topic Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards in Rebuilding Your Credit

Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

DeeBee78 — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 18:14:59 GMT

Good morning all, kind of new here, but have been lurking for a while. I think it's time to share my financial picture with everyone.

To make a long story short, I defaulted on several credit cards in 2007, when I finished college and couldn't find a job.

I started to take a more serious look at my credit in late 2012, and opened a secured Wells Fargo VISA with a $500 limit in September. That secured card paved the way for me to get two more cards - a CreditOne Bank VISA with a $300 limit in September of 2013, and a Milestone MasterCard with a $300 limit in January of 2014.

In May of 2014, I went for a Capital One Platinum card, and was approved for a $300 limit with a gradutation to $500 after completing their credit steps program.

After having the secured card for two years without a graduation to unsecured, I cancelled the WF VISA. They absolutely refused to graduate me to an unsecured card. On a whim, I decided to apply for a Captial One Quicksilver card and was approved for the $300/$500 credit steps limit again. At the same time, I applied for an Amazon.com store card, and was approved for a $700 credit line - yay!

In October of 2014, I was preapproved for GameStop's new store credit card. I signed up just for the bonus points, which was the equivalent of $25. I haven't used this card at all.

The Milestone card hadn't increased my limit in a year, despite having kept the balance low, and no late payments (my payment history across the board is 100%), so I cancelled that in January of 2015.

So here's where I stand now:

Amazon.com Store Card - $700

Capital One Platinum - $500

Capital One Quicksilver - $500

CreditOne Bank Platinum - $800

Gamestop PowerUp Rewards - $250

My credit score varies wildly depending on the souce:

Captial One Credit Tracker: 621 TU

Credit Karma: 623 TU 633 EX

Credit Sesame: 600 EX

CreditOne Bank site: 574

I have been asking for CLI's but other than the Capital One credit steps, I don't ever receive them. CreditOne has thrown me a few small increases (with a $20 fee each time) and that's it. From everything I've read on these forums, the Amazon.com card should have given me an automatic CLI after 4 months, but didn't. I have tried the LUV button on their site, but get denied every time.

I have 4 deragatory marks on my TU and EX credit reports. on TU two of them are medical, and on EX 3 of them are medical. These are several years old.

I was doing OK until T-Mobile added a collection on my reports in November of 2014. I have disputed it, but they claim it's mine. I've never had a T-mobile contract, so I don't know what my next steps with that are. I contacted the collection agency, and they're supposed to be sending me proof of the debt.

I've tried applying for some middle-tier cards that I've received preapprovals for, (Amex green, Discover It, Chase Freedom) but I'm getting denied. I think a lot of it has to do with that damn T-mobile collection being added so recently.

I've screwed up with hard inquiries, and have several on each credit report now. I need to stop applying for cards, and I know that now. I was just hoping I could get a decent card with no annual fee

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:18:49 GMT

@DeeBee78 wrote:
Good morning all, kind of new here, but have been lurking for a while. I think it's time to share my financial picture with everyone.

To make a long story short, I defaulted on several credit cards in 2007, when I finished college and couldn't find a job.

I started to take a more serious look at my credit in late 2012, and opened a secured Wells Fargo VISA with a $500 limit in September. That secured card paved the way for me to get two more cards - a CreditOne Bank VISA with a $300 limit in September of 2013, and a Milestone MasterCard with a $300 limit in January of 2014.

In May of 2014, I went for a Capital One Platinum card, and was approved for a $300 limit with a gradutation to $500 after completing their credit steps program.

After having the secured card for two years without a graduation to unsecured, I cancelled the WF VISA. They absolutely refused to graduate me to an unsecured card. On a whim, I decided to apply for a Captial One Quicksilver card and was approved for the $300/$500 credit steps limit again. At the same time, I applied for an Amazon.com store card, and was approved for a $700 credit line - yay!

In October of 2014, I was preapproved for GameStop's new store credit card. I signed up just for the bonus points, which was the equivalent of $25. I haven't used this card at all.

The Milestone card hadn't increased my limit in a year, despite having kept the balance low, and no late payments (my payment history across the board is 100%), so I cancelled that in January of 2015.

