topic Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please! in Credit Cards

Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

ajburt22 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:20:31 GMT

Ok, before anyone gets mad at me for the common question, I searched for hours through all the previous posts on the best CC's for rebuilding, however many of the threads were over 2 years old and I know a lot has changed since then. I know there is good advice to be given, so I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

I want a "long-term" CC that can, as stated, grow with me. I've already done what I can to repair, so I am very much so in the rebuild phase. Can anyone recommend me what CC's I should apply for, in hopes that they will actually approve me? I'm looking for unsecured if possible, but will go secured if necessary. My scores and other info is as follows:

FICO TU: 662

FICO EQ: 635

FAKO EXP: 563

I used to be up around 800 across the board until I lost my job and had about 6 months of non-payments. A home foreclosure, and a bank repo (Auto). No charge off's or collections... this bad string of luck occured between June and Dec of 2007. I have been since, and am currently current on all payments. I do not have 1 "active/open" CC, but I'm still paying on 2. My Lowe's card may still be open though. Lastly, I make $190,000 a year and I'm not sure if this is something banks factor in.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Aaron

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:40:14 GMT

Hi...

Have you tried applying for a Capital One card? when I was rebuilding my credit (it was in May 2008 with a 584ish score) I got a Capital One card with credit steps they grew from 250 - 500 - 750 and now the Credit limit is stuck at 750 but it did what it was supposed to, gave me credit to rebuild my profile on.

All the best to you!

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:50:47 GMT

Hi Aaron,

Can you give us a little more detail? Do you have a bankruptcy? Are your PRs paid? You noted that you have two closed cards (although Lowe's may still be open) with a balance. Can you afford to PIF those closed cards?

I think you might have some difficulty with some of your baddies being less than two years old, and cards closed with a balance. You might want to consider a secured card, with a credit union, that will unsecure within 9-12 months. Are you eligible for NFCU? If so, they have a great secured card.

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

ajburt22 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:21:25 GMT

I haven't applied for any credit whatsoever in over a year and a half. So i haven't tried Cap One yet, but thanks for the tip... I will try them first!

As far as the background goes, I do NOT have a bankruptcy. I have a Pentagon FCU Visa that I owe $10,500 on, a BofA Visa I owe $3,000 on and a loan I owe $3,000 on. That's pretty much all (and the only) debt that I have. I have no mortgage, no open cards (Lowes?) and no other loans. I can afford to pay the BofA card in full, but even though it's closed it reports a CL of like $9,800 so I wasn't sure if it was helping my credit or not.

Which one is NFCU? I'd like to go unsecured, but whatever will help my credit I'll do. With my scores, do you think I would get approved for the BofA Secured if I put down $5,000 and paid my current Visa first?

Thanks so much for the help!

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:32:15 GMT

hi ajburt22,

NFCU stands for Navy Federal Credit Union...

That's about all I can help with...

I dont know if BOA will give you a secured card... maybe the others can chime in on that...

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

ajburt22 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:45:40 GMT

Thanks, I should be able to get one with them since I am a Veteran. I can't wait to start applying... I just hope it's not all for nothing. Maybe I'll try Capital One first... do you know what scores they pull from, or is it all three?

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:50:37 GMT

well I have heard awesome things about NFCU... unfortunately I dont qualify

I dont really remember what they had pulled. Coming to think of it, it was a pre-approval offer letter in the mail because I had an auto loan with them... I think they had pulled Equifax for my auto loan...

I hope that helps

They made enough money off me (this was before I was credit savvy unfortunately...)

I was paying 18.99% APR on my auto loan

thankfully, the APR for my credit card is at 8.9%V and hasnt changed in the current tough economic times so I am very grateful.

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:46:21 GMT

@ajburt22 wrote:
I haven't applied for any credit whatsoever in over a year and a half. So i haven't tried Cap One yet, but thanks for the tip... I will try them first!

As far as the background goes, I do NOT have a bankruptcy. I have a Pentagon FCU Visa that I owe $10,500 on, a BofA Visa I owe $3,000 on and a loan I owe $3,000 on. That's pretty much all (and the only) debt that I have. I have no mortgage, no open cards (Lowes?) and no other loans. I can afford to pay the BofA card in full, but even though it's closed it reports a CL of like $9,800 so I wasn't sure if it was helping my credit or not.

Which one is NFCU? I'd like to go unsecured, but whatever will help my credit I'll do. With my scores, do you think I would get approved for the BofA Secured if I put down $5,000 and paid my current Visa first?

Thanks so much for the help!

