topic Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild? in Credit Cards

Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:43:41 GMT

Hello.

I am twenty-six years old and am looking to rebuild my credit. I got my first credit card when I was eighteen through Capital One and I was inexperienced and knew nothing about credit. Needless to say that things didn't go very well. The card was charged-off and has since fallen off of my credit report leaving me with no credit history. I have two collections that are supposed to fall off of my report soon, both for amounts under 100.00. I have a Capital One secured card ( have had it since June of this year, it's a 400.00 limit ) and recently acquired a Capital One platinum card ( just got it in the mail yesterday, so it isn't reporting yet, the limit is 500.00 ). I have always paid on time, paying in full except for one month where I only paid a little over the minimum payment before the due date. Other than that, I've been consistent with my payments and now that I have gotten the hang of things, I plan to keep the reporting utilization as low as possible. My last reported utilization was 11%.

I really can't seem to get anything else because I have a limited history and I've been thinking about getting a Bank of America secured card soon to help. I applied for the Bank Americard to see what they would counter with and they countered with the fully secured option, not the partially secured. The reason for their denial was that my AAoA was too minimal and that I don't have enough credit history at my disposal. Credit Karma said I have FAIR odds of getting approved for a Chase Freedom card so I applied for that and got the 7-10 day message. I also tried for a Walmart card and after calling it in, I found out that I was denied for that and will be getting a denial card soon. I haven't been going crazy with the applications. I have less than ten, about four or five of them being older.

I don't know what my FICO scores are and don't plan to check them for awhile, but my most recent FAKO scores are as follows:

Transunion: 655

Experian: 634

Equifax: 634

So basically, I'm posting this to ask for advice on what to do now. I'm pretty sure that the best advice would be to do some gardening, but I figured that I would ask anyway. Also, if anyone has any cards that I should look into in the future, the help would be greatly appreciated. I'm just trying to get my credit history cleaned up as much as possible, to fix the damage done in my youth.

Thanks!

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

LS2982 — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:57:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello.

I am twenty-six years old and am looking to rebuild my credit. I got my first credit card when I was eighteen through Capital One and I was inexperienced and knew nothing about credit. Needless to say that things didn't go very well. The card was charged-off and has since fallen off of my credit report leaving me with no credit history. I have two collections that are supposed to fall off of my report soon, both for amounts under 100.00. I have a Capital One secured card ( have had it since June of this year, it's a 400.00 limit ) and recently acquired a Capital One platinum card ( just got it in the mail yesterday, so it isn't reporting yet, the limit is 500.00 ). I have always paid on time, paying in full except for one month where I only paid a little over the minimum payment before the due date. Other than that, I've been consistent with my payments and now that I have gotten the hang of things, I plan to keep the reporting utilization as low as possible. My last reported utilization was 11%.

I really can't seem to get anything else because I have a limited history and I've been thinking about getting a Bank of America secured card soon to help. I applied for the Bank Americard to see what they would counter with and they countered with the fully secured option, not the partially secured. The reason for their denial was that my AAoA was too minimal and that I don't have enough credit history at my disposal. Credit Karma said I have FAIR odds of getting approved for a Chase Freedom card so I applied for that and got the 7-10 day message. I also tried for a Walmart card and after calling it in, I found out that I was denied for that and will be getting a denial card soon. I haven't been going crazy with the applications. I have less than ten, about four or five of them being older.

I don't know what my FICO scores are and don't plan to check them for awhile, but my most recent FAKO scores are as follows:

Transunion: 655
Experian: 634
Equifax: 634

So basically, I'm posting this to ask for advice on what to do now. I'm pretty sure that the best advice would be to do some gardening, but I figured that I would ask anyway. Also, if anyone has any cards that I should look into in the future, the help would be greatly appreciated. I'm just trying to get my credit history cleaned up as much as possible, to fix the damage done in my youth.

Thanks!

