topic Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs in Credit Cards

Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Rebuilder2021 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:38:06 GMT

I hope it's ok that I'm cross posting from Credit Rebuilding!

I've come a long way; my FICO 8 scores are 765/774/786. But I still have 6 30-day lates reporting, with only one coming off next year.

I'm a year in the garden and remaining for awhile yet but since I will be living with these derogs for some time I wondered if anyone else had been in a similar boat - relatively high scores but negative information. Will some cards reject applications solely for a spotty past history? Will most higher end cards be out of reach until some/all of the derogs have fallen off?

If it matters, the late payment in 2017 was mortgage, 2 in 2018 were for auto/mortgage, and 1 each in 2019, 2020, and 2021 for auto loan. So all on installment rather than revolving debt.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

coldworld — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 01:55:04 GMT

I’m pretty sure you won’t have a problem being approved for any of the high end rewards cards out there based on your scores.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Rebuilder2021 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 02:58:12 GMT

@coldworld wrote:
I’m pretty sure you won’t have a problem being approved for any of the high end rewards cards out there based on your scores.

That's a huge relief, thank you!

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Beefy1212 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 14:11:17 GMT

@Rebuilder2021 wrote:
@coldworld wrote:
I’m pretty sure you won’t have a problem being approved for any of the high end rewards cards out there based on your scores.

That's a huge relief, thank you!

Hard disagree you have 6 missed payments spanning half a decade some lenders might excuse it, but some will nope out on that. If it was one or even 2 perhaps even 3 but 6? Someone is going to balk at that.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Priory_Man — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 16:17:05 GMT

@Rebuilder2021 wrote:
I hope it's ok that I'm cross posting from Credit Rebuilding!

I've come a long way; my FICO 8 scores are 765/774/786. But I still have 6 30-day lates reporting, with only one coming off next year.

I'm a year in the garden and remaining for awhile yet but since I will be living with these derogs for some time I wondered if anyone else had been in a similar boat - relatively high scores but negative information. Will some cards reject applications solely for a spotty past history? Will most higher end cards be out of reach until some/all of the derogs have fallen off?

If it matters, the late payment in 2017 was mortgage, 2 in 2018 were for auto/mortgage, and 1 each in 2019, 2020, and 2021 for auto loan. So all on installment rather than revolving debt.

Not sure it will matter much what your missed payments are from, what the card companies and banks will see are 6 missed payments over the last 7 years. I would expect a higher number of denials than approvals. You may get lucky and get approved but your CL will be low.

You are already in the garden, stay there for a couple more years until you are down to 3 missed payments and you should have better luck. I know this to be true from my own journey through this crazy credit world.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

CYBERSAM — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 17:01:34 GMT

@Rebuilder2021 wrote:
I hope it's ok that I'm cross posting from Credit Rebuilding!

I've come a long way; my FICO 8 scores are 765/774/786. But I still have 6 30-day lates reporting, with only one coming off next year.

I'm a year in the garden and remaining for awhile yet but since I will be living with these derogs for some time I wondered if anyone else had been in a similar boat - relatively high scores but negative information. Will some cards reject applications solely for a spotty past history? Will most higher end cards be out of reach until some/all of the derogs have fallen off?

If it matters, the late payment in 2017 was mortgage, 2 in 2018 were for auto/mortgage, and 1 each in 2019, 2020, and 2021 for auto loan. So all on installment rather than revolving debt.

As your late history ages, the effect on your score becomes less and your score should improve. This effects your chances of getting better CCs. However if you app for a loan, that could have a bigger impact as they normally use manual review on your file.

Also note that some CCs like Chase or WF may do more manual reviews vs. Cap1 that has almost everything automated! Something to consider when apping for new CCs.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Rebuilder2021 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 17:26:11 GMT

@Beefy1212 @Priory_Man @CYBERSAM thank you for the honest opinions! Your insight is honestly closer to what I was expecting but detailed information is really tough to come by - similar posts here I've found are generally really old, and I'm sure a lot has changed since 2014. And pretty much all the approval DPS with scores like mine make no mention of derogatory info.

Half of the late payments were to Ally Bank, so I am working on goodwill letters to them. I have seen some success with that here but obviously going in with low expectations - the worst they can say is "no", right?

