New to MyFico - Rebuilding

[JimBo99]

As promised, long time lurker, SECOND post. Time to introduce myself to the group. 

I had really good credit back in the early 2000s, had ~50K in credit card limits, mortgage, car, etc.  Then in 2006, I decided to go back to school, long story, short, its difficult to pay bills when you have no income for ~8 years (Vet School).

Fast forward to today.  About a year out of school now.  Got a few cards, the bottom feeders, I know I know…. I got them before I found this site. I’ve learned a ton in the past few months.  I’m just trying to get my sh*t together again.  Fast approaching the 7 mark on all my baddies, so I guess I should be gardening now.  I have, however, managed to keep my old USAA card alive though all this (ten year old card now).

I applied for a secured Cap One card recently and got declined because of  “insufficient income” which is a joke, I am going to call them tomorrow (if anyone has a good number to recon) to get a better explanation. I applied for a secured Discover about a week later and was approved. 

Here’s what I got currently:

CARD:  Bal/CL DateOpened

---------------------------------------

USAA MC: 3400/3500  May 06

CreditOne: 200/750 Apr 15

Verve: 0/500 Jul 15

1st Prem: 0/300 Jan 16

Total Visa: 0/300 Feb 16

Milestone: 0/300 Mar 16

Kohls: 100/300 May 16

Discover: 100/500 Jun 16

10 hard inquiries on EQ and EX, 1/3 of which are a year old.

I also shopping cart tricked Express, VS, and J Crew for $1000 total with NO intention of using them, just using to lower util. Planning on asking for more when the cards arrive.

I’ve been disputing all the negs and a lot of the accounts have come off. Experian and Equifax are in the middle of investigating, I will keep y’all updated if interested.  Regardless, everything will age off by this time 2018!

My plan right now:  Calling Cap One tomorrow, really want to get my foot back in the door with them.  This Friday, I am paying off Kohls, Discover and CreditOne, any other small amounts on the other cards in full.  Then, I will become VERY aggressive towards the USAA card ASAP, about $1000 a month, to get my utilization down, I know this is killing me right now. Then, off to the Garden and Kill the Sub-prime cards ASAP!

Guess I’d like to hear y’alls thoughts on how to proceed.  Also, I’m happy to answer any questions y’all may have that I haven’t thought of.

FICO according to my Discover card:  576

CK - EQ: 578, TU: 566

[Anonymous]

Hi JimBo.

Welcome to the forums.    As @Norman stated in an earlier post, find out if you provided incorrect information on your Cap 1 Secured application, then proceed from there.  You have enough tradelines, so gardening is an excellent idea.  If  you haven't already, you might consider investing in  credit monitoring.  I use CCT Experian cause I can get daily updates on EX and a one time per month update for TU and EQ.  Credit Karma and Credit Sesame are good for keeping track of UTI and collection activity, but nothing else.  The Marvel card requires a TU or EX score of 680 or higher, preferrably over 700.  The scores for the Rewards MC varies, but Barclays likes a year of credit card activity and not a whole lot of inquires, so if you really want it, then let some of your INQs age off.  You really (REALLY) need to get the UTI down on USAA if you want your scores to improve.  Don't spend anymore money on secured cards at this point. Since you've started the process with Cap 1 follow through on it, but invest your money in paying off your current credit card debt.  At some point in time, when your scores are higher, you can probably look into getting additional products with USAA.  If you're coming to your annual fee with Verve you might consider closing it out cause it is one of those cards that they will nickle and dime you to death.  The card will report positively for 10 years, so other than UTI, closing it won't hurt you in the long run.  Pay off Credit One and only run something like Netflix through it.  I have JCrew.  I started off at $350 and in a year and a half I've gotten it up to $13350, so the card will grow for you, but won't take off until 6-9 months later (usually will give a 1 time increase per month).  Just let your profile grow for you and you will be fine. 

[Anonymous]

Welcome!

Anytime you have a question or want to know any specifics, go to the "Search" feature.

Sometimes, when I don't really know what I am looking for, I just put in the minimum, and hit return and look at what is presented.

