topic Re: Mission Lane Visa in Rebuilding Your Credit

Mission Lane Visa

Mcgraw72 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:53:41 GMT

My Chapter 13 is complete but not yet discharged(should be within the month) and was offered a Mission Lane Visa Credit Card. I am looking to finance a vehicle once the Discharge is reporting. Should I accept the offer from Mission Lane? Will it help or hurt my chances at an auto loan?

Re: Mission Lane Visa

1lifeisworthit — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:05:59 GMT

I'd wait, myself.

Mission Lane isn't well regarded and I'd hate to spend a hard pull for it, not when I'm going to be hard pulling for a car loan shortly.

I'd be more inclined to accept it if I could wait a year or two for the car. But I still wouldn't like Mission Lane.

You can get (buy) a 3 bureau one-time report here at myfico that includes auto loan scores, if you want to see where you truly are for an auto loan... because they don't look at FICO 8 for them.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

Mcgraw72 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:10:59 GMT

Thanks for the info. I tried getting my scores last week but it said I couldnt get them. I belive it is waiting on my Bankruptcy to show as a discharge. My account will not update my Eqifax score, which on my Dashboard the last one was 07/11/205, it wants me to update but it wont.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

1lifeisworthit — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:07:54 GMT

That sounds... odd...

Reports and scores aren't known for holding off for a bankruptcy?

I don't have any advice for that.

Nevertheless, my 'druthers on the Mission Lane are unchanged.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

BrutalBodyShots — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:38:05 GMT

@Mcgraw72 wrote:
Should I accept the offer from Mission Lane?

Absolutely not. You were offered this because Mission Lane is an inferior/predatory issuer that is preying upon desperation or ignorance.

Don't take the bait. If you want a credit card, obtain one from a reputable issuer and don't pay a penny for credit.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

CaneVariant — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:09:47 GMT

Mission Lane is fine as long as you get a no-annual fee offer. They were the first card offered to me post BK. Started at $3k and increased to $5500 in a year.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

BrutalBodyShots — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:33:35 GMT

@CaneVariant wrote:
Mission Lane is fine as long as you get a no-annual fee offer. They were the first card offered to me post BK. Started at $3k and increased to $5500 in a year.

They are still an inferior/predatory issuer that one can do better than. Even with no AF, I'm guessing your card had little to no perks/rewards. Someone could just as easily go with a US Bank Altitude Go Secured card for example and at least have a meaningful product that costs nothing, has great rewards and is in with a lender that can be kept long term.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

SeanA — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:24:40 GMT

Personally, I'd try to minimize borrowing after bk. You need to get into a sustainable rhythm.

Mission Lane is solid, but it probably will affect your auto loan chances if you're applying in the next few months.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

Patient957 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:35:26 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots wrote:
@CaneVariant wrote:
Mission Lane is fine as long as you get a no-annual fee offer. They were the first card offered to me post BK. Started at $3k and increased to $5500 in a year.
They are still an inferior/predatory issuer that one can do better than. Even with no AF, I'm guessing your card had little to no perks/rewards. Someone could just as easily go with a US Bank Altitude Go Secured card for example and at least have a meaningful product that costs nothing, has great rewards and is in with a lender that can be kept long term.

Mission Lane was my first card during my rebuild, but I opened it before I even realized I was rebuilding. I didn't know what I was doing really, but I was happy someone would offer me any credit with my awful profile. Familiar story, I know. It had a $19 AF and $1000 limit that increased to $2K after 3 months and $4K after 6. Soon thereafter I was approved for a no AF Ally card and and a Venture One. I had the ML card for 3 years and it ended up working out great for me in the end.

Would I do it the same again with what I know now? No, I'd do it the way @BrutalBodyShots is suggesting, and that would be my recommendation to others now. But still, it wasn't so bad.

If I were the OP now, I'd look at secured options with major issuers before ever considering a sub prime option like ML.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

FicoMike0 — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 02:41:29 GMT

I tend to agree with the others on subprime lenders. I do think the most important part of a rebuild is to start. You must have credit to build credit. If you have no open card, you need one.

A secured card, a mission lane card, they all report every month, there's no score bonus for having a fancy card. I don't know what your report looks like, but I think your score will increase of you go from having zero accounts reporting to one.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

BrutalBodyShots — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 03:31:52 GMT

Hey @FicoMike0! I hear what you're saying, but I think it's important to differentiate between a build and a rebuild. The approaches to both should be very different, IMO. If you're talking about building credit, opening a card or cards is the best move one can make. No doubt about it. When it comes to rebuilding though, it's very different. The biggest mistake I think people make when rebuilding is focusing on opening new accounts. I think many do this because they have been manipulated by sites like Credit Karma that make up fake stats like "on-time payment percentage" to believe that adding new accounts will dilute the negative items already present on their dirty credit file.

When one is rebuilding, the best thing they can possibly do is address the negative information on their credit reports. For collections, it would be negotiating "pay for deletes." For late payments, it would be targeting their forgiveness using goodwill letters. Cleaning up the dirty credit file is paramount to improving profile strength in the most meaningful way. The problem is a "broken" file that needs to be fixed. I liken it to a broken down car with no transmission that you want to sell. Getting a new credit card is the equivalent of putting a new set of tires and wiper blades on that car. Sure, it looks a little better and is an improvement you'd say... but it's still the same broken down car that can't go anywhere.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

FicoMike0 — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 04:40:11 GMT

@BrutalBodyShots

I see your point. My experience is rebuilding from credit retirement, which, I guess, is a lot like initial building. About three years ago, I was unscorable. All the car loans and mortgages had vanished over the event horizon. My report only listed two accounts closed 6-7 years. My local bank, huntington, based on long relationship, coughed up a card with a $500 cl.

I found that I soon had a score, and it grew quickly. With no baddies, I found new history was the best path. I realized my age metrics were being propped by closed accounts likely to soon drop off. This promoted me to go with a ssl. Seems to have worked, my fico8s are over 800, fico9s a little higher, vs3s a little lower. With higher limits I don't worry about utilization, it's always low.

Today, I have 11 cards with 9 banks and $100,000+ cl.

Re: Mission Lane Visa

BrutalBodyShots — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:50:20 GMT

Yeah, so in your case it was "building" and not "rebuilding" as you didn't have any negative information present on your file. The fact that you had a few old, closed accounts definitely allowed you to build at a rate far quicker than would have been the case with a brand new file.