Howdy all,
Will try to make this short and sweet as I have a few questions and I am chomping at the bit to get started. I have been lurking for a couple of weeks now, but still not sure of all the acronyms, terms, etc., so bear with me. 
First, my story: Wife and bought house in 1999, everything was great. Both had excellent credit, jobs and numerous credit cards including Amex. No budget to speak of, loads of discretionary income. Wife worked for a restaurant company as a corporate exec, so monthly salary package included free meals at every restaurant in the company so we ate out a lot. You can see the problems coming already.....
First child born 2001, we decide to try and have her stay home while I worked. Went from two salaries to one without significantly adjusting lifestyle or spending habits. Got into trouble and started using savings and credit cards to keep up.
Realized the extent of problem, and adjusted. Came up with a budget to live within our means. Things getting better. And then....I was injured. Medical bills, loss of income, you know the story. Things got pretty ugly. Declared Ch 7 BK before Federal BK law changed in Oct 2005. Let house go as well, as it was underwater and as much as we loved it we knew the value wasn't going to recover quickly and we could see the location wasn't going to get much better either.
Moved into a house in a better area with better schools. At this point our primary motivation was our kids (we now had 2!). House belonged to a friend who had taken a job elsewhere. Great house, great area, and some of the top-rated public schools in the state. The current owner was a good friend and knew what we had gone through and really wanted to sell it to us, but we were "gardening" as hard as possible and trying to repair/improve credit, but just couldn't buy it yet.
Had a couple of hiccups in the 2007 and into 2008. Cap1 gave us both credit cards as soon as our BK was discharged. We hadn't liquidated all of our credit debt, and we were trying to do the right thing and pay off as many debts as we had. We still had some troubles paying all our debts and both Cap1 accounts were delinquent more than 60 days. Finally both accounts were sent to collection and we were eventually sued by the collection company in County Court in 2008. At this point CR was now back down in the 500's.
This was the final straw. We had worked so hard to improve our credit, live within our means. This would turn out to be the last baddie on our reports. Set up payment plans with the Court and paid both accounts off early. We "gardened" even harder. Pulled all Triple CR's (although know now these were FAKO's) and disputed incorrect or insufficient reports. Wife was working again after 2nd child was born and we were finally able to buy the house we were living in in Dec 2011!
Kids are happy, love their schools, love the neighborhood. Love their new friends.
So now what? BK won't drop off CR until 2015. But FICO score as of today is 689. Wife has a Orchard Bank credit card (unsecured) and car loan is in her name. I don't have any CC's, but use a debit card a lot. This doesn't help my CR, I know. I do use extensive budgeting and a software program to make sure we pay everything on time and in full though. Mortgage is in my name.
I do have established credit history of over 14 years and my last reported late payment was 4 years, 7 months ago. I have no accounts past due.
Using the FICO score simulator, the best option for me is to keep paying bills on time, which I certainly intend to do. But I want to be able to rent a car while on a business trip without being terrified I'll be turned down. I want to be able to get cash back from purchases. I guess what I'm saying is I want a CC.
Am I crazy? I know I could get a secured card. But just recently while on the creditcard.com forum I saw an ad for a Cap1 CC for those with fair credit. It said it could prequal me in 10 minutes and not affect my CS. I am also considering calling my credit union and seeing if they offer a CC product for those with less than ideal credit.
I recently received a pre-screened offer from Merrick Bank but the interest rate (24.9%) and monthly fees were ridiculous and I immediately shredded it.
Thoughts? Sorry, this turned out to be longer than I had anticipated. Love the forums and the helpfulness from all the members.
