Rebuilding Credit - Options for Better Cards

[rdtech]

I've been working on rebuilding my credit for well over a year now and I've made big progress.

I have 3 total credit cards that I've been using for rebuilding:

My TU score is 679 and EQ is 661 as of this month. My TU has one inquiry on it in July from First Premier when they converted my account to unsecured.

Here are my current credit cards:

First Premier Bank: Started as a secured with $200 limit and converted to a unsecured with an increase to $400. Age on this account is 1 year and a few months. No missed payments.

Applied Bank: Secured account with $200 limit. Age on this account is 1 year and a few months. No missed payments.

Account Now/Metabank: This is reporting a $675 credit limit as revolving account, This is not a typical credit card, but I only went with this card as it did not report a inquiry on my CR and reports to all 3 agencies. It's 8 months old with no missed payments.

The baddies I have left are 2 Charge Offs; 1 from HSBC and 1 from Cortrust. I also have one collection account from Midland in 2005 which I am going to work on getting a PFD this week since I have enough money saved to go that route now. All 3 should fall off in 2012 given worst case.

Basically, I know these cards are not the greatest... but my credit was not either and they have served their purpose very well so I just accept that as a cost for my past mistakes. I would like to explore seeing about getting a much more prime credit card... something with a higher limit. I really only want 1 more card with a high limit for now until I get the remaining baddies taken care of, then I see myself (given I keep up the on time payments) in a good position for getting an AMEX or Citi.

I very much understand that those are out of my reach for now, but I was wondering what my chances would be for being accepted for a better card at this point given I have over a year with a flawless payment history. Any recommendations on a few cards I could apply for? Should I not even bother? I appreciate any thoughts. Thank you, and these forums are fantastic! I've learned more here about credit in a few weeks than I have in my entire life!