topic Re: Taking the right steps? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Taking the right steps?

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:41:34 GMT

I first started kinda rebuilding, not super serious about 3 1/2 years ago. Over the past few months I have taken it much more seriously. My current FICO 8's are EQ 693, EX 651, and TU 648. 3 1/2 years ago I was in the high 400's, low 500's. During my time in military had multiple credit cards which I had no idea how to use correctly, all where always maxed out. After military all of them ended up going to collections and being charged off, along with a repossession. I ended up paying all of those debts off over the next couple years and some have began falling off. The first card I opened after all that was a First Premier Bankcard, $700 CL and nearly 40% interest rate. $89 AF and $12 a month. Today I finally closed it as I haven't used it in a year or more, was just wasting money keeping it open. Hoping it doesn't affect my score much, this card was never late. I also had a Capital One Platinum opened about 3 years ago, 2 - 30 day lates in Nov '19 and Mar '20. I called today and got upgraded to the Quicksilver, $800 CL. I also have a QS One I opened a year and a half ago, never late with only a $600 limit. Denied CL increase a couple weeks ago on both of these. Not sure if I can upgrade the QS One later to QS and combine the cards? Last month was approved for the SavorOne, $500 limit, have $450 on it with first payment coming up and will be PIF. Should have no problem getting the statement credit bonus on this. And yesterday I was just approved for the AMEX Gold Delta Skymiles, which is awesome as I've never thought I'd be approved for any sort of premium card, only $1000 SL so assume I just barely got in the door with them. Seems as though the 1K SL is hard to breakthrough with what i'm reading, but we'll see. Plan on traveling to see family multiple times a year so looking to get bonus and use this card a lot. Have been an AU on an AMEX since 2017, always PIF, 23k limit. Also have a 31k open balance auto loan on truck, 8% interest. Annual income is 67k. Just looking for advice on these cards, am I making the right moves so far with the FPB closure and Cap1 upgrade? Whats next? Sit back and use what I have responsibly until score grows? Any advice on Cap1 CLI's as I recieved 1 Auto increase on both once 6 months after opening and have been denied increases ever since. Still new to all this so any imput is greatly appreciated.

Re: Taking the right steps?

Ilinferno — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:48:08 GMT

Congrats on all of your progress so far! It seems like you have a solid base to work with. I'd use the cards you have responsibly and allow them to grow as your more recent late ages. After 2 years it should have much less effect on your scores. From what I have read here in the forums the best way to get CLIs with Cap 1 is usage so make sure to use them and continue paying responsibly and you should get some increases down the line. I don't think they are allowing cards to be combined currently but who knows if they open this up again in the future.

Re: Taking the right steps?

FireMedic1 — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 11:39:54 GMT

The Plat/QS and QS1 are Cap1's bucket starter cards. They are great to kick start a rebuild. I did the same exact thing. But as time went by and scores moved on up after BK. Better cards started to come in especially when I hit 700. I played with 700 for a while. It would drop after an approval. Wait till 700 came back. Next card. Kept repeating it. Once I got the real QS, Savor and Venture with nice SL's. See below. I laid the 2 cards to rest. They wont grow to big CL's.

Let time do its thing for a while since you got the Savor1 recently. Then give Disco pre-qual a shot. For me in my rebuild. I played with the 700 number as I said. After 5 1/2 yrs after BK. I got up to 750's and then I went for the mini spree. Home Depot, Loews, PayPal and a new SUV. I dropped to where Im at now. But I did it on purpose. I just played the numbers game. Most cash in rewards after a certain level. I cashed in on scores. And it worked pretty well. Best of luck and a great job getting out of the hole and a better credit future.