I bank with Chase so I figure if they are inclined to extend credit to me I will start seeing pre approvals sometime after I drop to 2/24 in January. Are there any data points you can point to for other lenders? Ex: "AMEX will let people in the door with minor derogs, even many minor derogs, but BofA wants only clean reports".

Thank you again for your insight!

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

TheRedHat — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 18:06:11 GMT

I have over twenty 30-day lates, eight to nine 60-day lates and two 120-day lates still on my reports. However, I haven't had a single late payment in the past four years and every account that had a late payment has been paid off. Take a look at my credit card lineup in my signature. That should answer your question.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Rebuilder2021 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 18:46:32 GMT

@TheRedHat wrote:
I have over twenty 30-day lates, eight to nine 60-day lates and two 120-day lates still on my reports. However, I haven't had a single late payment in the past four years and every account that had a late payment has been paid off. Take a look at my credit card lineup in my signature. That should answer your question.

That is amazing! Congratulations on all the progress! 🎊🎉

If you don't mind, I'm hoping to pick your brain a little bit further on the AMEX, NFCU, and US Bank! Namely, did you have any relationship with them prior to your rough patch? If not, how did you go about establishing these relationships? And finally, how recent were the derogs when you got these cards?

Any data points help, but you've definitely given me hope that all is not lost for a very long time!

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

TheRedHat — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 19:03:33 GMT

Thanks! Only with NFCU. I originally had a Platinum card with them some time ago (which had a lot of late payments on it) which they eventually closed. I had been banking with them for over 20 years. That was at the start of rebuilding my credit. After two years of managing a few credit cards and no late payments, they approved me for a Flagship Rewards card. AMEX and U.S. Bank were also a couple years after my rebuilding of credit. The U.S. Bank card is a secured one, but the rewards (minus the sign-up bonus) are the same. Your scores were much higher than mine were when I was approved for these cards.

The only thing I would say to you that I wish I had told myself a few years back, is to take it slow and take it easy. I'm playing the long game. I'm close to one year of gardening now and intend to go at least one more year before I apply for my next credit card.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Rebuilder2021 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 19:21:09 GMT

@TheRedHat wrote:
Thanks! Only with NFCU. I originally had a Platinum card with them some time ago (which had a lot of late payments on it) which they eventually closed. I had been banking with them for over 20 years. That was at the start of rebuilding my credit. After two years of managing a few credit cards and no late payments, they approved me for a Flagship Rewards card. AMEX and U.S. Bank were also a couple years after my rebuilding of credit. The U.S. Bank card is a secured one, but the rewards (minus the sign-up bonus) are the same. Your scores were much higher than mine were when I was approved for these cards.

The only thing I would say to you that I wish I had told myself a few years back, is to take it slow and take it easy. I'm playing the long game. I'm close to one year of gardening now and intend to go at least one more year before I apply for my next credit card.

Thank you for all the great data points! I'm a member at NFCU but I'm a little sour on their credit products - I applied for one of their cards (don't remember which atm, it wasn't the Flagship though) about a year ago when they said I was pre-qualified for all of them (including the Flagship) and was flat denied. Idk what it is but unreliable pre-qual tools really irk me.

U.S. Bank has some intriguing products but I know they tend to be very selective. I'm approved for all the AMEX charge cards and BCP but I really only check because I love the fact that they do pre approvals without a hard pull. That alone makes me want to do business with them and staying in the garden has been tough.

Thank you so much again for everything!

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

markhs777 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 21:04:37 GMT

Six late payments will always affect your credit in some ways.

Your scores will be lower than not having them, you may be approved but the limits may be lower or outright denied depending on he FI. AA is more likely at the slightest whim of overextending your cards and several other factors some as app sprees and other behavior.

A couple of lates can happen to anyone but six is a bit much. Cool it for awhile and you'll be good.

Re: Applying for cards with good scores and lots of “minor” derogs

Rebuilder2021 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 21:38:34 GMT

@markhs777 wrote:
Six late payments will always affect your credit in some ways.

Your scores will be lower than not having them, you may be approved but the limits may be lower or outright denied depending on he FI. AA is more likely at the slightest whim of overextending your cards and several other factors some as app sprees and other behavior.

A couple of lates can happen to anyone but six is a bit much. Cool it for awhile and you'll be good.

Thank you so much for the AA info! Definitely a useful data point.