Credit

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Don't cold app for cards. Meaning just apply. You'll run up alot of inquiries and take hits on your score for each one and not even get the card. If you're wanting a certain card, let's just say American Express for example, Google American Express pre approved credit card and go that route but make sure you're at their pre approved site. It typically has you check a box at the end that says this is not an actual application, it won't affect your credit score etc. Type in your info and see what happens.

If it says congratulations or you're pre approved for this card etc then you have a better chance for it but not a guarantee. If it says you may like or we suggest this card or some other verbage similar to that then it's a no go usually. So don't app for it and take the hit on your score and get the inquiry. And never go by what Credit Karma says your approval odds are for a certain card and go through them. Go straight to the issuers site.

I havent done those pre application thinking it would affect my credit score.

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi Nelson! My comments below in blue.

@Anonymous wrote:
I was thinking about pulling my credit score from annualcreditreport.com but wanted to wait till i build a bit more since you can only pull it once a year without paying.

You can get your credit reports from ACR, but not your scores.

I was going to pull it from this site but dont want to pay monthly for this.

Very understandable. There are free tools that will enable you to pull your reports frequently. Karma is great for that (just ignore their scores) and it will give you EQ and TU. Here's another tool that will give you your Experian report and a FICO for free each month:

https://www.creditscore.com/

Finally, a nice ultra-low-lost solution is the $1 trial at Credit Check Total, which will give you an attractive 3-bureau report and a FICO 8 for each bureau as well. Many people choose to repeat the $1 trial as often as once per month.

Also whe you say $0 balance on two cards like not spend nothing on two cards and on the third card spend a little bit of my credit.

The dispute is because I see two inquires i dont reconginize so maybe if i dispute it they will tell me for sure.

Google the creditor names (as they appear on the report) and you may well be eventually able to figure out who the companies are and find a contact number for them. Then call them and ask the rep at the company if they can explain more about the company and whether they have a record of doing an inquiry on you.

The dispute process is almost never a good idea for inquiries. And even for non-inquuries, disputes are best when you are 100% certain that the information is faulty in some specific way. You are at this point unsure you know who the creditor is. (And as I say, disputing inquiries almost never works.)

So the reports you get from ACR is kinda the same as credit karma where i can see the accounts i have under each 3 credit company.

Is FICO 8 another word for your credit score.

Thanks for the replies

FICO 8 is what most lenders use to determine if they want to extend you credit.

Credit Karms using something called VantageScore 3.0 which most places tend not to use.

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

Do you guys think going for the capital one quicksilver or the chase freedom creditcards are good ? If not, would apprecaite any suggestions.

I chose those cards because they give me cashback on almost/all purchase and I plan on just using my card for like gas and small purchases so they can see im using it.

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

Going to sign up for the $1 trail on credit check total and Ill let you guys know my credit score.

This wont affect my score right?

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Going to sign up for the $1 trail on credit check total and Ill let you guys know my credit score.

This wont affect my score right?

It shouldn't it just pulls your score.

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

My FICO scores is

experian 750

transunion 738

equifax 721

I think thats pretty good for 6 months of credit? idk if thats right lol

HeavenOhio · ‎08-08-2017

Those are good scores. They shouldn't be a factor when you apply for credit. A lack of history is probably coming into play. Is your income adequate? What reasons are you being given when you're denied?

As others have said, check out the pre-qual sites. AMEX, Capital One, and Chase have good ones. Many other pre-qual sites are little more than advertising and won't tell you much. Look at the APR you're offered. If you're given a definite rate (e.g. 17%) or a narrow range (e.g. 15–18%), your chances are good. If you're given a wide range (e.g. 12–24%), figure that you're seeing little more than an ad.

As far as inquiries go, pre-qual sites are soft pulls and won't affect your score. The only person who'll ever see them is you, and that's only if you pull your reports from annualcreditreport.com.

When you actually apply for cards, that's when you get the hard pulls. AMEX will almost certainly pull a FICO8 from Experian. Capital One will pull all three bureaus. There's a good chance that Chase will pull two of the three; it could be any two.

I wouldn't be surprised if AMEX wants you right now. With Capital One, wait until you're sure your current card is six months old. They won't issue more than one card in a six-month period. After that, I wouldn't be surprised if you were in good shape for a Quicksilver. Others have mentioned Discover. You might be well positioned for either their student card or their secured card. But their pre-qual site isn't going to give you much guidance.

