topic Re: First premier credit card pre-approval in Credit Card Applications

First premier credit card pre-approval

financialfreedom777 — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 23:58:00 GMT

So, I got a pre-approval via snail mail from First Premier Bank for a whopping $400 limit. Do I take it?

1st wk of Jan I applied for Khols card (got $300 limit) and MyRewards Visa Card from Childrens Place ($400) limit and my scores dropped 15-20 average across the board. Am in shock its dropped!

Goodies: Fingerhut account I rarely use, open since 2016 and always ontime. I have a self lender am paying (also always ontime-bout 6months in now), a closed Discover Card I have been paying off (ontime 18months so far but it once reached 120days late).

Baddies: a closed Amazon Card (paid) and charged-off Chase Card with balance, I pay this off slowly but since its chargeoff they do not report the payments, just the new lower balances.

So what do I do, will another card (upping my overall accounts) and slightly increase my limit therefore lowering my overall % of balance owed or ditch the pre-approval? I worry my scores will drop again.

And what is up with the drop? I feel like my scores barely budge and now the big drop! I have very low income so paying off more is just not possible.

HELP!!!!

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:02:50 GMT

What are your scores and where are you getting them from?

Scores temporarily drop when you open new accounts due to the hard inquiry, and lowering of your average age of accounts (aka AAOA) scores will generally rebound in Time provided no new accounts are open and no further derogatory items surface

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:04:33 GMT

I would work on taking care of paying off those negative accounts first and study current from here on out. I’d advise not opening new accounts for a solid 6 months.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

financialfreedom777 — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:07:30 GMT

They are the Fico Scores purchased feom myfico (deduct 15-20 points from the current scores in my signature) sigh

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:10:44 GMT

Sorry no need to sigh.

Im on my cellphone and laying in bed as I have an early morning flight.

But my post above stsnds... I’d strongly advise against new accounts at this time.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

NimbusIII — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:39:48 GMT

Stay away from First Premier if you can, this is considered a predatory lendor. Give what you have time to establish and better offers will come in time.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 01:10:41 GMT

I agree with the others, need to pay down those other debts and turn negative ms around.

You mentioned a closed Discover your making payments on. This is one I would work on first and settle it ha e a lump to offer. Those charge offs will hold you back.

Cards like First Premier are predators. Usually have an annual fee and fees for opening the account and then have low limits. As soon as you open it and haven't even used it and can already have high utilization due to the charges.

Keep in mind you can get a credit card from Self Lender. It's secured against your savings/loan with them. So you are protected if things go bad and you get to have them report both as a loan and as credit card, using the same funds. It's a two for one.

You do have to have a minimum in your Self account of $150 to be eligible.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 02:17:23 GMT

Agreed - stay away from a First Premier card. Huge APR, fees for everything, and you can owe nearly 50% of the credit line as soon as you activate it. As stated, work on the derogs and keep the accounts you currently have at low utilization. As you pay off derogs your scores will increase. That'll open you up to better cards than FP (which is to say, virtually anything is better - only one that's worse off the top of my head is Fortiva, which should be criminal).

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

AverageJoesCredit — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 12:08:38 GMT

Its nice to get offers but in this case i would not take it. Hard as it is, not getting a headache before you get one is best.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Egaffne2 — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 20:04:27 GMT

I would only recommend first premier as a LAST RESORT card if u have no other options to build with

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 20:15:36 GMT

I have a 1st Premier and I hate it!!!! Never use it and they charge me like $9 per month!!!!! Them and Credit One. I got those when coming out of a BK so I didn't really have a choice but now scores are up in the high 600's so no need for them. I never really used those cards just needed to rebuild. I need to cancel them.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

financialfreedom777 — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 03:21:10 GMT

Sound advice, thanks a bunch

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

financialfreedom777 — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 03:24:16 GMT

Thanks! I wasn't able to get the self lender card seeing as I live in Puerto Rico. I opened the account with a US address (🤭🤫🤫🤫🤫) but couldn't do the same for the card.

Nevertheless, the advice of most here is to steer clear from this offer so I'll kish the first premier snail mail.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

financialfreedom777 — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 03:25:59 GMT

You always offer sound advice.

Thank you credit-recovery sensai

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

financialfreedom777 — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 03:30:33 GMT

So here's the update, I've read all your rwplies, thought I must admit I sat on the advice before actually replying. But, you guys are right, as usual and I am so grateful.

I have trashed the offer. No offer is better than a terrible offer.

You guys rock!

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Jeffhacker — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:01:46 GMT

I'm sitting here laughing. And agree fully with most. First Premier is not a predatory lender, but a sub-prime lender. They charge high fees but if you need a card (I think they're primarily MasterCard these days) at least you will have one (if you're traveling and need to rent a car, for example). Otherwise, I'd stay away from them, Credit One, or First National South Dakota. They all work the same way. The only good thing is that they do report to the Credit Reporting Agencies.

BTW, one poster suggested paying off your Charge Off in a lump sum so it would go away. It won't. The Charge off will stay on your credit report for seven years, BUT it will show as paid. If you get it paid off, you may see most of the negative effects go away after a couple of years, but the CO will remain for the full seven years.

Re: First premier credit card pre-approval

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 04:21:42 GMT

Oh, hey! Late to the party but here's my two cents. Stay away from First Premier, I read more times than I can count to avoid them and of course I made the poor decision to still take one of their offers. We were still new in the re-build process and still learning to handle our money but we were going on vacation, so you know the wise thing was to get another card. - insert eye roll and intense sarcasm- As someone who has been in your shoes and still struggling with my scores, I can tell you, don't take every offer you get. Stay the course and you will be rewarded. When DW and I started our rebuild process her scores were barely 500, mine were high 500s. Here we are four years later, a year and a half of strict credit watch - DW's scores are all within 10 pts of 700 and mine are mid-high 600s. From our experience, I can tell you that being in the low end of credit scores, every little thing hits your score and the growing process is so SLOWWWWW. Now DW's score barely sees any movement. We purchased a house in August of last year, her score took a 2 pt hit; we purchased a camper in November, her score grew 5 pts. My scores which are still trailing behind still see hits every time we make a move, the house cost me 13 pts and the camper another 11 pts. Stay the course! You got this!