Prime card possibilties?

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2008

Hey guys, I need some advice. I currently have three sub prime cards (Orchard $1,100 limit, CreditOne $500 limit, Capital One $500 limit) all in good standing but would like to add a prime card. My ficos are: EQ 671 EX 656 TU 648. I have no collections but a few 30 day lates in early 07 (2 on Zales / 1 on Walmart store card) and multiple ancient lates from 4 yrs ago on a closed (PIF, not charged off) Discover account. Other than that, report is clean. Any chance for a prime? Or should I wait a bit longer? Oh, my util% is at 37 but should be between 20-10% by the end of next month. Thanks for any advice!

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2008

Can someone help me out with this too. My situation is that I am a new PR and only have an 18 month old credit history. I have 2 new accounts (3 and 6 months old) and 2 that are about 1 1/2 years old. Is my credit history too short to qualify for lets say a Discover on the road card or a decent Citi card? I'm pretty sure my FICO will be @ least 700 within the next few weeks, but I don't want to apply for something I can't get.

islandchild82 · ‎07-27-2008

I don't know whether you would consider WaMu prime, but I'm sure you have a shot with them. Have you received any preapprovals from them?

Other than that, I would definitely wait until your lower utilization hits your reports. It will increase your scores and make you an even better candidate for prime cards.

Good luck!

fused · ‎07-27-2008

Mystic0 wrote:
Hey guys, I need some advice. I currently have three sub prime cards (Orchard $1,100 limit, CreditOne $500 limit, Capital One $500 limit) all in good standing but would like to add a prime card. My ficos are: EQ 671 EX 656 TU 648. I have no collections but a few 30 day lates in early 07 (2 on Zales / 1 on Walmart store card) and multiple ancient lates from 4 yrs ago on a closed (PIF, not charged off) Discover account. Other than that, report is clean. Any chance for a prime? Or should I wait a bit longer? Oh, my util% is at 37 but should be between 20-10% by the end of next month. Thanks for any advice!

I would wait until your reports update, then let's see your scores, they can only improve with lowering util. Having new scores of say 685-665 might very well make a difference.

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2008

Nah, I haven't gotten any preapprovals offers from anyone but my scores just jumped to where they are now in the past couple of weeks from the low 600 range. I don't really *need* any new credit but I'm a bit anxious to get away from those subprime fees, you know? I expect that my scores will climb a bit higher when my util goes down but I guess I'm trying to figure out how soon you start working on mixing good cards in so you can eventually dump the subprimes. I guess it's a delicate balancing act, eh?

fused · ‎07-27-2008

If you want to get a ballpark idea of what you might be approved for, check out these sites. And don't worry, they will not do any hard inqs. It will just give you an idea what might be available to you.

Amex

https://www201.americanexpress.com/cards/Applyfservlet?csi=0/0/b/510&from=580

BoA

https://preapproved.bankofamerica.com/cc/SelfInquiry.aspx

HSBC

https://www.hsbcapply.com/start/hsbccreditcard/ca?media=H5IM112FAX0803000460XXTHX

Again, anything that is offered is pre-approved and does not guarantee an approval.

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2008

Thanks for the input, guys. It's very helpful and I appreciate it a lot. I've only been at this for about a month and all of your insight and advice has been very beneficial. Thanks!

Anonymous · ‎08-02-2008

@islandchild82 wrote:
I don't know whether you would consider WaMu prime, but I'm sure you have a shot with them. Have you received any preapprovals from them?

Other than that, I would definitely wait until your lower utilization hits your reports. It will increase your scores and make you an even better candidate for prime cards.

Good luck!

islandchild82, are you psychic? Out of the blue I just got a preapproval offer from WaMu. You're good!

Of course, now I don't know if I should take their offer or not. My scores have risen to EQ 696 EX 677, don't know what TU is but I'd guess it has risen since the others have. They're offering no AF and 0% on BT till 9/09, which is cool but the APR sits at 14.99. What do you guys think?

jmbfl · ‎08-02-2008

Mystic0 wrote:
Hey guys, I need some advice. I currently have three sub prime cards (Orchard $1,100 limit, CreditOne $500 limit, Capital One $500 limit) all in good standing but would like to add a prime card. My ficos are: EQ 671 EX 656 TU 648. I have no collections but a few 30 day lates in early 07 (2 on Zales / 1 on Walmart store card) and multiple ancient lates from 4 yrs ago on a closed (PIF, not charged off) Discover account. Other than that, report is clean. Any chance for a prime? Or should I wait a bit longer? Oh, my util% is at 37 but should be between 20-10% by the end of next month. Thanks for any advice!

The combination of older lates and more recent lates is not favorable. If you get manually reviewed it will be a red flag. Means your problems are not all behind you and have recurred. I'd wait until the most recent bad item is at least two years old - and older than that if possible.

I don't care much for WaMu and do not consider them prime. They are a major issuer - but not prime. I would avoid them as they can really mess with you bad under certain circumstance. If you absolutely can not avoid asking for something I would go to BofA. They will grow with you. With WaMu you seem to be branded when they open the account and once you are cubbyholed it seems to be hard to move up.

jmbfl · ‎08-02-2008

siang wrote:
Can someone help me out with this too. My situation is that I am a new PR and only have an 18 month old credit history. I have 2 new accounts (3 and 6 months old) and 2 that are about 1 1/2 years old. Is my credit history too short to qualify for lets say a Discover on the road card or a decent Citi card? I'm pretty sure my FICO will be @ least 700 within the next few weeks, but I don't want to apply for something I can't get.

"...I am a new PR..." - what do you mean by that? In our parlance PR = Public Record and that is never good. Please clarify.