One more note about Capital One. Don't apply for their QuicksilverOne card. It has an annual fee, and it's hard to product-change it into a no-fee Quicksilver down the road. If you don't feel confident applying for the Quicksilver, opt for their no-fee Platinum card. People here have found success in product-changing it into a Quicksilver after building up some history. Or if that doesn't happen, since there's no fee, the card can simply be put aside if you acquire better cards down the road.

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

As joesef said, try not to just cold app, try to prequalify first. Here is a site with all of the major prequal pages: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/view-personalized-credit-card-offers/ Just remember that not all prequals are created equal. For example BoA and Discover can be misleading, or outright worthless. Look for a solid APR (14%, not 10.99-17.99) and the words qualified or prequalified on your offer. If it says something like 'we suggest....' or 'based on your interests...' it's not a good offer. Additionally, even if it pops up with a solid offer, it could change once they run your credit, but more often than not it doesn't.

I'd suggest reading on here how each prequal site works, so you know what to look for and what to avoid, before doing it. Just search each card with something like 'Discover prequalify` and it should pull up informative results.

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2017

@Anonymous wrote:

So the reports you get from ACR is kinda the same as credit karma where i can see the accounts i have under each 3 credit company.

Is FICO 8 another word for your credit score.

Thanks for the replies

Keep working with the folks here, who can help you out. I am going on vacation soon and will likely be out of the forum for two weeks.

While you work on the details, I also really suggest you get help on understanding the "big picture" stuff, the bird's eye view at a high level. Otherwise you will misunderstand detail-oriented advice because you don't have the right framework to park it in.

To get you started, make sure you understand what a report is vs. a score. The report will be a big list of all your accounts, that tells your history with them and what your current balance is and stuff like that. It's a big long list, where each item on the list is a different account. There will be some additional info on the report, like for example whether you have applied recently for credit (inquiries). There are three different companies that house this kind of data on you: Equifax (EQ), Experian (EX), and TransUnion (TU) so you have three different reports.

Karma will give you a report on EQ and TU as often as once a week. I indicated another place to get a free monthly EX report. CCT gives you all three reports for a $1. Etc. It is incredibly important to learn how to print and read your reports -- and not to rely solely on what your score is (see below).

The score is different from the report. It is a single number, typically between 300 and 850. Two big groups make credit scores: Vantage and FICO. You can ignore the Vantage scores because few lenders use them. The score is the result of a computer program taking all the information in your report and spitting out that single number.

FICO makes a number of families of scoring models. The one that will matter to you is FICO 8. You can ignore everything else for a while until you have learned a lot more about scores. The link I gave you for EX will give you a free FICO 8 and CCT is a good place to get your FICO 8 score too.

Keep working with the folks here, keep learning about reports and learn how to read and understand yours each month. The folks here can help you with both big picture stuff and details: do both. Good luck...

SouthJamaica · ‎08-08-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So the reports you get from ACR is kinda the same as credit karma where i can see the accounts i have under each 3 credit company.

Is FICO 8 another word for your credit score.

Thanks for the replies
Keep working with the folks here, who can help you out. I am going on vacation soon and will likely be out of the forum for two weeks.

While you work on the details, I also really suggest you get help on understanding the "big picture" stuff, the bird's eye view at a high level. Otherwise you will misunderstand detail-oriented advice because you don't have the right framework to park it in.

To get you started, make sure you understand what a report is vs. a score. The report will be a big list of all your accounts, that tells your history with them and what your current balance is and stuff like that. It's a big long list, where each item on the list is a different account. There will be some additional info on the report, like for example whether you have applied recently for credit (inquiries). There are three different companies that house this kind of data on you: Equifax (EQ), Experian (EX), and TransUnion (TU) so you have three different reports.

Karma will give you a report on EQ and TU as often as once a week. I indicated another place to get a free monthly EX report. CCT gives you all three reports for a $1. Etc. It is incredibly important to learn how to print and read your reports -- and not to rely solely on what your score is (see below).

The score is different from the report. It is a single number, typically between 300 and 850. Two big groups make credit scores: Vantage and FICO. You can ignore the Vantage scores because few lenders use them. The score is the result of a computer program taking all the information in your report and spitting out that single number.

FICO makes a number of families of scoring models. The one that will matter to you is FICO 8. You can ignore everything else for a while until you have learned a lot more about scores. The link I gave you for EX will give you a free FICO 8 and CCT is a good place to get your FICO 8 score too.

Keep working with the folks here, keep learning about reports and learn how to read and understand yours each month. The folks here can help you with both big picture stuff and details: do both. Good luck...