Update on my rebuild progress (Also need some advice)

[Techngro]

Hey all, as I posted earlier this year, I am in the process of rebuilding my credit. After a long time with negative accounts, It's slow progress, but I feel like i'm making some headway. 

I've had a Capital One Secured card for about 9 months now. After 5 months, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had been given an increase (only $100, but i'll take it gladly). I've used it properly, and haven't had any issues. About a month ago, however, I applied for an Amazon Store and Visa card, because I use Amazon quite a bit and figured it was a good place to test my 'creditworthiness', but was declined after a phone call from them. I also received a couple of pre-approved offers from Credit One. At first I was very happy, because I thought that Capital One was extending me an offer (their logo looks very similar), but after reading the terms and searching this forum, I realized that it was a bad offer (even for me). After the Amazon declines, and the Credit One offers, I figured I would wait until next year to try again for another card after my score goes up some more.

Last week, however, I got an offer from Merrick Bank. I had never heard of them, so I figured that it was another 'Credit One' type offer (super high rates, high annual fee, etc.). But I was shocked to find that it was a very decent offer, considering my situation. They offered me a 'Double Your Line' Visa card, where the limit automatically increases after 7 months of on-time payments with no annual fee or monthly fees. After searching this forum to make sure that it wasn't too good to be true, I applied and was approved immediately for $800. I am liking Merrick Bank already. The card arrived quickly. I called customer service and was connected very quickly to a representative who helped me with a simple issue. They also give me a free Fico Score.

For what it's worth, my credit score (which I get from Capital One via Creditinform.com) went from 598 to 669 (although it did decrease after the applications to Amazon). My Fico Score, however, from Merrick shows me at 585. I thought that the number I was getting from Creditinform.com was a Fico Score, but now I see it says it's based on Experian. Can anyone explain to me why there is such a large difference between the two numbers? Also, i'd like some advice on what my next steps should be. How soon should I try and get my next card. I'd like to focus on quality rather than quantity (fewer cards with higher limits), but that is probably more difficult to do, right?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[notfancy]

What else is currently showing on your credit reports? What bad items, what good items, etc?

[efranklin23]

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@Techngro wrote:

Hey all, as I posted earlier this year, I am in the process of rebuilding my credit. After a long time with negative accounts, It's slow progress, but I feel like i'm making some headway. 

I've had a Capital One Secured card for about 9 months now. After 5 months, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had been given an increase (only $100, but i'll take it gladly). I've used it properly, and haven't had any issues. About a month ago, however, I applied for an Amazon Store and Visa card, because I use Amazon quite a bit and figured it was a good place to test my 'creditworthiness', but was declined after a phone call from them. I also received a couple of pre-approved offers from Credit One. At first I was very happy, because I thought that Capital One was extending me an offer (their logo looks very similar), but after reading the terms and searching this forum, I realized that it was a bad offer (even for me). After the Amazon declines, and the Credit One offers, I figured I would wait until next year to try again for another card after my score goes up some more.

Last week, however, I got an offer from Merrick Bank. I had never heard of them, so I figured that it was another 'Credit One' type offer (super high rates, high annual fee, etc.). But I was shocked to find that it was a very decent offer, considering my situation. They offered me a 'Double Your Line' Visa card, where the limit automatically increases after 7 months of on-time payments with no annual fee or monthly fees. After searching this forum to make sure that it wasn't too good to be true, I applied and was approved immediately for $800. I am liking Merrick Bank already. The card arrived quickly. I called customer service and was connected very quickly to a representative who helped me with a simple issue. They also give me a free Fico Score.

For what it's worth, my credit score (which I get from Capital One via Creditinform.com) went from 598 to 669 (although it did decrease after the applications to Amazon). My Fico Score, however, from Merrick shows me at 585. I thought that the number I was getting from Creditinform.com was a Fico Score, but now I see it says it's based on Experian. Can anyone explain to me why there is such a large difference between the two numbers? Also, i'd like some advice on what my next steps should be. How soon should I try and get my next card. I'd like to focus on quality rather than quantity (fewer cards with higher limits), but that is probably more difficult to do, right?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

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CreditInform (provided by CapitalOne) is a fako score that is based on the experian Score Plus System. The calculations for the score are different from that reason alone. The Merrick Bank FICO is likely to be more accurate but which FICO score did they provide you with? 

