@precision wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@precision wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
There's a great post on getting a Share Secured Loan with Alliant on one of the boards that might be beneficial. They only do soft pull for membership and soft pull for SSL. Joining Navy Federal would be a hard pull for each product. I just joined Navy Federal and got pulled TU twice for membership and credit card.
I'm still in the rebuild process as well. You have 3 cards now and according most post on here 3 is a good number to have. Have you the read the "How to 700 in 2 years..." post? It's very insightful as well.
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/HOW-TO-From-BK7-discharge-to-700-in-24-months-or-less/td-p/1384075
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/td-p/4506756
Thanks for the links. I think my process might be a little different considering that I didn't have a BK and I already have 3 decent cards. (i think they are decent cards with awful limits for this point in my journey) I am hoping that by having clean reports and making sure I use the proper UTI and PIF each month I can maximize my score as soon as possible.
I am definitely going to find a secured loan option ASAP.
Also, thanks for the warning about the HP's from NFCU. I had no idea.
Process will be the same regardless of BK or revolving accounts. The only factor to consider is if you already have an installment account. A second one does not help.
Thanks again for the input.
I have a question about utility. I am seeing two schools of thought regarding utility.
The first is if you have a low limit that you should use the card as much as possible and just make sure you PIF before the statement cuts or just PIF as soon as you see the balance report online. For instance, I have a super low QS1 SL. Everything I read says I need to use it alot to get them to to raise the limit within 3 months and to get a good limit at the 6 month mark with credit steps.
The second is that you need to keep you utility less than 10-30 percent and always PIF.
So which is it? I pay great attention to detail and will not miss a payment just because I "forgot." So is it okay for me to use the cards as much as possilble and just make sure to PIF before the statement cuts? I plan on at a minimum paying the balance on the cards once a week. Also, keep in mind that I am not going to be using them every day. I am blessed to be able to work from home so the only usage of the cards will be on the weekends making it super easy for me to keep tabs with what is going on. I am not a big shopper (online or otherwise) so that is not an issue.
I want to be able to use these cards as tools to get my FICO up ASAP. I am not interested in buying things just to buy stuff or living beyond my means. I will just be using the cards handle items that I normally would with my BOA debit card.
Its not an either/or situation. Don't confuse UTI with card usage. You can have super high card usage, but low UTI by paying the balance down before the statement closes. And by the same token, you can have very high UTI but low usage by charging it up and just paying the minimum.
UTI is ONLY the statement balance, nothing else.
FWIW, when rebuilding, don't worry too much about UTI, because it has no "memory" from month to month - just keep it in control so that you can peak your scores by paying it down to below ten percent any time you want, in order to prepare to apply for something big, like auto or home loan.