The CL on closed TL's may not help your UTIL so you may as well pay this one off. Try to get yourself down to one closed TL with a balance ASAP and then proceed to pay that one down. I would not app for credit until you have done a little more house cleaning. Be patient - you will get better results.

Message Edited by creditwherecreditisdue on 07-28-2009 01:46 PM

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:46:35 GMT

Get added as an authorized user to a friend or family members cards that are old, clean, little utilized and have decent credit limits. This will help get your utilization in check for scoring purposes. I'd skip Cap One unless you wanted the card specifically for the no FETF. Not much use otherwise IMO.

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:05:19 GMT

@ajburt22 wrote:
Thanks, I should be able to get one with them since I am a Veteran. I can't wait to start applying... I just hope it's not all for nothing. Maybe I'll try Capital One first... do you know what scores they pull from, or is it all three?

"Veteran" status does not qualify unless you are "retired" in some manner (paid) or directly related to someone who is a member (Parent, Grandparent, Sibling, Child or Household member).

But if you can get in, NFCU is by far the best "credit" source that I have come across.

Message Edited by txjohn on 07-28-2009 09:05 AM

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:29:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@ajburt22 wrote:
I haven't applied for any credit whatsoever in over a year and a half. So i haven't tried Cap One yet, but thanks for the tip... I will try them first!

As far as the background goes, I do NOT have a bankruptcy. I have a Pentagon FCU Visa that I owe $10,500 on, a BofA Visa I owe $3,000 on and a loan I owe $3,000 on. That's pretty much all (and the only) debt that I have. I have no mortgage, no open cards (Lowes?) and no other loans. I can afford to pay the BofA card in full, but even though it's closed it reports a CL of like $9,800 so I wasn't sure if it was helping my credit or not.

Which one is NFCU? I'd like to go unsecured, but whatever will help my credit I'll do. With my scores, do you think I would get approved for the BofA Secured if I put down $5,000 and paid my current Visa first?

Thanks so much for the help!
The CL on closed TL's does not help your UTIL at all so you may as well pay this one off. Try to get yourself down to one closed TL with a balance ASAP and then proceed to pay that one down. I would not app for credit until you have done a little more house cleaning. Be patient - you will get better results.

Actually I believe that since the closed card still reports a CL, that limit would factor into utilization. This was explained to me by ~~FicoBerry and ScoreBuilder~~ (I think) on another thread.

Edited to correct the above sources of information...Brydman and Sidewinder were my sources of information.

Message Edited by VEEnVEGAS on 07-28-2009 10:29 AM

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:26:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@ajburt22 wrote:
I haven't applied for any credit whatsoever in over a year and a half. So i haven't tried Cap One yet, but thanks for the tip... I will try them first!

As far as the background goes, I do NOT have a bankruptcy. I have a Pentagon FCU Visa that I owe $10,500 on, a BofA Visa I owe $3,000 on and a loan I owe $3,000 on. That's pretty much all (and the only) debt that I have. I have no mortgage, no open cards (Lowes?) and no other loans. I can afford to pay the BofA card in full, but even though it's closed it reports a CL of like $9,800 so I wasn't sure if it was helping my credit or not.

Which one is NFCU? I'd like to go unsecured, but whatever will help my credit I'll do. With my scores, do you think I would get approved for the BofA Secured if I put down $5,000 and paid my current Visa first?

Thanks so much for the help!
The CL on closed TL's does not help your UTIL at all so you may as well pay this one off. Try to get yourself down to one closed TL with a balance ASAP and then proceed to pay that one down. I would not app for credit until you have done a little more house cleaning. Be patient - you will get better results.
Actually I believe that since the closed card still reports a CL, that limit would factor into utilization. This was explained to me by FicoBerry and ScoreBuilder (I think) on another thread.

An outstanding balance on a closed card is factored into your utilization. Credit limits on closed cards are not. All my closed cards still report a credit limit. The only thing that is included in scoring is the age of the tradelines.

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

ajburt22 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:58:16 GMT

I can join NFCU because I'm a DoD Contractor assigned to a U.S. Government Installation... so I will try them now.

I will also clean up the remaining TL's, and may even wait to apply for a card for another month or two. I just hate traveling without a CC, but don't have another trip back to the states until October. Thanks for the help everyone!

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:40:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

The CL on closed TL's does not help your UTIL at all so you may as well pay this one off. Try to get yourself down to one closed TL with a balance ASAP and then proceed to pay that one down. I would not app for credit until you have done a little more house cleaning. Be patient - you will get better results.