[Techngro]

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@notfancy wrote:

What else is currently showing on your credit reports? What bad items, what good items, etc?

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As of now, I have my student loans as good items, plus the Cap One card and the Merrick card. I have two negative accounts that are a few years old, which I would like to settle and have removed from my report in the next 6 months (I don't see them on my Creditinform report, but they were there when printed my report early this year). I also have a judgement which will also be paid off in the next 6-8 months.  The reason that these have not been paid already was that I had some dental work that needed to be paid out of pocket.

[Techngro]

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@efranklin23 wrote:

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CreditInform (provided by CapitalOne) is a fako score that is based on the experian Score Plus System. The calculations for the score are different from that reason alone. The Merrick Bank FICO is likely to be more accurate but which FICO score did they provide you with? 

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It says it's a Fico 8 Bankcard score. I hope that's a real Fico.

[notfancy]

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@Techngro wrote:

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@efranklin23 wrote:

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CreditInform (provided by CapitalOne) is a fako score that is based on the experian Score Plus System. The calculations for the score are different from that reason alone. The Merrick Bank FICO is likely to be more accurate but which FICO score did they provide you with? 

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It says it's a Fico 8 Bankcard score. I hope that's a real Fico.

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@Techngro wrote:

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@efranklin23 wrote:

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CreditInform (provided by CapitalOne) is a fako score that is based on the experian Score Plus System. The calculations for the score are different from that reason alone. The Merrick Bank FICO is likely to be more accurate but which FICO score did they provide you with? 

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It says it's a Fico 8 Bankcard score. I hope that's a real Fico.

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The creditinform site is nice in it's own way, but that score is far from accurate as they use some sort of internal scoring that doesn't really properly take your financial histories and put them together in any sort of way that makes sense. Still, it is a nice guideline of sorts and good to have a general idea of what you're doing that is good, and what you're doing that might be not so good.

The Merrick Bank one sounds like it is a true FICO score, but I might be wrong.

The best thing you can probably do is work on your bad debts, and look through this forum for ideas on how to accomplish that. You'll find a lot of Pay For Delete (PFD) advice which may help, dispute any inaccuracies (if there are any).

There are posts in here about judgments and how to work with those. (I defer to the experts on those as I have no clue about judgments at all), so you can use the search function at the top area of the page and type "vacate" or "vacate judgment" and read those posts.

Also, please be careful with your new credit cards! Use them like debit cards, and pay them off as you go! Keep your utilization down as low as you can. It's recommended on this forum that you keep one at a zero balance and let the other report at 1-9% utilization, so watch your spending.

Peek for @guiness56 and look at his signature in his posts. He (she?) has a lot of really valuable links there that should help you tremendously. Actually, a lot of the mods seem to.

Best of luck to you!

[guiness56]

guiness56 is a she lol.

Yes, a bankcard enhanced FICO is still a FICO.  The 08 version is the newest one.

[notfancy]

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@guiness56 wrote:

guiness56 is a she lol.

Yes, a bankcard enhanced FICO is still a FICO.  The 08 version is the newest one.

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oops, sorry.

[guiness56]

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@notfancy wrote:

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@guiness56 wrote:

guiness56 is a she lol.

Yes, a bankcard enhanced FICO is still a FICO.  The 08 version is the newest one.

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oops, sorry.

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No problem.  Everyone does for some reason.

I figured the Happy Feet avatar would be a dead giveaway but, not so much lol.

[Techngro]

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely be focusing on getting those negatives taken care of. I had to pay for some dental out of pocket, which is why it's taking so long. I think I will lay low for a bit, take care of those negatives, and wait to see what other offers are sent to me rather than go applying all willy-nilly. 

I'm kinda disappointed about the Creditinform not being a real FICO score. I have been using it for almost a year and felt good about the increase in my score. Now I see that my actual score is less. Anyway, I guess you're right in that it can be helpful because it still shows the trend. And they do give me a breakdown of what's good in my report and what's bad. And it's free, so I can't really complain that much. 

Anyway, thanks for all of the responses guys, I will give an update when there's any new developments (or when I have more questions, which is more likely).