Find out what your FICO scores are on this site. Your FAKO scores could be way off.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

boomhower — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:01:41 GMT

Pull your Equifax FICO to get a feel for where you are, skip the other two as they aren't much more accurate than FAKO's at this point. Depending on the results I would look at Barclay's Carnival card as it's fairly easy to get.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:06:21 GMT

With your 2 Cap 1 cards you are well on your way As you mentioned your self, garden. You have only had the oldest card for 5 months now... just be patient and let them age until they're both a year old. Then start applying for a couple of prime cards. Don't bother to get more starter cards right now and wasting INQ's just to have to dump those cards later. You are doing good!!!

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:14:11 GMT

Varakai: I figured that's what I had to do. I guess I need to find myself some patience and put it to good use.

Boomhower: I just tried to pull my Equifax FICO score and got this message:

We regret that we cannot provide you with your FICO® score report as your report at Equifax does not meet the minimum scoring criteria. If you were using a credit card, it was not charged.

If you have not already done so, you may want to try ordering your credit report from the other national credit bureau - TransUnion.In addition, your non traditional credit data may be reported to alternative credit reporting agencies and Fair Isaac Credit Services, Inc. can help you get access to this information if present.

Please call Fair Isaac Credit Services at 1-866-838-3427 to obtain a copy of your Fair Isaac Credit Services consumer report.This report does not include a score.To expedite the call, please specify to the representative that you are interested in obtaining a copy of your Fair Isaac Credit Services consumer report.
For any additional questions regarding myFICO.com, please call myFICO.com customer service at 1-800-319-4433 Monday - Friday 6:00AM - 6:00PM or Saturday 7:00AM - 4:00PM PST.
Thank you
myFICO® Customer Care

I have no idea what that means.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

LS2982 — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:16:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Varakai: I figured that's what I had to do. I guess I need to find myself some patience and put it to good use.

Boomhower: I just tried to pull my Equifax FICO score and got this message:
We regret that we cannot provide you with your FICO® score report as your report at Equifax does not meet the minimum scoring criteria. If you were using a credit card, it was not charged.

If you have not already done so, you may want to try ordering your credit report from the other national credit bureau - TransUnion.In addition, your non traditional credit data may be reported to alternative credit reporting agencies and Fair Isaac Credit Services, Inc. can help you get access to this information if present.

Please call Fair Isaac Credit Services at 1-866-838-3427 to obtain a copy of your Fair Isaac Credit Services consumer report.This report does not include a score.To expedite the call, please specify to the representative that you are interested in obtaining a copy of your Fair Isaac Credit Services consumer report.
For any additional questions regarding myFICO.com, please call myFICO.com customer service at 1-800-319-4433 Monday - Friday 6:00AM - 6:00PM or Saturday 7:00AM - 4:00PM PST.
Thank you
myFICO® Customer Care
I have no idea what that means.

Do you have a least 6 months of history on any tradeline?? If you don't, FICO cannot produce a score yet.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

-Cain- — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:18:59 GMT

If your accounts are only 5 months old, you probably dont have a FICO score yet. You'll have to wait another month.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

-Cain- — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:19:39 GMT

I guess I was a bit late... : )

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:20:19 GMT

My secured card started reporting in June of this year, as I mentioned. I knew my history was very limited, which is why I never bothered with FICO scores until it was suggested here.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:22:09 GMT

@-Cain- wrote:
If your accounts are only 5 months old, you probably dont have a FICO score yet. You'll have to wait another month.

So I should try to get my FICO score sometime in December? Or should I wait until January?

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

LS2982 — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:22:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My secured card started reporting in June of this year, as I mentioned. I knew my history was very limited, which is why I never bothered with FICO scores until it was suggested here.

I would wait about 20 days after your 6th statement on your Cap one card and then try again.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

-Cain- — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:25:45 GMT

Shizume,
you can try in December, if a score still can't be pulled, you won't be charged. Then you could try in January.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:29:16 GMT

So I guess the best advice here is just to wait and do nothing else but maintain my payments as I've been doing? I'll report back once I get my FICO score(s) and also when I hear back from Chase, which I'm pretty sure will be a denial, but there's nothing wrong with hoping against it.

Thanks for the help thus far. Much appreciated.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

-Cain- — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:32:20 GMT

Good luck!

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Ashes — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:01:16 GMT

Hello again.

