@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Sorry if this is a weird question to ask, but I figured this was the best place to ask it...
I have a few big purchases that I need to make in July (tuition) and towards the fall (laptop which could wait if necessary, although its 10 years old and has been Frankensteined enough).
Right now, my scores are in the range of 630-650. My util as of now is 29%, and I have the following as baddies:
EX - 2 coll (PRA, medical dropping off in June) + 1 judgment (dropping off in Aug)
EQ - 1 coll (PRA) + 1 judgment (dropping off in Oct)
TU - 1 coll (PRA)
I'm also inq heavy on EQ & TU (10+) but low on EX (7). All have 2 falling off in May as well.
By mid-May, I should have my util down to 1-3%, with all cards having <10% util. As far as the baddies go, unless PRA gets sued, I'm stuck with them until 2021. All others will be gone by October of this year.
Anyways, my question is what would be the best time to request CLIs or possibly app for a more prime card with a higher SL? My tuition alone would be 2500 and my highest SL is $1000 (which no doubt is because of my util & baddies). Would it be in May when my util is low (it hasn't been this low since before I started rebuilding)? Or should I just wait as long as I can after that? I know that Cap 1 credit steps would happen for me in early September, so I'd obviously want to try to get a CLI before that.
And by the way, I'm only aiming for AMEX or a better Cap 1 card at this point. Barclays has flat out told me to see them in September, Citi & BoA haven't even noticed me, and Chase has 5/24 so I'd be limited to their co-branded cards.
Obviously you want to wait until your UTI is down. Make sure you pare the balances down to 4 cards or less, none above 10%. I would wait as long as possible in the hopes they soft pull after the balances are down - that would give you the best CLI. Make sure you are putting max usage through the two Cap One cards and paying in full.
The thing to keep in mind is that with Cap One, CLI requests do NOT generate a pull of your files, hard or soft, but rather they routinely soft pull every few months and a CLI will be based off the last soft pull they did.
If you purchase a hard copy of your reports directly from the CRA's, you will be able to see their soft pulls....
+1
@Anonymous wrote:Obviously you want to wait until your UTI is down. Make sure you pare the balances down to 4 cards or less, none above 10%. I would wait as long as possible in the hopes they soft pull after the balances are down - that would give you the best CLI. Make sure you are putting max usage through the two Cap One cards and paying in full.
The thing to keep in mind is that with Cap One, CLI requests do NOT generate a pull of your files, hard or soft, but rather they routinely soft pull every few months and a CLI will be based off the last soft pull they did.
If you purchase a hard copy of your reports directly from the CRA's, you will be able to see their soft pulls....
I did notice they did a SP sometime in late March for me, which might have been used when I did my PC. All of my scores had jumped 20-40 points since my original application, which kinda stinks because I probably could have gotten larger SL but oh well.
Funny thing is with all these denial letters I have from Synchrony, Barclays & Chase, I should easily be able to request a hard copy of at least one credit report. At least those HPs were good for something. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Obviously you want to wait until your UTI is down. Make sure you pare the balances down to 4 cards or less, none above 10%. I would wait as long as possible in the hopes they soft pull after the balances are down - that would give you the best CLI. Make sure you are putting max usage through the two Cap One cards and paying in full.
The thing to keep in mind is that with Cap One, CLI requests do NOT generate a pull of your files, hard or soft, but rather they routinely soft pull every few months and a CLI will be based off the last soft pull they did.
If you purchase a hard copy of your reports directly from the CRA's, you will be able to see their soft pulls....I did notice they did a SP sometime in late March for me, which might have been used when I did my PC. All of my scores had jumped 20-40 points since my original application, which kinda stinks because I probably could have gotten larger SL but oh well.
Funny thing is with all these denial letters I have from Synchrony, Barclays & Chase, I should easily be able to request a hard copy of at least one credit report. At least those HPs were good for something.
Last November (11/28/15) they denied my CLI request, quoting a report pull from 9/29/15. a few days later, on December 10, it was approved. Judging from that, I'm geussing they do a soft pull every 60 days...