So here's where I stand now:

Amazon.com Store Card - $700
Capital One Platinum - $500
Capital One Quicksilver - $500
CreditOne Bank Platinum - $800
Gamestop PowerUp Rewards - $250

My credit score varies wildly depending on the souce:

Captial One Credit Tracker: 621 TU
Credit Karma: 623 TU 633 EX
Credit Sesame: 600 EX
CreditOne Bank site: 574

I have been asking for CLI's but other than the Capital One credit steps, I don't ever receive them. CreditOne has thrown me a few small increases (with a $20 fee each time) and that's it. From everything I've read on these forums, the Amazon.com card should have given me an automatic CLI after 4 months, but didn't. I have tried the LUV button on their site, but get denied every time.

I have 4 deragatory marks on my TU and EX credit reports. on TU two of them are medical, and on EX 3 of them are medical. These are several years old.

I was doing OK until T-Mobile added a collection on my reports in November of 2014. I have disputed it, but they claim it's mine. I've never had a T-mobile phone, so I don't know what my next steps with that are. I contacted the collection agency, and they're supposed to be sending me proof of the debt.

I've tried applying for some middle-tier cards that I've received preapprovals for, (Amex green, Discover It, Chase Freedom) but I'm getting denied. I think a lot of it has to do with that damn T-mobile collection being added so recently.

I've screwed up with hard inquiries, and have several on each credit report now. I need to stop applying for cards, and I know that now. I was just hoping I could get a decent card with no annual fee

Dump the CreditOne card. They are the WORST of the vulture lenders and are owned by one of the largest junk debt buyer/collectors in the country. You don't need them or want them. Your Cap One cards are more than sufficient, you just need to learn to use them to your advantage. Here is exactly what you need to do: USE THEM. Use the crap out of them, for anything and everything you would normally cash or debit card for. Charge them up and then go online and pay them off as soon as you get paid. Do this as many times per month as your pay schedule allows. Basically run ALL of your living expenses through the cards but DO NOT carry any balance over each month. Only allow one of them to report a small balance (less han $50). Make sure they are paid before the statement date each month. Do this and in a couple of months start requesting credit limit increases. They tripled my credit limits in three months when I started doing this, with 550 scores.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:34:35 GMT

Get rid of the Credit One card ASAP. Save the fees from that card to take care of your baddies. Also, are you a gamer? Do you shop at Game Stop a lot? If you're not going to use it at least a half dozen times a year I'm not sure that it benefits you. Also, use the hell out of your Cap 1 cards and make payments in chunks. $200 - $400 each, several times a month. If you do that you'll get a pretty big bump from Credit Steps.

EDIT: Oops, I guess I should have read Norman's post, lol!!!

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

DeeBee78 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:54:33 GMT

I know the CreditOne card is crap, so I don't actively use it. The only thing that gets charged to it is the $8 a month "annual" fee. The day that gets posted I pay it, because I know they start charging interest immediately.

I put everything on my Quicksilver card, to get the tiny amount of cashback, and actively pay it off several times a month. The reported balance is usually between 10-25% of the limit. This was a lot harder to do when I had a $300 limit because they wouldn't let me pay more than the current balance, even though I had $250 of charges pending. Right now I'm using 85% of the line because I had to wait for charges to post before I could pay them.

http://i.imgur.com/UznJXyU.jpg

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:43:14 GMT

@DeeBee78 wrote:
I know the CreditOne card is crap, so I don't actively use it. The only thing that gets charged to it is the $8 a month "annual" fee. The day that gets posted I pay it, because I know they start charging interest immediately. Why pay money each month for the priviledge of NOT using their card? Dump it, its not helping you enough at this point to justify the money - with the anual fee (usually $79) you are throwing away $150+ bucks a year. Much better to put money into a secured card from a CU like SDFCU - no fees and interest is earned on the deposit - let someone pay YOU for the priviledge of not using their card. Doesn't that make more sense?