There is endless info here, and the People are Wonderful.

[JimBo99]

Question about the verve.  I just noticed TODAY that an annual fee and a monthly maint fee hit my account on the 8th.  If I closed it now. Would I still be responsible for those fees?  Should take the $500 hit to my utilization and cancel or just pay the fees and keep the account? 

Also, do you use your J Crew card?  I find their clothes to be a bit pricey.  haha

[Anonymous]

---

@JimBo99 wrote:

Question about the verve.  I just noticed TODAY that an annual fee and a monthly maint fee hit my account on the 8th.  If I closed it now. Would I still be responsible for those fees?  Should take the $500 hit to my utilization and cancel or just pay the fees and keep the account? 

Also, do you use your J Crew card?  I find their clothes to be a bit pricey.  haha

---

Since the annual fee has already hit, then you could hold on to it a little longer, cause I doubt that they would refund you.  As for JCrew, yes I use the card.  They have what's called JCrew Factory and I buy my clothes from there when they have like a 30% coupon that can be used in addition to the 50% off.  JCrew gives CLIs pretty much monthly, so if you did decide to close Verve, then you will be able to get your limit up with JCrew to prevent any hit from UTI by closing the Verve card.  I really like JCrew's jeans cause they are not paper thin like Levis have become.  If it were me, I would pay the annual fee and monthly maintenance fee and close the card, but that me.  I had a bad experience with Credit One, so I'm not a big proponent of subprime cards like them, so this time around I went the secured card route.  If you qualified for Discover card secured card, then you should qualify for Cap 1's secured card. 

[JimBo99]

Again, thank you so much for your help.  I will call Cap One tomorrow and get that figured out.  If approved, woud you just stick with the $200 min or do something like $500?    I was thinking about bumping the Discover up to $1000 AFTER paying off the USAA card.  Regardless, after I call Cap One, I will call Verve and see what they say about the fees and likely cancel the account regardless.   I want to get rid of the sub prime cards ASAP as well, just dont want to hurt my UTI in the process. 

You figure my Score will go up pretty significantly after I pay the USAA Card down?  The estimators put me at 597 by doing so.  Would love to break 600 before the years out. 

[RonM21]

Welcome. Outside of taking the advice on how to handle the Cap1 situation, I think your plan is solid. Gardening, while working on the negatives and utilization should go a long way for you. While you are gardening, keep reading these threads to build your knowledge base. Trust me, it's worth it. Although, I recommend staying away from the Approvals forum.

[Anonymous]

---

@JimBo99 wrote:

Again, thank you so much for your help.  I will call Cap One tomorrow and get that figured out.  If approved, woud you just stick with the $200 min or do something like $500?    I was thinking about bumping the Discover up to $1000 AFTER paying off the USAA card.  Regardless, after I call Cap One, I will call Verve and see what they say about the fees and likely cancel the account regardless.   I want to get rid of the sub prime cards ASAP as well, just dont want to hurt my UTI in the process. 

You figure my Score will go up pretty significantly after I pay the USAA Card down?  The estimators put me at 597 by doing so.  Would love to break 600 before the years out. 

---

YMMV.  When I got the secured Cap 1, my scores went up 25 points.  For maximizing FICO, 1 card should report less than 10% and the others at zero and you should have an installment loan.  The biggest jump will occur when all your baddies are gone.  I still have a paid collection from Midland reporting.  It is possible to get to 700 when you have collections.  I got my EQ up to 700, but my UTI went up with a massive furniture purchase, so score went down.  It is now starting to rebound, and in a few more months, things should be good again. 

[JimBo99]

Well..... Cap One is a no go.  I'm half mad/bummed, half think it's hilarious that they don't think I can take care of a $200 secured card.   And no, they had the right amount of income, so ruled that out.  "Justin"  didn't seem like he was the guy making the decisions, but I didn't really have the time nor the energy to persue it any further.   Just gonna Garden, pay off the USAA Card and hit the luv buttons on those store cards once a month and press on.  I really appreicate y'alls help anyway.  I'm looking forward to watching my scores head in the right direction.