@BungalowMo wrote:From everything I've heard, CITI likes big scores & cleaner reports than what you or I have
I was declined in Jan with #'s similar to yours...more baddies, but older than yours. *sigh*
While it's not a "great" card, like pattycake mentioned, I have a starter card...Credit one. You are likely to be approved (I was 4 yrs ago with lower scores than yours & fresher baddies) $350 to start but CLI's every 6 mos. First one I got was 1.5 yrs into it because I didn't know better! Now I call every 6 mos & that one is up to $850. For now, I hang on to it for the age. $6 fee per mo is worth it for now.
Credit One is a good rebuilder, as is Orchard or one of the CU secured cards. They aren't cheap, but for rebuilding, they are the Holy Grail. I had Orchard and Credit One (back in 2004 they were First National Bank of Marin). While there aren't as many options as there used to be, rebuilders are still out there, so I highly recommend getting two and then keeping your payment history as clean as possible. I also recommend visiting the rebuilding your credit section of this site. Best of luck to you - I never would have been able to get my scores to the 700 club had I not started following the advice of these boards, and my FICOs were in the 400's back in 2002.
Mo - I'm surprised you haven't gotten a better offer from Citi. I got a Citi card with FICOs lower than yours, but that was in 2006.
@outofthewoods wrote:with a starter card, you cl increases over time? I'm not familiar how they work. I dont plan on charging up a storm when I get a card, just rebuilding my credit.
another q: how bad of a hit do you think I took with this rejection?
With my card, like I said...I just let the $6 fee post each mo, then pay it. but $6 on a $350 card is a higher util than $6 on an $850 card. See what I mean? Just keep getting the $100 inc every 6 mos. Helps with my age & overall util.
How bad of a hit? Just 1 inq on one CRA, right? If that's the case & you didn't already have a few inq on that cra, the hit should be 1 point drop (YMMV)..well that's what I got recently for hard inq on EQ for a 1500 CLI. (already had 2 inq this year on that report)... I'd say that was worth 1 point.
@pattycake wrote:
@BungalowMo wrote:From everything I've heard, CITI likes big scores & cleaner reports than what you or I have
While it's not a "great" card, like pattycake mentioned, I have a starter card...Credit one. You are likely to be approved (I was 4 yrs ago with lower scores than yours & fresher baddies) $350 to start but CLI's every 6 mos. First one I got was 1.5 yrs into it because I didn't know better! Now I call every 6 mos & that one is up to $850. For now, I hang on to it for the age. $6 fee per mo is worth it for now.
Credit One is a good rebuilder, as is Orchard or one of the CU secured cards. They aren't cheap, but for rebuilding, they are the Holy Grail. I had Orchard and Credit One (back in 2004 they were First National Bank of Marin). While there aren't as many options as there used to be, rebuilders are still out there, so I highly recommend getting two and then keeping your payment history as clean as possible. I also recommend visiting the rebuilding your credit section of this site. Best of luck to you - I never would have been able to get my scores to the 700 club had I not started following the advice of these boards, and my FICOs were in the 400's back in 2002.
Mo - I'm surprised you haven't gotten a better offer from Citi. I got a Citi card with FICOs lower than yours, but that was in 2006.
Mine started with marin too!
I know what you mean about CITI...they pulled EX, but I know my FICO was a 671 from lender pull. That's why I figured they liked higher #'s & cleaner reports. Maybe they just don't like me