topic Re: Denied in Rebuilding Your Credit

Denied

Salahh — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:39:41 GMT

Hey everyone,

Working to rebuild my credit after years of not touching it. At 525 Experian right now, with 2 derogs (double reported to 4 total). I first applied for Amex Gold and was denied. I have a vague memory from 10 years or so ago of accepting a deal for partial payment on an Amex card, but being told I wouldn't be eligible for Amex in the future...

Also applied for various other cards, all denied, with 1 HP inq.

I am pre-approved for a Discover It card, which would require me to deposit the amount of credit I'd have available.

What do you all think? Is there still a way to get an Amex? Are there any other cards you would look into?

THANK YOU

Re: Denied

Jnbmom — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 22:13:09 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
Hey everyone,

Working to rebuild my credit after years of not touching it. At 525 Experian right now, with 2 derogs (double reported to 4 total). I first applied for Amex Gold and was denied. I have a vague memory from 10 years or so ago of accepting a deal for partial payment on an Amex card, but being told I wouldn't be eligible for Amex in the future...

Also applied for various other cards, all denied, with 1 HP inq.

I am pre-approved for a Discover It card, which would require me to deposit the amount of credit I'd have available.

What do you all think? Is there still a way to get an Amex? Are there any other cards you would look into?

THANK YOU

What else is on your credit report ? 525 is not high enough for AMEX. Do you have any positive accounts reporting ? If you are eligible for the discover secured card I would take it . You will have to list your accounts good and bad so that we can advise further .

Re: Denied

FireMedic1 — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 22:13:07 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
Hey everyone,

Working to rebuild my credit after years of not touching it. At 525 Experian right now, with 2 derogs (double reported to 4 total). I first applied for Amex Gold and was denied. I have a vague memory from 10 years or so ago of accepting a deal for partial payment on an Amex card, but being told I wouldn't be eligible for Amex in the future...

Also applied for various other cards, all denied, with 1 HP inq.

I am pre-approved for a Discover It card, which would require me to deposit the amount of credit I'd have available.

What do you all think? Is there still a way to get an Amex? Are there any other cards you would look into?

THANK YOU

Welcome @Salahh

If you can get in with Disco secured. Go for it. Do what you can to get the baddies in the past. That score it will be rough to get approved. What are the baddies. We can help clean it up.

Re: Denied

Salahh — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 22:20:32 GMT

6 closed accts, 2 in collection

4 baddies:

1 acct over 60 days late

1 acct with missed payment

0 current accts payed as agreed

Ratio of revolving balances to credit limits: 123%

Payment history: good

Amt of debt: poor

Length of credit history: very good
Amount of new credit: very good
Credit mix: very good

Thank you 🙏

Re: Denied

JoeRockhead — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 22:22:04 GMT

Anything is possible... but, at 525, your focus should be squarely on what you can do to improve your file and scores. A secured Discover card (and possibly one more secured card) will help with that. Using them responsibly, PIF and TIME will do great things. For now stop applying, all the HPs send out a red flag that you're seeking credit, and possibly too much at that so lenders are going to be apprehensive about giving an approval.

Amex can have a very long memory if you've burned them. Did you burn them, if so how much? Either way I wouldn't start looking at Amex until you're in the 640s at least.

I'm not sure I understand the double reported baddies though... Or what else you might have going on. The more information you provide, the more people here will be able to help you, and lots of them have been where you are, and worse, including myself so...

Re: Denied

Salahh — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 22:29:24 GMT

Thank you. I provided a bit more information in my last message above.

The Amex memory is very vague, it was so long ago. But, if I had to estimate, I would say it was probably around $1600 and negotiated down to $800 or so. But I do have that vague memory of the CSR telling me that I wouldn't be eligible for Amex in the future.

I did ask about it when I called in to apply, but was told that there was nothing showing negatively on their side prior to applying.

Re: Denied

OCONUS — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 23:40:18 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
Thank you. I provided a bit more information in my last message above.

The Amex memory is very vague, it was so long ago. But, if I had to estimate, I would say it was probably around $1600 and negotiated down to $800 or so. But I do have that vague memory of the CSR telling me that I wouldn't be eligible for Amex in the future.

I did ask about it when I called in to apply, but was told that there was nothing showing negatively on their side prior to applying.

You are not blocked by Amex but I think you dont have a shot at Amex yet. I would focus on rebuilding profile with couple secured cards and letting baddies age off. As @JoeRockhead said time will do wonder.

