How long after getting a job to apply?

[medicgrrl]

Has he tried any of the prequal sites?  I would definitely at least get his 2 free scores and then look at companies that use those bureau's to decide who to apply for.  What are the balances and credit limits that are reporting on his CK reports?  Are there any negatives reporting on any of the accounts

[Anonymous]

Most credit card lenders don't ask how long you've been employed and only sometimes even ask for proof of the income you claim. If he puts down an honest answer he should be able to survive any request for information.

Scores are the bigger issue than length of employment.

What's way more important is your financial health. Obviously getting all that debt paid off is the most important thing!

Maybe you can work on getting your cards paid down. The earlier you pay it the sooner you stop posting interest. Assuming a 20% rate you are paying $1 in interest every month for every $60 in CC debt.

[Anonymous]

Read through this thread a couple of times to try and give some valuable advise for your situation, but it seems everyone else has that covered.

But, I will say based off your situation and your boyfriends accident a year ago, kudos to you for keeping you guys afloat while he found another job. My wife did something similar for me years ago when I had serious credit issues and couldn't even get an apartment. So great to see this kind of support in the forums.

Hope you guys get this credit card situation figured out soon. Good luck to him on the new gig!!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Maybe you can work on getting your cards paid down. The earlier you pay it the sooner you stop posting interest. Assuming a 20% rate you are paying $1 in interest every month for every $60 in CC debt.

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I'm actually not posting any interest whatsoever. All the CC debt is on a single 0% apr card, the promotion ends in November I believe.

OMG I didn't even THINK of paying the cards down! Thanks so much for the great idea!! Sorry I couldn't resist a touch of sarcasm. I'm disabled. Last year I started doing odd jobs, but I am not well enough to take on even a part-time job reliably. I still routinely end up in the ER or requiring a caretaker through intense medical crisis because I can't always walk or physically open a bottle of water, for example. I'm doing what I can.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Read through this thread a couple of times to try and give some valuable advise for your situation, but it seems everyone else has that covered.

But, I will say based off your situation and your boyfriends accident a year ago, kudos to you for keeping you guys afloat while he found another job. My wife did something similar for me years ago when I had serious credit issues and couldn't even get an apartment. So great to see this kind of support in the forums.

Hope you guys get this credit card situation figured out soon. Good luck to him on the new gig!!

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Aww thanks for the kind words! Glad to hear your wife was similarly supportive. My partner and I feel strongly about supporting each other through whatever we can, which we're able to do because we know neither will take advantage of it.

This new job is exactly what he/we needed...$15/hour to start, full time hours, amazing benefits, the works! We're holding our breath for the first paycheck.

[Anonymous]

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@medicgrrl wrote:

What are the balances and credit limits that are reporting on his CK reports?  Are there any negatives reporting on any of the accounts

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No negatives. He has one $300 CL secured card, that will never graduate. He lets a very small balance every month report on his card before paying it off. He's been doing this for nearly 2 years.

He's an AU on 3 of my cards. 2 of them are all but sock drawered so report $0 balance or very little. CL on those is 15K and 1K respectively. The thrid one is $3500 CL and currently has approximately 1K CC debt on it, which flucctuates as I keep attempting to pay it off.

We are confident that he's in pretty much as good a shape as a thin file can be in. My main question has been answered in this thread, regarding how long to wait after becomming employed before applying for credit. We'll get whatever free scores are available before he applies. Currently we're waiting until after the first paycheck to try any prequalify sites.