next step to take, need lotta helps and suggestions

[myjourney]

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@jchu2013 wrote:
Not sure about the aaoa but those 2 secured cards are the only things in my report, both of them are 9 months old.

About the score, I plan to pull myfico in september for the latest information before I start all the credit applications. But, according to citi credit monitoring, credit karma and quizzle, my score is 742. I know it's not fico, but this is what I know so far.

Thanks.

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Well here's a plus in your favor you do in fact have 2 TL's showing as revolving credit ...IIRC both of your secured cards on CR's look as CC's and if you have had both at 4000

since opening then it will look pretty good to other lenders

[mikey78]

you can wait 3 months for better chances to pay off

or risk it now for chance of approval but will hurt you later

[jamie123]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@jamie123 wrote:

The prime banks are:

AMEX

Bank of America

Citi Bank

Chase

Discover

Wells Fargo

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And you chose that list based on?

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1. Each of those banks has a large national and international presence.

2.You can use their CC most anywhere.

3.They  regularly give people CL in excess of 25K.

4.To a lesser extent, they all have quality customer service.

Is there somebody I left off the list?

Is there another way you would rank the prime banks?

[Crashem]

1) Really depends on your FICO score.  If you are on the cusp of best financing for auto loans, then I would do the auto loans first.  Here is the situation with hard pulls specifically for auto loans.  All the inquiries should only count as 1 inquiry FICO score wise if made with same period of time.  However it may affect your CC apps as some give auto denial with too many inquiries, but under recon, you can explain about auto loan and should be okay.  If you do CC apps first, each inquiry will bring down your FICO.  So try to spread out the inquiries, but I would recommend the auto first.  BUT, be prepared to app for CCs before auto loan hits credit report.

2) My recommendation is DO NOT join all those credit unions.  Basically you will take at least 1 HP to join and get credit card and anything else from each of those CUs and I believe they all use Equifax.  Since these HPs are not specifically auto related, each of the HPs will decrease your FICO.  I would just pick one of the 3 to join and app for their CC and auto loan.  I would double check which can do all three (join, app credit card, app car loan) with one HP.  You just need to decide which of the 3 match your needs the best.

The reality is that you just need one auto loan form financial institution to basically make sure the dealer is being honest about your credit/rates.  In most cases, the captive lender (auto manufacturer) will be offering the best rates, but dealers like to "mark up" these rates if you don't know what you are doing and what you deserve.  All three CUs you mentioned have good rates with PenFed being the best if you use their auto buying service as well.

Out of the three, I would probably consider PenFed to be frontrunner and Alliant coming in 2nd.  DCU is good CU and I like their free Equifax FICO.  Alliant has best vanilla auto rate and, since you are in Chicago, best branch coverage.  However PenFed leads in a few ways.  That ridiculous sub 1% auto loan if using their auto buying service.  PenFed offers the most variety and desirable credit cards out of the 3 and in fact has some of the best rewards cards out there (even with the recent points nerf).  Alliant and DCU credit cards are strictly vanilla 1% cards.  The third and very important reason is that, I believe, PenFed is the only one of the 3 that actively give soft based CLI.  Basically, once a quarter, they have offers up for those who qualify which basically include CLIs, new credit cards, etc. without having to apply and take hard pull.  These basically don't really start until 1 year and quarter after you join and get credit, but it does occur assuming good credit.  In other words, PenFed will grow with you.  DCU and Alliant, I think, give CLIs primarily user requested and HP based and therefore undesirable.

3) Any particular reason you are hung up on credit unions (not that I think they aren't lovely)?

4-6) You are unlikely to get any toy limits unless you apply to toy limit lenders.  However, even with decent FICO, you will see some rejections from your extremely short and thin credit file.  My recommedations are below. And I have no idea about Chase and whether bankers have any pull aside from Palladium

As for my recommendations:

1) You need to get in with AMEX this year if possible to set your member date.  If you don't want to take HP pr get rejected, then see if anyone will add you as AU (or ACM in Amex speak) to their card.  Set the card up with online access to get your member date set.  Otherwise, as someone suggest earlier, app for an AMEX charge card as it is easier to get with your profile.  In your case, I would not app for more than one AMEX now.  The reason is you want to wait till Jan to app for AMEX revolver.  Your chance of succeeding then will be higher because your AAoA is higher.  But more importantly, with AMEX backdating, the new card will have a year AAoA right away.  Your intuition is correct however that AMEX is great lender to grow with you because of their soft pull based CLI policy and their potentially aggressive CLI policies (ie. 3X).

2) Personally, I would app with PenFed first as they are inquiry sensitive.  You have to take HP to join and same HP can be used for credit products.  See what happens, but they can be tough, but I think this has more to do with being tough on people with any negatives on credit report vs. just having a short/thin credit report.  After PenFed, I would secure your auto loan.  Remember only auto loan designated HPs will be counted together.  If PenFed rejected auto loan, go to a bank who will put in app as auto loan app and auto loan HP.  Once auto is settled, then you can app away.  Probably try AMEX next.

