheck (NFCU) | 4743.87 | 5000 | 94.88% |
| Capital One | 938 | 1000 | 93.80% |
| Total | 11600.87 | 14850 | 78.12% |
As you can see, currently most of them have pretty high balances, but I'm working on that. I also try not to let the higher balances post before the statement closes if I can. And in my defense, the Amazon I use to buy stuff and pay it off over time at 0% interest like Bill Me Later and the Cap 1 CC is currently in a 0% intro APR until April or May. The rest I'll try to bring as low as possible to boost my score so I can ask for a CLI for my NFCU since it's a SP and I haven't aske for a CLI for about 6 months or more now. Hoping that works out well.
At any rate, if you have other questions let me know and I'll try to answer them for you. But like I said earlier, barring some huge judgement or other really negative baddies on your CR (especially if they're recent), I don't see why you wouldn't get approved for something. Now the CL is another story entirely, but getting approved should be easy, IMO.
P.S. If you're wondering why I still list Credit One as an account, it's because it still factors into my UTI and overall credit portfolio for about 10 years, if I remember correctly, and I think I closed it last year.
You have a good mix there. Seems like once you can get the UTIs a little lower, your score will hike up. I didnt know that the closed accounts are factored into your UTI for 10 years. That is good info! I have a ton of accounts with late payments from a few years ago and a few in collections, but no lates in the past few months. My goal is to send goodwill letters towards the end of the month to get some of the negative items removed from my report. I am really hoping that will help my score. On a positive note, my TU score just went up by 11points as I was typing
I would like to keep in touch during our gardening journey
I sent in my app and can't wait to get approved. What is NFCU like in terms of CLI? I might wait to app for a CC/Navcheck depending on the answer, my scores should be going up nicely in the next couple of months and should make me eligible for better limits.
@Anonymous wrote:You have a good mix there. Seems like once you can get the UTIs a little lower, your score will hike up. I didnt know that the closed accounts are factored into your UTI for 10 years. That is good info! I have a ton of accounts with late payments from a few years ago and a few in collections, but no lates in the past few months. My goal is to send goodwill letters towards the end of the month to get some of the negative items removed from my report. I am really hoping that will help my score. On a positive note, my TU score just went up by 11points as I was typing
Yeah, that UTI is really hurting me. At 1 point I was at 648 EQ from ScoreWatch and then that UTI raised and it all hit the fan. And as for the goodwill letters, that's a great idea. I take it you've been to the other topic forums and heard about them, but if not check it out and you can also see what creditors others have had success with. So good luck with those.
Congrats on the point increase, those are always a joy! As for gardening, the general rule is don't app for it if you don't really need it. So not just app'ing because you want something. It's been kinda hard for me, but not too much, mostly because of my score. But anyway, sure I'd like to keep in touch as well during this grand journey and we can help each other out. We're all a part of this MyFICO Forum family, and as far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much family. So I'll let you know how my endeavors go toward the end of the month, and you keep me updated on yours as well.