Rehab. No judgement zone.

[Anonymous]

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@gdale6 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

$300- CAP ONE Secured

$300- Wells Fargo Secured

$300-  Kays

All opened in Nov/December. Yea. I didn't know I shouldn't have done all of that within a month until I looked on here. But, lesson learned. 

All carrying no balance. The Barclay credit analyst stated that I didn't have enough credit history and asked why I only had one credit card because the CAP ONE is the only one he was able to see. 

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I would call WF & Keys and ask them to update the CRAs. I would also be pulling your own reports to see whats going on, you can sign up for Credit Karma and get a look at your TU & EQ for free, for EX if you dont have a freebie coming may have to pay for that one. I would also let 1 of these cards report a small balance no more than 9% of its CL, all revolvers at 0 results in a Fico score drop for not using any credit at all.

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Wow. You opened my eyes. So, I need to let something, even if it's $20 stay on my balance? I've been paying off everything before the due date, leaving no balance. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

OP, don't worry about posting in the wrong place. It happens to the best of us, and it is easy for the mods to move the thread.

The reason why I recommend against Credit One is that they charge an annual fee, a fee for CLIs, a fee for paying your card, and they don't have a grace period. Basically any other card is better. That's why I recommended the BoA and CapOne secured cards. 

Additionally, if you bank at a credit union, you might be able to get a secured or unsecured card through them. 

Finally, I am loathe to recommend store cards such as Fingerhut unless you actually shop at the store. Accumulating cards and credit limits merely to have them may help your score a bit initially, but then you have to manage a bunch of cards that you don't want to use with low limits. It ends up costing you money to keep them open, becuase you have to shop at those stores periodically. You already have two cards, you don't need more from places that you don't shop. 

Remember, every time you apply for a card, you take a ding. Every time you open a new card, you take a ding for the new account and Average Age of Accounts. As you wait, derogs and inqs age and fall off your report, while your AAoA increases, all of which boost your score. Building a thick credit profile and good score is thus about taking losses to your score when you can, in order to build it up in the future. If you've had a lot of HPs lately (by which I mean more than 10-20, although your mileage may vary), I would just sit tight for six months, paying your cards off, and making sure not to miss any payments. If you haven't, I would try for the BoA secured card, since I think you mentioned that you already had a CapOne secured card. 

BoA or Discover secured card? Who is better? So I need to sit tight. Do I need to keep my Kays card? I've only used it once, I don't even shop there but I didn't know where to start and I read on CK they have a good acceptance rate which is why I applied. I know it increases my utilization, but whenever, (if ever) within the next 6 months I get approved for a secured card, can I cancel it or no?

[Imperfectfuture]

I would go with the boa secured. They graduate, and treat you better, discover keeps folks for long time in dirty bucket, so wait to app for them until all baddies are gone.

Still need to work on getting the baddies off reports. I did it, even removing those scheduled to fall off 2018, 2019. It can be done.

[Anonymous]

You can keep or close the Kays card at your discretion. It is a significant chunk of your CL (Credit Limit) right now, so you might want to keep it for a year before reevaluating.

How long have you had the Kays and WF cards? Sometimes it can take a month or two for them to show up on the reports. If it has been longer than that, you should contact them and the CRAs about those cards not reporting.

An important distinction that needs to be made is the difference between letting a balance post and carrying a balance. Lets say you buy $200 worth of stuff on one of your cards. There are now two relevant dates for you: the statement date, and the due date. If you pay the $200 before the statement date (when you get the bill from the CCC), nothing posts. If you pay it between the statement and due dates, a balance posts, but you've paid it in full. If you pay it after the due date, you've carried a balance. Your first goal is to never let the last bit happen. Most people just PIF (pay in full) after the statement cuts, before the due date. It sounds like that is what you are duing, which is fine from a FICO perspective, although it is not optimal. Some people pay everything off as soon as they charge it, or at the end of the week, or at some other point before the statement cuts. If you this for all of your cards, the monthly statement that you get will say that you owe $0. On some of your cards, this is great! However, if you let all of your cards report this way, it looks like you aren't using your credit and your score takes a ding.

Gleaning from your earlier post, it seems like you think you did something wrong by applying for several cards at once. That is actually the preferred method for many here, including myself. By applying for the cards at once, the Inqs will age and fall off together. This will allow your score to bounce back stronger and more suddenly (in about 6 months) than if they had been staggered. 

[Shogun]

OP I went back and edited all information that contained your old user name.  I was going to delete the thread since you had edited it out.  However good information was found here and you had responded, so I left it.

[Jpmack29]

I agree with the credit one, and or capital one. That's the route I took when I first started putting my credit in order. Credit one was the only one to give me a chance with a real credit card 2 years ago, since then I have been able to get better cards, so on and so forth. So yeah people bash credit one, but I say give them a chance, for 6 months then get in with capital one. Just my two cents. Good luck

[Anonymous]

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@sobeone1 wrote:

fingerhut then credit one

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worked for me!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@sobeone1 wrote:

fingerhut then credit one

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This is simply terrible advice. There is no reasoning behind it and Credit One is actively bad for the OP (as well as everybody else).

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I don't agree with you, Petrovius.  One year ago, my scores were in same range as OP.  My first 3 cards in order that I opened them were:  Fingerhut, Credit One, the Barclay Rewards.  All had -< 500 limits.  Today I have a little over 30K in credit and scores of 678 EXP, 708 TU and 761 EQ.  I have no problem paying C1 high fees to get here, then close her.

[Anonymous]

Welp. I just got an alert from myfico and experian. Smh. Yeah, my balance on all cards have decreased to zero, and I just lost 18pts now at 603. How can I lose 18pts. on a balance alone? Are they sure it's not the denial from Barclay's and the zero balance? I've been doing it allllll wrong. Thanks Petrovirus. Wouldn't have ever known that information.

[Anonymous]

Would you suggest increasing CAP ONE balance? Or is it a lost cause because it is a secured card? I'm not even sure if the money can transfer. I just applied and obviously didn't read the fine print. I can save lives, but I can't save my credit for the life of me lol!