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By the way, Welcome to the MyFico Forum!
The forum members are generally very helpful, so never be afraid to ask questions.
I have to agree with Distant on advice about getting with better known cards. I've read little about Suntrust but Distant's opinion of them sounds familiar. Plus if i remember correctly, they are conservative as well, meaning they may deny you even more readily than AMEX.
One thing you can count on, if they were great to get in with, they'd be talked about on this forum like NFCU or others Distant mentioned. They're not, so that's one extra indicator to take into consideration.
@RyVision wrote:
I have to agree with Distant on advice about getting with better known cards. I've read little about Suntrust but Distant's opinion of them sounds familiar. Plus if i remember correctly, they are conservative as well, meaning they may deny you even more readily than AMEX.
One thing you can count on, if they were great to get in with, they'd be talked about on this forum like NFCU or others Distant mentioned. They're not, so that's one extra indicator to take into consideration.
+1
I dealt with SunTrust a few years ago on the business side of things and they were great. I have never had any of their personal cards but based on my experience with them i wouldn't hesitate to apply. Remeber, everything with credit has to work for you.
@gheedorah wrote:Oh man. I had a couple of CDs at Suntrust that when they matured, I just dumped into a money market account and attached checking account, and have loved them so much, I closed my other (Wells Fargo/ING) accounts and consolidated everything to Suntrust. Their customer service has been awesome for me! Not surprised to hear that they're ranked worst though- they're so overkill-helpful with everything, that "making up for a bad reputation" would go a long way in explaining their eagerness to please.
Anyway, I think I'll still at least consider the prospect, so if anyone does happen along and know what credit agency they pull from, I'd be appreciative.
If you already have that deep of a banking relationship with them, perhaps you just gave your own review? It's not unusual for a bank to treat their loyal customers with many products better and with more attention than someone just looking for a CC or other lending product. If you're local, that may be a big key as well. Have you spoke with a personal banker at your branch about the offer and sought their opinion?
I'm sure very few people on this forum (or others) would have a local branch or multiple product dealings with them.
@RyVision wrote:
@gheedorah wrote:Oh man. I had a couple of CDs at Suntrust that when they matured, I just dumped into a money market account and attached checking account, and have loved them so much, I closed my other (Wells Fargo/ING) accounts and consolidated everything to Suntrust. Their customer service has been awesome for me! Not surprised to hear that they're ranked worst though- they're so overkill-helpful with everything, that "making up for a bad reputation" would go a long way in explaining their eagerness to please.
Anyway, I think I'll still at least consider the prospect, so if anyone does happen along and know what credit agency they pull from, I'd be appreciative.
If you already have that deep of a banking relationship with them, perhaps you just gave your own review? It's not unusual for a bank to treat their loyal customers with many products better and with more attention than someone just looking for a CC or other lending product. If you're local, that may be a big key as well. Have you spoke with a personal banker at your branch about the offer and sought their opinion?
I'm sure very few people on this forum (or others) would have a local branch or multiple product dealings with them.
I agree with RyVision, especially after hearing positive reviews about SunTrust from other forum members. Loyal customers always get the best offers.
@webhopper wrote:Based on Whogavemecredit.com, they pull Equifax. but there are only two examples, both declined with low scores, so who really knows.
Do a Google search on "credit pulls database" for the site of which we may not speak...substantially more entries there, and the bulk are EQ inquiries.
OMG so many responses. I look away for two minutes and I'm swimming in replies.
Spending patterns are very sporadic, though I landed a consulting contract two months ago and last month got a bump, and so am presently reveling in a salary more than twice as high as anything I've made in my life. Its too bad there's no tithe option at the credit agencies, to score myself some extra points.
Anyway, presently I don't have a huge need for credit, but I'm in an optimal position to do as much as I can to improve my credit situation. My interest is more in financing occasional large purchases (for instance, going to be buying a new computer in the next few month or two, and could pay cash- and realize that it would be cheaper to do it that way- but find it would be a great opportunity to cultivate my credit a little more if I can put it on a card).
Equifax is showing me at 630
TransUnion is showing me at 624
Experian is showing me at 594
I have a couple of cards, all with low limits and relatively high balances.
I've recently actually been considering throwing 2k or something like that at a secured line of credit, just to get that larger credit limit into the mix, but I'm not sure exactly how that works.
I've lived my life generally as a poor artist/designer, and so am a whiz at getting by on a shoestring budget, and like I said, don't really need credit, but its so interesting to me and its become a sort of infectious challenge, to see how much repair/how quickly/what I can get it to/etc. I have intermittently paid attention to it over the last few years, starting in mid 2011- applied for a credit card, watched my scores, got distracted with other things, plodded along, got renewed interest in my credit scores, added a new credit card, rinse, repeat.
I have:
2x Capital One (500 CL's)
Orchard Bank (now Capital One) (400 CL)
Amazon Chase (400 CL)
Target (200 CL)
Walmart (300 CL)
Mostly young (AAoA is 1.5 years), oldest is 3.2 years.
I've always just lived off of my income, which I prided myself on, but now that I have substantially more income, I figure I may as well ride the wave.
(P.S. I am not making "a ton" of money- just, relatively speaking, a lot more than I ever have before).
1 - 2 derogatory items depending on what report you're looking at, for a bad debt from a very bad phase in my life years ago
one derogatory item is the original debt
the other is the subsequent collection agency
the debt is past the SOL
I've even offered to pay the collection agency's ridiculously marked-up balance if they'd simply agree to remove their own information (not original creditor- just their own) from my credit report, but as yet they will not
Those two marks aren't moving anytime soon, unless the CA has a change of tune regarding my stipulation
Also have "late payments" from Toyota Financial- told me one thousand times that my grace period was 29 days from my due date (basically, up until the day before my next payment was due) so I always paid "on time", often taking advantage of the grace period, as freelance design does not often come with predictable paychecks- but years later (got the loan in 2006), I see that I have 11 late payments (30-day late). I contacted them back in 2011, inquired, explained the situation, and I even filed a dispute, did everything I could- I was told that I had this grace period multiple times, and never heard anything from them about a late payment, never knew there was an issue until years later when I finally paid attention to my credit for the first time in my life. So, that will persist also.
Anyway, I'm planning to pay about 600 per pay check (paid on 15th and 30th of each month) on cards, forgoing any savings and retaining only grocery money, rent money, etc, and knocking my utilization down to 0 by late april or early may.
I am imagining once I have a zero debt-utilization ratio, I'll hit a ceiling about 20 points higher than where I am right now, and then be stuck there, only moving slowly towards fall-off date for the derogatory stuff and/or AAoA slowly increases. But, any input/suggestions here are welcome.
All I really want/need is one card that will give me a decent limit, and the rest of my cards can go into my sock drawer (except the Amazon card, because I like running up cashback and then just spending it to pay down its own balance).
Well, as far as I can see, Suntrust only offers their credit cards to their current banking/loan customers, so I imagine this is part of their relative obscurity on this matter.