Which Major Credit Cards Will We Qualify For?

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to determine at what point my husband and I will qualify for a major credit card with a decent interest rate. I'd like to know if anyone is aware of which credit scores will qualify for which credit cards?

[fused]

Welcome to the forums!

You might want to share a few things with the forum so we can be more helpful. May I suggest you share the following information:

- What are your FICO scores (husband too)?

- Do either of you have any credit cards in good standing? If so, what are they? Credit limits and balances reporting on both of your credit reports?

- Any negative items on either of your reports? If so, what are they and how old are they? Lates (how severe)? Unpaid/paid  collections and charge-offs?

- How long are your credit histories? Have either of you applied for any credit in the last year or so?

[laz98]

they don't just have one specific score they use for everyone.  they don't even pull the same reports for everyone!  it will have to be based on your individual credit files.

[Anonymous]

Mine are in the 650's, husband's are currently in the low 600's. Ftr, we're not considering applying for anything right now, we're just curious about what our options might be in the future.

We both have CC's in good standing, either low or no balances. They are all low limits, though.

I have old negs in the form of settled, paid in full for CC's that are about 4-5 years old. 1 or 2 late payments on my current CC history that are 2-3 years old. Paid on time since then.

Husband has roughly the same history.

[Anonymous]

On open CC's, our lates were 30 days. Neither of us has applied for credit in the past year. We are trying to get ready to buy a house, so we won't be applying for CC's for a while.

Both of our credit histories dates back to '78 (amazing, since I'm only 25). My mom put me on her CC a long time ago, and somehow he ended up getting it reported on his report, too. We left it since it's all positive.

I've had accounts open for about 7 years. I'm not sure what husband's length of hx is.

[Anonymous]

Hi Rollercoaster_84!

Which credit cards you might qualify for in the future is tough to answer without A) more specific detail about your credit profile, and B) knowing how far into the future you're thinking about applying.

For example, you note having some old charge-offs, but without knowing what cards, we can't make a recommendation, because some cards blacklist forever, some only blacklist until it's off your credit reports, and some are hit and miss. You note still having some open, "low limit" cards, with some lates, but without knowing which ones & what a "low limit" is, it's hard to say what you might springboard into, going forward. To get some cards, you might already need to have a card with a credit line of $X or greater. What you may be calling a "low limit" may be high enough to get the next card.

The biggest barrier to answering your question is the issue of time. How far down the line are you thinking? Is it far enough down the line that your baddies are going to drop off? Are you planning to do any credit repair (goodwil & PFDs) in that time? In the future, depending on how far you're thinking, you may have completely clean reports, and longer history than you have today. Lenders change their lending standards all the time (seems like daily, sometimes, LOL!), but if your reports are totally clean, your utilization low, and your history long, you could potentially qualify for anything! Or, depending on your credit past, you might be blacklisted from *some* products.

The bottom line is that there's just no reasonable way to give a good answer, other than very general/vague predictions.