Never thought I'd be happy with a denial, but...

[Anonymous]

I started my credit rebuilding journey in Jan 15 when I applied for a cap1 secured 300 limit. Also got a BofA secured for 300 in Feb that year. I had a kohls card from Nov 14 with a 350 limit. Anyway my scores were 540,580,601 crappy. So I used the cards how I wanted didnt bother with the 30% util rule (kinda hard with the tiny limits) but paid all my cards ontime more than minimum. After 5 Mos cap1 gave auto CLI to 500. My wife decided one day to to apply in my name for Vic Secret got approved for 350. Fast foward to july 2015 VS auto CLI to 750. I had a few baddies removed from credit report but still had a 20000 auto repo and a 1600 cap one collections. In Nov 15 Kohl CLI to 750 after I requested online. All this time still making on time payments. Decide to try Barclays in Nov not expecting anything but I had a Fako 688 TU score and decided to try it and got approved 1300. I had purchased my wife a 30000 vehicle in Mar 2014 and the interest rate was killing me due to my credit 13.5%. I decided to try NFCU for a vehicle refinance and in 20 min was approved at 4.5% saving me a ton. Now im starting to make progress. In Jan 16 applied for Cap1 unsecured and was approved but disappointed in the initial 500 CL since Barclays was 1300. Mar 16 BofA converted to unsecured and CL raised to 1800 wow. Decided to take a plunge and applied to NFCU for unsecured credit card today and was approved for 8400. As of today all my credit reports are clean aside from a 30,60 on equifax from almost 7 yrs ago but that account was brought current and then paid as agreed. All 3 FICO scores are 650-670 as of today. Did a simulation on myfico showing all my balances paid down since I did that and not yet reported and the simulator says my scores will all be at or above 700. Crossing my fingers

[silkysean]

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@ORllyNao wrote:

I got a little cocky after being approved for a couple of things recently and I decided to try for a Barclay Rewards Mastercard. I probably shouldn't have wasted the inquiry, since I knew it was still a bit of a long shot, but whatever, I app'd and, not shockingly, got the 7-10 day message. Today, I called for a recon and talked to a really nice guy who told me the biggest issues were too many inquiries and that they'd love to see just a little more time with my current cards before an approval. He even said "well it looks like you've got a really great payment history going here, it's just a little short time-wise for what we need to see on our end, but keep it up and definitely come back to us once you have a little more history under your belt!" which I thought was cool. 

I'm so used to calling and being told the reason for denial is that I have a really low score, way too many collections, a charge off, judgement, etc., and because of that, I never used to even bother calling. So, yeah, while it does suck to get a "no" even after a recon, it is a bit refreshing for that "no" to have little to do with my score and more to do with things that are pretty easily managed, like letting inquiries fall off and keeping up my payments for a while longer. It's not as exciting as getting a brand new piece of plastic in the mail, but it still makes me feel like I've made a lot of progress. 

Anyway, that's how I'm looking at it. Silver linings, right?  

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Sounds like you really understand which is great.I promise you sit and build up credit profile for about a year with on time solid payments using but paying cards off or down to about $5 and you will get in.My scores were like yours except I had 2 Bk and tax lien with a couple years of history.Tried 1 more time denied called back door number they reviewed and said congrats even added chase slate and cap 1 visa and MasterCard SigWith hard work it's possible.Years ago I was at about 490 now Tu 718 and climbing and average close to 700 across all 3.Trust follow the advice of those that have been there and those that are experienced at this and doors will open 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

how many inquiries did you have if you don't mind me asking? I have 3-4, I am wondering if my scores can qualify me with the 3-4 inquiries. I believe it is 4 in transunion. My scores are in the 620's I was going to wait until I had at least 650 or 660. Do they look at the fico score or vantage score? My score in transunion itself is still in the 500's I found out because they use vantage 3.0 I think.

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If you have at leat 1.5 years of perfect payment history on CC accounts, go ahead and app. They pull TU and use FICO 8.