Looking for some advice

[Anonymous]

Good evening, 

Just looking to get some advice on my next steps in building.  Right now, I am about 7 months post discharge from my bankruptcy that discharged 7/2017.  At present I have

Credit One Bank - $500.00 limit now after CLI from them after 6 months

Discover It Secured Card - $500 limit (checked them for pre-approval after CLI on Credit One Bank)

Credit Builder Loan at local credit union

Short Term Loan at local finance company for $200

I was recently able to refinance my car loan that I got post bankruptcy at NFCU and also got approved for their Checking Line of Credit for $500 using the same application info from the car loan.  Car loan is at 15.59%.  I did attempt to apply for the Barclay Visa about 2 months ago and was declined due to high inquiries, which I do know I have a lot of them, took me a while to just go ahead and do bankruptcy versus attempting to get new credit.  So I know my inquiries are bad, and I still have a couple of things I know I need to have removed from my credit report or cleaned up, some bankruptcy accounts showing derogatory.  I attempted pre-approval at Capital One, no luck, when I did attempt them, it said "too many negative lines" although the most recent one is the only negative one.  

Current FICO is 638 for Transunion as of 1/19/18 and 641 for Experian as of 1/20/18 per Discover Scorecards.  

Any advice on next steps?  Still just looking to properly build my credit to where I actually might be able to use some without it being detrimental.  

[DollyLama]

IMHO, Just let what you currently have garden for a year from the most recent CC, don't app anymore cards, the inquires will be unscoreable from a FICO 8 score model after 1 year, and will only be seen if you app for a mortgage, auto that requires underwriting, they are permanently removed at 2 years from all models. Keep timely payments, and low utilization. I wouldn't try any shopping cart tricks from retailers, since you have your foot in the door with Discover, think prime cards in the long run. As your scores rise, inquires fall, then app for cards that will work for you. I think you are doing well for the short term since discharge.  

[gdtobefree]

Your doing great after a chap 7!!!
You started your little garden now keep cultivating the flowers you have. Let it flourish for a little while then buy more seeds later on.

[Anonymous]

Thank you really appreciate the advice. I will continue to just work on cleaning up my credit report and keep everything I have now going in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

Thank you I appreciate it!! I'm really trying to focus on getting my credit together and just being able to get my life on track. I really appreciate both responses

[Anonymous]

Alright, time to garden, they increased the Checking Line of Credit to $2,500 at 16.9% so now just time to let everything grow.  

[QCS123]

I am by no means an expert but I will share what we did.  We (my husband) got one card when rebuilding our credit.  It was with Capital one (QS) they gave us a $600 starting limit (I think or $500, blanking out).  Anyway after 6 months of light to medium use, they gave us an increase to $3200.  We gardened for over one year then I (I'm an AU on the Captital One QS and the one who did ALL the spending and paying), got a car loan for a 2018 car, Macys card ($600 increase to $2500 after 6 mo), then 6 months later, Care Credit (6K, only used 2K), then 5 months later went on an app spree.  I only had 3 HP's from my auto loan (2 on one CB and 1 on 2nd CB).  We were able to get a Discover (10K), AMEX BCE (1K), WAYFAIR (6.5K), and Amazon (3.1K) in a 2 day period.  Then 3 days later, I decided to open a Pen Fed Savings account, asked about refinancing my auto loan which they could not beat current APR, so I decided to try for a CC.  Got approved for the Pen Fed PRC (10K).  We are now in the garden again for at least one year if not 2 years.  Building credit and savings.

Basically my advice is that if you don't "have" to have the credit, wait and garden to get your FICO up which will help with getting the better cards and the higher limits.  Time and responsible use really does pay off in the end.  In two years everything will have fallen off our CR and if we can stay in the garden and be responsible for those two years we should see a really nice jump in our FICO and then when and "IF" we truly need to get a loan or mortage we should be in a very good position to do it.

Oh and if I had to do it over again, I would NOT have gotten the Wayfair or the Amazon (I already had two retail cards from a years ago).  I'm very happy with the three cards (Pen Fed, AMEX and Discover).  We are making my husband an AU since his credit is a lot lower than mine.  So when you have gardened long enough and decide it's time to app, my advice is to really think about which cards you want and why and then go for it.  Don't be impulsive like I was!  Just get what you need and what will help you the most, don't over do it!

Hope our story (of not doing it quite right, but enough for us) helps someone.