Re: Denied

JoeRockhead — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:09:06 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
6 closed accts, 2 in collection
4 baddies:
1 acct over 60 days late
1 acct with missed payment
0 current accts payed as agreed
Ratio of revolving balances to credit limits: 123%

Payment history: good
Amt of debt: poor
Length of credit history: very good
Amount of new credit: very good
Credit mix: very good

Thank you 🙏

Like I said, focus on what you have control over. Try to get the collections paid and get current on everything. Focus on maintaining your accounts and most of all...try to be patient and allow time do its thing.

Re: Denied

Salahh — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:17:05 GMT

Thank you guys for the valuable insights.

I will definitely be patient as I know I have quite a journey ahead of me.

Besides the Discover It card, are there any others that I should look in my current status?

I think from here on out, I'm only going to apply to cards with SPs. And I'll definitely go for the Discover It card and take care of my baddies.

Thank you all 🙏

Re: Denied

Jnbmom — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:46:26 GMT

I would get the secured discover and then work on your bad accounts getting more cards will not negate the bad ones Your score is quite low , so work on the baddies tackle one at a time . Keep discover in good standing then wait to see if you can take care of some baddies , then look for another card . Takes some patience .

Re: Denied

7774x — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 05:43:10 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
Thank you guys for the valuable insights.

I will definitely be patient as I know I have quite a journey ahead of me.

Besides the Discover It card, are there any others that I should look in my current status?

I think from here on out, I'm only going to apply to cards with SPs. And I'll definitely go for the Discover It card and take care of my baddies.

Thank you all 🙏

Clean up your baddies ..raise score .. Amex time will come .. 525 too low for now

Re: Denied

OCONUS — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:16:41 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
Thank you guys for the valuable insights.

I will definitely be patient as I know I have quite a journey ahead of me.

Besides the Discover It card, are there any others that I should look in my current status?

I think from here on out, I'm only going to apply to cards with SPs. And I'll definitely go for the Discover It card and take care of my baddies.

Thank you all 🙏

During my rebuild, someone offered me the most meaningful advise of going secured with US Bank. I took that, opened two USB secured cards and it paid off. The Altitude Go and Connect are the two cards you see in my signature that I started off with as secured. Best Part about USB is that you can increase your secured CL and upon graduation, the unsecure card acquires the same CL.

Re: Denied

FireMedic1 — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 11:24:26 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
6 closed accts, 2 in collection
4 baddies:
1 acct over 60 days late
1 acct with missed payment
0 current accts payed as agreed
Ratio of revolving balances to credit limits: 123%

Thing that sticks out is the util %. Are all the closed accounts charged off? And 2 of those were sent to collections? If so. Start a settlement party and get the util down. Thats killing your score more than anything else. One by one get them settled and score will rebound.

Re: Denied

Salahh — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 14:17:53 GMT

That makes a lot of sense regarding the ratio as to why I'm getting denied. Thanks for that.

The 2 in collections were charged off, the rest were paid.

Re: Denied

FireMedic1 — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:00:38 GMT

@Salahh wrote:
That makes a lot of sense regarding the ratio as to why I'm getting denied. Thanks for that.

The 2 in collections were charged off, the rest were paid.

Yep. You want all charged off accounts settled/paid. Then util %'s drop and scores go up.

Re: Denied

GZG — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:04:26 GMT

@OCONUS wrote:
During my rebuild, someone offered me the most meaningful advise of going secured with US Bank. I took that, opened two USB secured cards and it paid off. The Altitude Go and Connect are the two cards you see in my signature that I started off with as secured. Best Part about USB is that you can increase your secured CL and upon graduation, the unsecure card acquires the same CL.

wish I had gone that route, how long did you have to wait between secured cc USB applications?

Re: Denied

OCONUS — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 10:23:41 GMT

@GZG wrote:
@OCONUS wrote:
During my rebuild, someone offered me the most meaningful advise of going secured with US Bank. I took that, opened two USB secured cards and it paid off. The Altitude Go and Connect are the two cards you see in my signature that I started off with as secured. Best Part about USB is that you can increase your secured CL and upon graduation, the unsecure card acquires the same CL.
wish I had gone that route, how long did you have to wait between secured cc USB applications?

USB unsecures anywhere from 7th to 9th month of opening. Since I had so many COs from before, mine took over a year. Upon graduation, I PC'd Plat to Connect not knowing down the line I will get AR. AR is a killer cc compare to Connect and I will PC to Cash at the one year mark.

Re: Denied

Rogue46 — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 19:12:09 GMT

Until you get that utilization down and get your scores into the mid 600's Amex won't touch you. I think your only strategy right now is to sit on the cards you have now until your scores come up a bit then try for a Capital one card or as discussed Discover. They are two of the lenders that are pretty forgiving. Likewise I would stay away from predatory lenders like Credit One which will do more harm then good in the long run