One Year and Significant Progress

[diva_1515]

Really? Wow! I have 2 paid tax liens and 2 student loans in repayment for 3 years never late. Having too many accounts as paid were listed as reason for denials. I am going to apply for a secured card soon, hopefully that will help.

[electra]

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@toi34 wrote:

@electra....HOW was that possible???? I don't believe it. I cannot even get a US Bank card with 2 CO's and 3 collections whose total is under 3gz.

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It's a YMMV kinda thing.  I was able to get in with NFCU and they are very lenient with poor credit scores.  When I got my CC I thought I'd have to try for a secured card but the agent encouraged me to apply for Cash Rewards (either way you get the same hard pull).  I was really surprised when they gave me a $5k VISA Siggy.  I have a fairly high income which they verified so that may be part of it.  

When I got the AMEX, CSP and car loan (NFCU) my scores had come up to the low 700's (via deleting 3 IRS liens and assorted collections, positive history, etc) but I still had three of the liens on, all paid.    They are super old though so a more recent one would probably impact not only the score but also manual review.  With CSP it was an auto-approval of $6k.  AMEX gave me a pretty low CL of $1k after manual review so that might be due to either the tax liens or the fact that I had only 7 months of CC history.  Good news is they up the CL pretty quickly from what I understand. 

[professor_g]

Whenever I visit the CU I make it a point to always see the Asst. Branch Manager that opened my account.  From the first day I was very clear with her about my credit situation, my desire to clean up my credit and my financial goals (which include buying a house).  I have a flawless payment history with the bank and have maintained a great relationship with this particular branch manager.  (It does help that her daughter is an alum of the University that I teach at - so that gave me a topic of conversation to have with her).  

I think with smaller CU's it is all about a flawless payment history and taking advantage of the possibility for excellent and intimate customer service.  That's what I did at least. 

Hope this helps!