After that, kind of up to you.  Since you are at the beginning of your credit history, there is kind of a decision to be made.  App away for whatever you can get that you will keep long term (no cost to have card or costs okay because I really like card).  This will pretty much harm your plans for immediate future, but build a bigger base of credit history for future and any app sprees.  The way you have to look at it is this way, you need your AAoA to be at least 1 year if not 2 AAoA to not get rejected from good cards based on that factor alone.  If you app away now, you will pretty much have to wait until it nears a year in AAoA to get the best cards, but makes it a lot easier to add cards in the future.  If you decide to app away now, then app to all those CUs you mentioned (since the credit cards are all free to keep longterm) and more.  Can't really hurt past a certain point and inquiries will age off together.  However remember, only app for those cards you will keep long-term (ie free to keep or not free with amazing rewards you must have).  Also, put Walmart on that list as well.  Only place to obain FICO8 score outside lender pulls.

However other option is hopefully get AMEX, PenFed, and auto loan taken care of now.  Come Jan, you app for 1-2 AMEX which each will have 1 year AAoA each.  Also, since you will hopefully be AMEX customer, you won't get HP if rejected.  Take those Jan Amex and get 61 days 3X CLI.  Let the 3X CLI report, then app away to whatever you want.  After that, just chill out until your mortgage gets down.

[MrxLeo]

Your AAoA is very short so you're going to have a hard time getting approved from a prime lender. From my own personal experience and reading the boards, your best bet would be CapitalOne's platinum builder card. However, the approval limit will likely be under $1k. The next option I would suggest is the Discover it. From what I've seen on the boards, they have been very generous with their approvals. I was rebuilding myself and my third card was Discover and they gave me a $6k approval! My next highest limit was only $1500 at that time. However my AAoA was 7.7years and my TU Fico was 742 when they approved me. (I cleaned up my credit prior to approving so that's why I have the established AAoA).

As for the auto loan, I would apply for a cc first. From my past experiences, they tend to base their approvals on scores primarily and don't really look at inquiries and AAoA. Y

[longtimelurker]

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@jamie123 wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@jamie123 wrote:

The prime banks are:

AMEX

Bank of America

Citi Bank

Chase

Discover

Wells Fargo

---

And you chose that list based on?

---

1. Each of those banks has a large national and international presence.

2.You can use their CC most anywhere.

3.They  regularly give people CL in excess of 25K.

4.To a lesser extent, they all have quality customer service.

Is there somebody I left off the list?

Is there another way you would rank the prime banks?

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I was more wondering your definition of prime.   For credit cards, I'm not sure that 1 and 3 come into the equation that much, and 3 seems arbitrary as many people do not get that sort of CL.   I would more use  criteria like  that the bank has some cards that require good credit (and are thus not available to everyone) without onerous fees.  National availability is important for recommending the card, but says nothing about its prime status.   So for example  US Bank has some good cards, but some of its cards require application in a branch (at least on paper).   So my selection would add Barclays and Capital One for example, but then I try to avoid using words like "prime"!

[jchu2013]

Thanks for the information. Then, I will apply penfed cc and its auto loan first. If approved, then amex and discovery then 2 more credit union. If not approved from penfed, I will go to apply for dcu and alliant auto loan first.

For dcu and alliant, is it 1 hp for auto loan together with cc?

Any more suggestions or options?

[Gstew]

Have you thought about asking your parents about being an authroized user? If they have a card with a low balance reporting every month that they have owned for a while it would severely increase you AAoA. Correct me if I'm wrong !

[Crashem]

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@jchu2013 wrote:
Thanks for the information. Then, I will apply penfed cc and its auto loan first. If approved, then amex and discovery then 2 more credit union. If not approved from penfed, I will go to apply for dcu and alliant auto loan first.

For dcu and alliant, is it 1 hp for auto loan together with cc?

Any more suggestions or options?

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Let us know how it goes with PenFed before you do anything else.  If you are mainly looking at auto loan, then might want to avoid hitting up the CUs, unless you are really want the CC and/or membership in CU, for auto loan as HPs will all count.  Might think about going to Chase and other commercial banks for auto loans.  You will likely also do something in dealership.  The important thing is to make sure all inquiries register as auto loan.

As for DCU and alliant, i would search forum for into on how many HPs

[Shogun]

I would throw Barclays and Cap1 in that group too.  Barclays has some nice products with rewards.  Cap1 gets a bad rap sometimes because of some of it's offerings, but it has some high level cards. Some that are quite hard to get.

I also I don't believe that "prime" is relevant.  If there is a lender that has a product that meets or exceeds your needs then go for it.  No matter who they are.