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Before I filed bankruptcy I had incurred about 18 inquires. Now that my bankruptcy has been discharged I want to establish my credit.
My issue is that my scores are sub par and I have no accounts reporting on my report. I have so many pre inquires that I'm scared to apply.
I checked various pre approvals and was not listed in the database at all. I thought I'd take my chances on the regulars I've been reading about and denied for about 3. My report is free of all pre bankruptcy blemishes. No idea what to do.
Typically time ix is he number one medicine. But how would that affect me if there is nothing reporting?
any suggestions?
You need to establish some new accounts. Preferably without HP's. But since you already have them, one or two more wont hurt.
I would start with Cap1 Secured or a Credit Union secured. If Cap one pre-approval didnt offer secured, try CreditOne pre-approval. You can also try Fingerhuts Fresh Start program. You will graduate quickly and have a good TL reporting positive info. Next you can give yourself a loan with no HP by using SelfLender. Go to their website and read about it. Your scores are definitely low so its gonna be a struggle at first but you will climb out. As long as you have no baddies remaining you can only go up from here.
Avoid Credit One and Fingerhut at all costs! They are predatory lenders and you do not need them. Apply for a secured credit card with State Department Federal CU. There is no hard pull. They soft pull for membership and they do Chexsystems. If you are clear on Chexsystems, you are good to go. No annual fee, 6.8% interest rate (but don't carry a balance) and you can deposit any amount you want starting at like $250. You can also apply for the OpenSky credit card. No credit check, only like a $29 annual fee. No other junk fees or overpriced crap to have to buy. And to get an installment loan, check with your local credit unions. They don't pull credit for credit builder installment loans (if they want to go to another CU). You can say put in $300 to get the CU installment loan (get it for the max term possible - e.g., 24-48 months or more) and they give you back the $300. You take that $300 and open a secured credit card. Then come up with another $250 and open a second secured credit card. Make sure all discharged debts are showing zero balance and included in bankruptcy. I did this and my scores jumped from 525 to 625 in 60 days.
You can rebuild with the crap cards (Credit One, Fingerhut, First Premier), but why give them your money? Put it into a secured card and you get it all back. Pretend it's in a two-year CD or something. And when you apply for credit with bette lenders, they won't think you were desperate by having gotten credit with the bottom feeders who will take complete advantage of your credit problems.
Good luck!
No shortage of opinions on here which is a good thing. However, I disagree with CH7-rebuild. While Creditone is definitely a predatory lender, they do have their purpose. I have had them for 4 months now and no issues with them at all. I use it for a tank of gas and then I pay it off. They have report positively to all 3 CRA's and thats the goal. Yes, it cost me 79 bucks for the AF but in the end, thats well worth it. In the 1tth month I will cancel the card and again, it served its purpose. Mind you of course this is only if you cannot make progress elsewhere as with a CU or similar. As far as Fingerhut, I dont have an account but my ex-wife used to . She began with a $400 CL and would buy a small item here and there and pay it off.In under a year her CL went from 400 to 1900. Positive reporting to the CRA's. Look at my siggy. Noone has denied me credit because I have a creditone card. In fact, after two months of using that creditone card, Cap1 gave me a QS1 with 3k limit. The choice is yours and there's no doubt you should try other means first. But if things dont go your way initially, dont despair.
Anyway, the point of all this is that you can get where you need to be in spite of your low scores. Stick to the forum, read and learn all you can and you will do fine.
IMHO, pay9ing a $79 annual fee for a $200 credit limit from a lender who will nickel nd dime you to death, charge you for online payments, not permit more than one payment a month -- is insane. $79 Fee / $200 credit limit = 39.5% interest rate -- before you even pay a dime of interest. Insanity.
No doubt, it is. I received a 500 CL and it's still a ripoff however I was willing to pay the AF coming out of BK to get a TL going. It worked for me. I watch them carefully and they havnt nickel and dimed me at all. and like I said, I only run a tank of gas thru the card then PIF. I will close it in a few months and move on. No matter what I will close them on the 11th month but I will use my close threat to squeak a CLI out of them on the10th month. Ive spent more on dumber things than the 79 AF they charged. It really wasnt a big deal for me as I was buying a tool. If someone were to plan on keeping the card that would be insane to pay the AF year after year. They permit 4 payments per month and they take up to 7 days to post the payment. 4 tanks of gas per month. No interest with PIF and Works well.
Creditone and the other subprime cards will certainly work to rebuild the FICO score. I just hate how they take advantage of people. They are really selling credit rebuilding, not money. They are bigger vultures than the credit repair agencies.
They would not exist but for people with horrible credit (like me!) One reason I like using the credit union cards is that typically after one year of paying on time you can apply and get the card unsecured -- even if it doesn't specifically "graduate." So after a year or two of on time payments, you get your money back, you pay no annual fees, you pay a low rate if you have to carry a balance, and you get in the door with a lender for an unsecured card that can grow with you over time.
I don't dispute that someone could completely rebuild by opening a Creditone, First, Premier, Fingerhut, and a half-dozen Comenty cards (Victoria's Secret, J. Crew, etc, etc) but it just doesn't seem like the best plan long term.
And the other poster is right, we are only talking like a hundred bucks or something -- but wouldn't you rather go out for a nice dinner with your spouse than give it to these bottom sharks? They know they have at most a year or two to squeeze you so they get all they can out of you. Credit unions don't do this.
I just found this on another thread, may help the OP.
11-07-2014 05:35 PM
Okay, now back to my intital topic of credit builder loans, after researching many credit unions offering them (most I was not eligible to join for various reasons), I have settled on this one: SecurityPlus Federal Credit Union. It beat out The State Department Federal Credit Union for a few reasons:
1. They offer a credit builder loan that the member does not have to fund with their own money. (This is important to me since I have enough cash to fund either a secured card or a loan but not both.) (Also, SDFCU does not offer a credit builder loan at all...only a share secured loan...meaning member must fund with a deposit.)
2. They offer a secured Visa credit card too but since the deposit is higher than I'd hoped for, I may seek another source for that. Since membership in the SDFCU is also via the ACC, I cannot join both CUs and get the credit card at one and the credit builder loan at the other. Since the loan is more important to me at this point I will join SecurityPlus.
3. They do not do a credit check/hard pull on either the credit builder loan or the secured credit card. (BIG PLUS!) (Especially as I have three inquiries already.)
4. Anyone can join them via a small contribution (of $5 or $15 for lifetime membership) to the ACC (American Consumer Council).
Website here: https://www.americanconsumercouncil.org/
Membership form here: https://www.americanconsumercouncil.org/membershipcheck.asp?dname=
Included on the membership form page, is the SDFCU and a long list of other credit unions one can join via membership in the ACC. I did not check them all out but I did check quite a few and for my specific needs SecurityPlus still beat the others.