@Anonymous wrote:

Actually I believe that since the closed card still reports a CL, that limit would factor into utilization. This was explained to me by FicoBerry and ScoreBuilder (I think) on another thread.
@Anonymous wrote:
An outstanding balance on a closed card is factored into your utilization. Credit limits on closed cards are not. All my closed cards still report a credit limit. The only thing that is included in scoring is the age of the tradelines.

I don't really want to go off topic here, so I will just post a link to the thread I referenced above where it was pointed out to me that CLs on closed accounts that report a credit limit are indeed factored into UT.

You will see that I argued vehemently that they weren't, but was told several times that I was wrong. I need to correct myself on the names I used above though. It was Byrdman and Sidewinder who gave me this information.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=127627&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

Message Edited by VEEnVEGAS on 07-28-2009 10:40 AM

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:43:11 GMT

Well hells bells! It was always my understanding that when you had a closed account with a balance that both the balance and the CL were included in the UTIL calculation. I was recently corrected on that by two mod's! I wish this matter would be authoritatively addressed and put to rest. (This is Fair Isaac's forum and I would think that an answer to that question would not give away the store.) I have a closed account with a balance and need to know the proper answer as I am contemplating a payoff.

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:12:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well hells bells! It was always my understanding that when you had a closed account with a balance that both the balance and the CL were included in the UTIL calculation. I was recently corrected on that by two mod's! I wish this matter would be authoritatively addressed and put to rest. (This is Fair Isaac's forum and I would think that an answer to that question would not give away the store.) I have a closed account with a balance and need to know the proper answer as I am contemplating a payoff.

According to what was explained to me in the above referenced thread this is correct if the account was closed by the credit card company. OP says his CL is still listed on his CR,.therefore it is factored into UT.

I agree that we need to have this addressed better here as there is much confusion on the forum about this topic, from mods as well as posters. I mentioned this to the moderator who corrected me on the matter.

Maybe it would be best to take this matter to another thread or reopen the linked thread above instead of letting it take over OP's thread though.

Message Edited by VEEnVEGAS on 07-28-2009 11:12 AM

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:33:06 GMT

It would be great if maybe Barry or one of the other FICO people could resolve this.

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:42:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well hells bells! It was always my understanding that when you had a closed account with a balance that both the balance and the CL were included in the UTIL calculation. I was recently corrected on that by two mod's! I wish this matter would be authoritatively addressed and put to rest. (This is Fair Isaac's forum and I would think that an answer to that question would not give away the store.) I have a closed account with a balance and need to know the proper answer as I am contemplating a payoff.

Ask and ye shall receive.

If you have a balance on a closed account, then the reported CL and reported balance is factored into your utilization. If you have a zero balance, then the CL is NOT factored.

Here is the "authoritative" link you asked for:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/why-closing-an-account-hurts-score.aspx

However, if the OC CLD's the limit then your utilization will get screwed with a balance, because it will be the reported CL that is factored.

Hope this helps.

Message Edited by txjohn on 07-28-2009 12:42 PM

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:20:37 GMT

Well that's third hand Barry info (you citing a quote of Barry by a journalist) and that's good enough for me!

That means my long since closed account with a balance of $752.65 and CL of $3,949 (UTIL=19.06%) is hurting my overall UTIL of 9%. Once I hit a crossover point at < $350 remaining this account will then help my overall UTIL until it is totally paid off, at which point there will be a slightly negative effect. This supports my current plan which is to make one payment to get the balance down to about $350 and then parcel it out from there. I am afraid of any sudden changes with that account - it is Chase and for all I know in their warped system the balance on the closed account may be helping my open and pif account stay open. You really can't tell what is going on in their minds these days,

Re: Too many (CC's) to choose from... Help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:21:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well that's third hand Barry info (you citing a quote of Barry by a journalist) and that's good enough for me!

That means my long since closed account with a balance of $752.65 and CL of $3,949 (UTIL=19.06%) is hurting my overall UTIL of 9%. Once I hit a crossover point at < $350 remaining this account will then help my overall UTIL until it is totally paid off, at which point there will be a slightly negative effect. This supports my current plan which is to make one payment to get the balance down to about $350 and then parcel it out from there. I am afraid of any sudden changes with that account - it is Chase and for all I know in their warped system the balance on the closed account may be helping my open and pif account stay open. You really can't tell what is going on in their minds these days,

LOL.

My brother's neighbor has a cousin whose best friend was told by her hair dresser's boyfriend. And he got it straight from the horse's mouth.