This is Shizume. There was an issue where I got locked out of my original account and decided to start a new one until I can get things sorted. I purchased my Equifax FICO score today and was shocked when I saw that it was 672. That completely blew my mind because my FAKO Equifax score is only 626! I was expecting my FICO score to be lower but lo and behold, it wasn't. I'm wondering now what I'm paying Equifax monthly for when the scores are so drastically different. That said, I don't know my Transunion FICO, but my FAKO is currently around 660-ish, according to Credit Karma. I'm going by the Vantage Score, not the Transrisk score, since multiple times in the past, the Vantage Score has matched my purchased FAKO Transunion score.

That said, I've officially reached the 6 month history stage. Any suggestions for cards, as all my current cards are rebuilders and have smaller limits. I have a Capital One Secured card with a 400.00 limit, a Capital One Platinum card with a 500.00 limit and an Orchard Platinum card with a 300.00 limit. The last two are unsecured and the last one hasn't even arrived yet. I was wondering if I should get another secured card or just wait until I have a longer credit history? I've been stalking the Dungeon and I've got to say, it always makes a bit app-curious but I know my baby history is going to be an issue and I don't like being declined.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

improvingmycredit — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:40:18 GMT

I know you probably don't want to hear this but you should garden. I know how hard that can be when you are just getting started. My advice- wait at least 6 more months with your current cards- use them and pay them off every month but one keeping utility to around 7-10% on just one card. When the 6th month mark hits and if you just can't wait- hit up Barclays for a card and see what they say. (maybe the Apple Card or any other). I think you are doing good other then all the recent inquiries. It'd be best if you could garden for a full year or at least 8 months. Hope this helps.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Ashes — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:48:30 GMT

It's hard to listen to good advice, but I figured that was my best option at the moment. I just wanted to see what others would say, kind of like validating what I already knew.

I'm actually very proud of myself, though I don't like the inquiries. It wasn't until I discovered the forums here that I really understood how horrible inquiries were. Some of them will be falling off soon, but at least I can say that I have under ten inquiries in all. Thanks for the advice, it means a lot and I'm going to find myself some willpower and stick it out.

When I can finally say I have scores that look like yours and a lot of other members here on the board, it'll all have paid off.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

IowaGuy — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:36:57 GMT

You are at an important part of your credit life. Dont screw it up. Garden those cards and dont get any more. Make every payment and dont be late. 2 years from now youll be asking us whats better, amex or barclays. 4 years down ghe road you may very well be house shopping with a great score and rate offers.

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

tbc — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:46:03 GMT

As one rebuilder to another.......

GARDEN, GARDEN, GARDEN......

In this last year, I have watched mine grow, with alot of work, time....and basically just taking care of business.

FICO TU 608, FICO EXQUIFAX 542

PULLED THIS AM 12/10/2011

I say this because when I pulled my FICO last January, I actually had a FICO EQUIFAX OF 350'S I was so shocked an appalled, I refused to accept it, unitl I started reading and educating myself from this forum.

I know my scores are still POO, but its a long stride for me in a year.

Good luck, Good luck and GARDEN, GARDEN AND THEN GARDEN SOME MORE.

JMHO

Re: Cards for Limited History to Help Rebuild?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:19:15 GMT

my suggestion would be different from others as I think you need to step up the game a little. "Higher limit begets higher limit" is a general rule in credit game so you should increase CL on cap1 secured to more usable amount like $1000-2000 in order to to get higher limit on later TLs. Amex Zync is somewhat easy to get even with

small collection on report. If CO're old enough( more than 3 years), there's chance you might get approved for zync with limit cap which would be later lifted if your credit improve. And reson I recommend apping for zync now is, if approved, you get "member since 2011" which would be very benificial for AAoA and fico score later on. And you might need to check TU FICO, if it's more than 660, you have good chance with barclay travelocity or apple. You might get declined at first but you could request reconsideration and approval is quite easy. You might need to read through many credit forums and you will see members whose credit on borderline for approval share experiences. Some get approved with recent derogatory, some get declined with even 5-6 years old paid collection. YMMV.