I put everything on my Quicksilver card, to get the tiny amount of cashback, and actively pay it off several times a month. The reported balance is usually between 10-25% of the limit. This was a lot harder to do when I had a $300 limit because they wouldn't let me pay more than the current balance, even though I had $250 of charges pending. Right now I'm using 85% of the line because I had to wait for charges to post before I could pay them. Yeah, it takes some thought and planning to manage it, but its worth it in the long run. Even if you 'miss' a month and end up with a high reported balance, you can always correct it the next month as UTI has no 'memory' of previous months, it just looks at the current month, so you can get those lost points right back.

http://i.imgur.com/UznJXyU.jpg

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

DeeBee78 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 21:25:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Why pay money each month for the priviledge of NOT using their card? Dump it, its not helping you enough at this point to justify the money - with the anual fee (usually $79) you are throwing away $150+ bucks a year. Much better to put money into a secured card from a CU like SDFCU - no fees and interest is earned on the deposit - let someone pay YOU for the priviledge of not using their card. Doesn't that make more sense?

The CreditOne card has a $99/year annual fee, which is broken up into monthly payments of $8.25- no other type of annual fee. Since it accounts for almost 1/3 of my limits, I keep it around to keep my overall utilization low. I'm not ready to give it up just yet. Plus I don't need a secured card anymore.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

DeeBee78 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 21:30:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Get rid of the Credit One card ASAP. Save the fees from that card to take care of your baddies. Also, are you a gamer? Do you shop at Game Stop a lot? If you're not going to use it at least a half dozen times a year I'm not sure that it benefits you. Also, use the hell out of your Cap 1 cards and make payments in chunks. $200 - $400 each, several times a month. If you do that you'll get a pretty big bump from Credit Steps.

EDIT: Oops, I guess I should have read Norman's post, lol!!!

I am a gamer, and the GameStop card has no annual fee, so it doesn't hurt me to have it.

Saving the $8.25 a month on the CreditOne fee isn't going to help pay off the old large medical debts any faster than they would fall off.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

alexl22 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 21:41:47 GMT

Do you have any kind of Installment loan for your mix of credit? Go to amazons card account page, initiate a chat and ask for a credit limit increase asking for 5k and hopefuly they will give you the whole thing or counter.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 22:07:42 GMT

Okay, so your subject is "stuck with bottom feeder cards" which to me seemed to indicate you 'dont' want them, I tell you to close the worst of the bottom feeders and work the Cap One cards to build them up because they are all you need and you tell you don't want to. OK, toss your money to the sharks if thats what you prefer to do.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

DeeBee78 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 23:11:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Okay, so your subject is "stuck with bottom feeder cards" which to me seemed to indicate you 'dont' want them, I tell you to close the worst of the bottom feeders and work the Cap One cards to build them up because they are all you need and you tell you don't want to. OK, toss your money to the sharks if thats what you prefer to do.

And you can't understand me not wanting to cut 29% of my credit limit? Why would a lender be more apt to lend to me if I had a higher utilization, less trade lines, and overall lower limits?

I don't think your advice will help me obtain better cards. Plus I'm already doing what you stated to do with the Capital One cards..

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

DeeBee78 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 23:16:07 GMT

@alexl22 wrote:
Do you have any kind of Installment loan for your mix of credit? Go to amazons card account page, initiate a chat and ask for a credit limit increase asking for 5k and hopefuly they will give you the whole thing or counter.

Yes, I have an auto loan out right now as well.

I went to the Amazon chat, and before I even asked for a CLI, they told me I was denied, and I would receive a letter in 7-10 days stating why. Here is the whole transcript::

Richard Marx: Your request for a credit limit increase online, was denied.

Richard Marx: You will receive a letter in 7-10 business days explaining the reason for the decision.

Me: I don't understand why I didn't get an automatic credit line increase after 4 statements, like everyone else.

Me: I pay my bill on time, and always more than the minimum amount.

Richard Marx: We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and if you find we based the decision on incorrect information, please contact the credit bureau number indicated on the letter and calls us when the information has been corrected.

Me: My utilization is less than 30%

Richard Marx: I understand.

Richard Marx: I wish I had an option to increase the limit.

Me: How soon until I can request an increase again?

Richard Marx: You can check on a credit limit increase anytime.

