Approval

[Anonymous]

I'm brand new to the MyFico forums. I have worked really hard to rebuild my credit and have a positive credit history for the past few years. I have several cards, all bad credit cards and some store cards and I car loan through ally financial. I am unable to get approved for a mainstream card. Ugh! What do I have to do? Is there a sacrifice to a volcano necessary in order to get approved for a card with les than a 23.99% interest rate? If anyone has some tips on what I'm doing wrong, (besides applying and # of hard pulls) I would appreciate the guidance! Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums. Capital One is a good place to start. Interest rate shouldn't matter in a rebuild situation. You shouldn't be carrying a balance during your rebuild. You should be using the cards to build positive credit lines and show low utilization.

What are your scores now? What do your reports look like? How many balances are you carrying on your cards? What's your utilization?

Boa, us bank, citi, discover it and wf all have secured cards. You may have to go the secured route. You may also try your local credit union. Depending on your scores lenders may still view you as a higher risk.

Rebuilding is a slow and steady process, it takes patience and hard work but you can do it. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

The advice I followed from here was know and fix what is negative on your credit report (plenty of threads regarding that on here) 2nd use the cards you currently have wisely, meaning pay the balance in full every month and keep utilization under 30% then just WAIT (this is hardest thing, took me nearly 10 months). This really worked for me When I started I could not even get a lousy retail card approved with the 8 baddies on CR and scores in low 530's.

[Anonymous]

When I started her my scores were in the 480's so I know how you feel. For score improvement and score improvement only try to keep your utilization under 10%. If you're not looking for better credit under 30 is fine from everything I've learned. I'm not carrying any balances at all. I'm using my starter cards as tools and nothing more. It's all ymmv.

I am not a fan of store cards but I see the value for people. I'm now just starting to work on my derogatories

As with all our credit rebuilds, there are many paths to the final destination. But we are all on the same journey, good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

One of the most valuable techniques I've picked up from these forums is that as much of a snowball effect bad credit problems can have, good credit behavior can have an equal snowball effect.  To keep it simple,

Build a reasonable stable of cards.

Keep your utilization low and your scores high (NO LATES, let your old lates age out!)

Take advantage of soft pulls to grow those credit limits -- the higher your limit, the easier it is to maintain a low utilization % while still occasionally carrying a balance.

Eventually you'll get into the territory of premium cards. I'm not there yet, but I'm playing the game right, and reaping the rewards, so I know it's just a matter of time.

The catch is, by the time you get there, you no longer need low interest cards, because you've already moved into the habit of not carrying balances.

[Anonymous]

I have some "premium" cards with average to low average scores 

Honestly I do not even know the interest rate they are because I KNOW I will never not pay in full

Every approval I have was on 1% utilization