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Hi. I have been rebuilding my credit all year; I find it a fine line between app'ing and gardening. I just paid my third payment to Discover. I have been using the card for everything--food, gas, bills. My first payment was $100, then $300, and now I just PIF (current CL is 1800). I am thinking/hoping that w/my usage and now PIF that I can do a CLI (if no auto CLI) when my statement cuts next week. Just wondering if anyone else has PIF in the hopes of a CLI (and, again, this will be my 4th month w/them; my scores are all approx. 720 and my usage overall is about 40%). Thanks.
HI NewbieDerrick,
Glad you're on the forums!
Wen you say your usage overall is about 40%, do you mean your overall utilization is 40%? (That means the reported balance on all your revolving accounts equals 40%) or do you mean that you use about 40% of your credit limit each month?
What other cards do you have open? How old are they?
Hi....thanks for the reply. I meant my total usage is at 40% (not just per month). I actually was declined a Barclay's card last December b/c "too new credit/no revolving credit accounts." In January, I received a mail offer for 1st Premier Bank (I know how bad the terms were but got a decent opening CL of $700). I figured I'd use that card for a year and just hope that would build my credit profile up. However, in May I received a Citi offer (and was excited!); I app'd & was approved for $4000!!! In June, I recieved a Discover offer; again, app'd and approved for $1800.
I just got a Discover last week the CSR told me to wait six months before asking for a CLI.
They tell everyone to wait 6 month's but if I had to do it again, when they offered $3K when I opend the account, I would have said $8K and we would have started the negotiation!
Like so many, I was happy after 20 years trying to finally get a Discover that I said, what the hell, ok I will take $3K. Big mistake.
I tried to get a CLI after 6 month's and pushing about $5,800 (0 owed to Discover and 1% outstanding everywhere else) so I thought it would be a good time to try.
They held by past baddies against me and said no dice. Good thing they only used a soft inquiry but the most important thing was in the denial letter, they told me the date of the soft inquiry and it was a soft to my TU 3 week before I asked for the CLI so they used old data.
Next time . . . .
I got my Discover More in May 2010 with s $2000 CL. I did a CLI this April which resulted in a hard pull and all I got out of it was a measly extra $500.
I was AU on a card that I used/paid myself. DH never used it even though it was his. He has excellent credit. They started him at $1500 (which made him mad and therefore he refused to use it). Anyway, I didn't use it heavily, but it did get usage. I also didn't PIF every month, I would leave a hundred or so balance reporting, but would always pay big amounts (i.e. 400 or 500 at a time, depending on what I had on there). That card would get an auto increase of $400 like clockwork every three months, starting on the third month. IIRC, about a week or so after the third statement cuts, there would be an email telling us of the increase. In a year, it went from 1500 to 3100.
Then the stupid CSR messed it up for me! DH finally got ticked off with the CSR and closed it after a year.
Good thing is that because of that, I cleaned up my credit and just recently got approved for a More card and was started at $1000, so I'm wondering if it will be the same for mine.
Does anyone know if, when you're approved but you have something negative still showing, if that will put you into a type of category that doesn't get CLIs automatically or as easily as someone who has a clean record? Or is it just the luck of the draw for people?
Discover pulls TU cr for cli's if you have any derogs at all very HARD to get a cli. You will not get a cli with a soft pull, and if you do it will be a hard pull, this is what happened to me, the rep even told me until the derog that I have falls off my cr it will always be a hard pull and I feel a struggle as well for a cli.