Me: OK. Thank You.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:04:20 GMT

You're paying a 12.4% APR on your credit limit even if you never charge a cent. Maybe it won't cover your medical bills but it could reduce them by $99 per year.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

gdale6 — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:04:18 GMT

Let us all remember to be respectful of one another. Thanks!

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Friendly-Supportive-and-Respectful/td-p/2797115

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

cartwrna — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 06:10:45 GMT

I agree, I would close the Credit One as well. You state that it helps your overall utilization, but it is only doing that if your carrying large balances from statement to statement. What your wanting to do is carry between 1-9% on one card and a $0 balance on the others. Believe me you will get better cards without the Credit One card. I closed mine after one year and soon after got better cards. Most recently Barclays with a $1750 limit and DCU Platinum with a 5k limit. But, ultimately it is up to you. $8 from month to month really isn't that much, but I look at it as $8 I could be buying something with LOL. Have you tried contacting the Cap 1 EO and requesting a CLI? The only issue as you stated with any new credit is that collection account popping up so recently. It will be hard to get any new cards or CLI with that still around. Good luck on your journey

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 06:34:24 GMT

Keep disputing the T mobile acct. That will come off soon. They will say verified just ask how when who what where. I heard that they don't really verify anything

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

alexl22 — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 20:42:17 GMT

I would try again with the chat on amazon, I think I may have had that richard guy once and he refused to do it for me and said to just use the online system. If the rep wont take your income and how much of a CLI you would like then just end the chat and start up a new one with a different rep.

If they ask you for income and amount you want increased and it still gets denied then try again next month.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 21:04:48 GMT

@DeeBee78 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Okay, so your subject is "stuck with bottom feeder cards" which to me seemed to indicate you 'dont' want them, I tell you to close the worst of the bottom feeders and work the Cap One cards to build them up because they are all you need and you tell you don't want to. OK, toss your money to the sharks if thats what you prefer to do.
And you can't understand me not wanting to cut 29% of my credit limit? Why would a lender be more apt to lend to me if I had a higher utilization, If you are not carrying balances UTI% isn't an issue; less trade lines, Once you have 3 revolving tradelines, additional ones *really* don't help much at all; and overall lower limits? Most don't really care what your current individual limits are when apping, they just want to see perfect payment history accross multiple lines, smart balance utilization and a lack of any recent CO/Collections.

I don't think your advice will help me obtain better cards. Ok, thats fine, but just note there is not one single person here advising you to keep the Credit One account - mine is one voice of several saying the same thing. Plus I'm already doing what you stated to do with the Capital One cards.. Keep it up and Cap One will keep raising your limits. How old are the Cap One accounts, and how long since the limits were last raised? I believe they require four months between increases if I'm not mistaken. How long have you been using them that way?

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

TRC_WA — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 21:32:41 GMT

Credit One is one of the worst CC lenders out there.

I will go against the grain and advise OP to keep the card... just for the simple fact that the $8.25 a month annual fee and no grace period on purchases is a steal of a deal. I chose to avoid Credit One when I started rebuilding in 2013... but that's because at the time the $8.25 a month was better spent on my Netflix subscription.

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 21:30:41 GMT

@TRC_WA wrote:
Credit One is one of the worst CC lenders out there.

I will go against the grain and advise OP to keep the card... just for the simple fact that the $8.25 a month annual fee and no grace period on purchases is a steal of a deal. I chose to avoid Credit One when I started rebuilding in 2013... but that's because at the time the $8.25 a month was better spent on my Netflix subscription.

Who's doing the stealing?

Re: Still in rebuild process - stuck with bottom feeder cards

TRC_WA — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 21:33:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@TRC_WA wrote:
Credit One is one of the worst CC lenders out there.

I will go against the grain and advise OP to keep the card... just for the simple fact that the $8.25 a month annual fee and no grace period on purchases is a steal of a deal. I chose to avoid Credit One when I started rebuilding in 2013... but that's because at the time the $8.25 a month was better spent on my Netflix subscription.

Who's doing the stealing?

I think they are... which is why I chose Netflix.

BTW, CapOne claims to be 6 months between increases... that's what they've told me anyway.