New to the Forum: Soft Pull?

Anonymous · ‎02-10-2016

Hello I am new here. I just started taking my credit seriously after getting married. We started looking into buying a home and what is needed. I had to pay for college out of pocket and I kind of ignored my loans for too long. When I finally looked at my credit it was in the 540 range.

I have been working things such as on time payments. Fixing my student loan status. I was able to get a BOA Better Balance Rewards card with a 1k CL almost 2 years ago. My Fico is now between 670 and 715 depending on the bureau. I recently got approved for Capital One Platinum for 3k. I have 3 hard pulls on one of my 2 of my reports. What can I do to get a card via soft pull? Is it even possible? What else can I do to improve things? Thanks.

jacetx · ‎02-10-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello I am new here. I just started taking my credit seriously after getting married. We started looking into buying a home and what is needed. I had to pay for college out of pocket and I kind of ignored my loans for too long. When I finally looked at my credit it was in the 540 range.

I have been working things such as on time payments. Fixing my student loan status. I was able to get a BOA Better Balance Rewards card with a 1k CL almost 2 years ago. My Fico is now between 670 and 715 depending on the bureau. I recently got approved for Capital One Platinum for 3k. I have 3 hard pulls on one of my 2 of my reports. What can I do to get a card via soft pull? Is it even possible? What else can I do to improve things? Thanks.

I'm not sure about any Visa/MasterCards but Discover and AMEX issued cards are definitely a hard pull. Some Comenity store cards you can get with a soft pull using the SCT (shopping cart trick) but I'm not sure if I should even recommend them considering that they have been closing accounts like crazy lately.

Anonymous · ‎02-10-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello I am new here. I just started taking my credit seriously after getting married. We started looking into buying a home and what is needed. I had to pay for college out of pocket and I kind of ignored my loans for too long. When I finally looked at my credit it was in the 540 range.

I have been working things such as on time payments. Fixing my student loan status. I was able to get a BOA Better Balance Rewards card with a 1k CL almost 2 years ago. My Fico is now between 670 and 715 depending on the bureau. I recently got approved for Capital One Platinum for 3k. I have 3 hard pulls on one of my 2 of my reports. What can I do to get a card via soft pull? Is it even possible? What else can I do to improve things? Thanks.

Welcome to the forums Ram! And congratulations on improving your credit as much as you already have. That's really great!

Yes, it's possible to get a card with only a soft pull. The question is, is that a card you want? Maybe it is. But you have to decide why you want the card before you can answer that.

If you want the card to improve you scores, it's probably not going to happen. The only way it would likely help in any meaningful way is if you are carrying a balance and need to pad your utilization (that is, you want to have more available credit so your using a smaller percentage of that credit). But you'd be better off just reducing your balances (ideally paying in full every month or even before the statement closes).

If you want the card to get better APR to finance purchases, the card you get with a soft pull probably isn't going to be very good.

If you want a card that has better rewards, chances are the card you get with a soft pull isn't going to be much good -- unless there's a particular store you shop at a lot and you can get a store card from them. But for most people, they really don't shop at a particular store enough to justify a store card.

However, if you really want a card without a hard pull, you can get one with what's called the Shopping Card Trick (which was mentioned above). Here's a good explanation of how to do it: http://www.doctorofcredit.com/shopping-cart-trick-get-credit-cards-without-the-hard-pull/

Anonymous · ‎02-10-2016

Thanks Plip. I will just wait a bit. I will wait until I can take another hard pull.

takeshi74 · ‎02-11-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
What can I do to get a card via soft pull?

It's possible without a hard pull in some cases but assume that any new credit comes with a hard pull. If one hard pull is a significant problem then your problem isn't the hard pull itself but bigger issues with your credit profile that you need to address. HP's are typically a small factor but they can have a bigger impact for those with thin credit profiles and profiles with issues.

You're in the process of rebuilding and that is a long, slow process so don't just look for quick fixes. You will be limited in the amount of credit seeking activity that your credit profile will support until it improves.

@Anonymous wrote:
What else can I do to improve things?

Impossible to say without knowing more about your credit profile. However you can educate yourself and use that knowledge to assess your own reports. Here's a starting point for how FICO evaluates your report data.

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

If you're willing to give us a better idea of your credit profile we can provide feedback. However, without it all we can do is basically regurgiate what's in that link. If you have derogs (which kill Payment History and if you ignored you loans then you probably have some) then hit the Rebuilding subforum and carefully research and work on addressing them as derogs tend to have a major impact and hold one's scores down as long as they are on reports. If your revolving utilization (falls under Amounts Owed) is not in check then get it in check. Most other factors just take time and responsible usage to build.

@Anonymous wrote:
My Fico is now between 670 and 715 depending on the bureau.

It's not just the CRA that matters but the model as well. Keep both in mind whenever you're referencing scores.