@Desiflavour101 wrote:
Hello everyone.
My bankruptcy was discharged on July 5, 2013. I have been reading posts on this board for over a month and decided to try my luck at Cap 1 even though I did include them in my bankruptcy. I was declined and did call for recon but nothing. I am planning on applying for a secured card at my local credit union but I am afraid of too many inquiries.
My current FICO score is 581 and like many others want to rebuild my credit.
Congrats on your discharge. Did you pull all three reports to make sure everything is reporting correctly? If you haven't done that, don't app for anything until you do. A lot of things could still be reported wrong with non-zero balances. Fix that first.
Once that is correct my favored approach is Capone, Credit One, CU-with credit builder and turn around secured. i.e take the credit builder loan and fund a secured card with the same CU. That IMO is a great way to have 4 lines reporting ASAP. Remeber nothing works unless CR is cleaned and scrubbed appropriately. Make sure you vet the CU before joining. Ask specifically about their BK policy since not all CU's are actually BK friendly.
Starting Score: 501
Well, you've already mentioned the try and fail w/ Capital One, so we'll all leave that adice off for now (when by Ch-7 turned a year old, Capital one opened up to me again...not their prequalify, but just went ahead and got approved for both Cap One Auto, then their $500 starter card)
Anyway, moving on Job #1 is Getting A CU Secured card! Or almost any Bank/Cu Secured card. I would even inquire with the Credit Union, as some in my area are more conservative in not dealing with Ch-7's, even with your own money for secured! A quick call should get you accurate info, without any other inquiries until you find a Fincl Institution that will open a secured w/ recent Bankruptcy. There are threads on this if your CU doesn't come through.
That is key, as getting a decent revolving visa/MC TL is step 1 in getting a positive TL, and getting your Credit Score on the methodical process of rebuilding.
Banks & Credit Unions will first look at how long since your Ch-7, which only time will help, but then how long/when Visa/MC Tradeline was started.
After 6 months and low inquiries, BarclayCardsUS is a very strong choice for a unsecured Visa Card.------------------------
So, job 1, Secured Credit Card without $75 fees or nonsense like that
#2, the local Credit Union is a great source for a secured loan, like $500, that you can pay back over 10-12 months or so, for another positive tradeline. Again, it's your own money, but you get literal credit for it.
Perhaps ONE other Department store card, like Fingerhut (horrible pricing, shipping, but a Eq/TU tradeline source to help with utilization,etc) You can buy something small for $25 or whatever their plan states. If you don't have enough for Both the Secured Visa/MC and the secure loan, then you can try Fingerhut instead of the secured loan. I did all 3.
You don't need 10 different new accounts with junk companies to rebuild, so try and avoid the mistakes many like myself did. Those junk 'mailer cards just keep the inquiries high, without much reward
After 6 months, I applied and was finally approved for a $500 Barclays card, which went to $2000 after 6 months.
About that same time, I had by Transunion (CreditKarma) up over the 620 bottom-feeder mark), which got me into the GECRB family with Walmart. Only $150 limit, but then $800 after 4 months, and to $1000 4 months later.
Once those base steps are done, you have to keep inquires down to perhaps once every 3 months
1 1/2 years ago after Ch-7 , any auto loan for me could not be found under 18%... just got pre-approval @ 7.19% new, and then 6.3% from my Credit Union new/used
I am trying to hold off till 2 year mark, which opens so many more Credit Card & auto-rate options.
7/13/2013 17 months after d/c Fico EQ 674, Fico TU 652, Exp 655
Starting Score: 589
Larry,
I am diametrically opposed to Secured Cards, except in a case of last resort, and only then if they are 100% known to be cards that graduate.
Before I started working in the legal field I was a software architect. There's a simple software engineering rule here: Don't store any data you don't have to. It's not rule #1, but it is a rule. So, while people may think that secured cards are good, the fact is that they report on all CRs as "Secured", which means they must do something... especially when you're at a manual underwriting level.
IMO, Secured cards are an instant re-bucket item, denoting that you have crappy credit. You'll see thousands of stories on this board about people stuck w/ low limits and in quite a few of them, you'll see secured cards still reporting. Thus, they are best avoided at all costs.
As for department store cards, these may be even worse. I've spoken with several underwriters who specifically regard people with store-cards as "suckers". I've argued with them that this is usually done to take advantage of a discount or 0% apr offer and in every case their rebuttal was "if they need a 0% apr, which means they're making payments, they usually don't have the cash to cover the purchase". <-- this strategy flags as "doesn't use credit wisely", unless the same credit report is flush with positive trade-lines that off-set. When rebuilding, people don't have those positive TLs. (please note: the underwriters I know make exceptions for gas-cards, which aren't used for large purchases and normally offer a discount. Also, in EVERY case, they can see your charging/payment history on all cards, which can also be used to offset).
The guide I laid out at the top of this thread is based on hundreds of examples of successful rebuilds, and now hundreds of people have used it, verbatim, to start/continue/complete their own rebuilds. They get to 700(+/-) in about 2 years. If there's a better plan than that I haven't seen it.
-SM
@Desiflavour101 wrote:
Hello everyone.
My bankruptcy was discharged on July 5, 2013. I have been reading posts on this board for over a month and decided to try my luck at Cap 1 even though I did include them in my bankruptcy. I was declined and did call for recon but nothing. I am planning on applying for a secured card at my local credit union but I am afraid of too many inquiries.
My current FICO score is 581 and like many others want to rebuild my credit.
With a 581, it sounds like there's still something that isn't reporting IIB. In fact, as your discharge was 7/5 and today is only 7/15, I can practically guarantee it.
Go back and read the guide again. Follow it step-by-step, without racing to get a card before you've got your CR fixed.
Then, the order is: Credit Builder Loan, CreditOne (unsecured only), CapOne.
If you absolutley cannot get anything unsecured. Get a secured card that you are 100% certain will graduate to unsecured in 12 mo. When it graduates the "Secured" designation will be removed from your CRs.
-SM
I finally went back and updated the original post to remove all references to Orchard Bank (replacing them with CreditOne).
For those of you that are getting declined for the CapitalOne card, you'll see that you're not supposed to apply for it until SIX months after your discharge, AND after you've had a crap-card (Credit One) for at least 5 months. As I've said before, I discharged the hell out of CapOne and HSBC/Orchard, but I waited to apply for the CapOne until I'd rebuilt a little.
I also adjusted some of the links to take people to the pre-qualifiers. Added a description of the Credit Builder product from OneNevadaCU, too, in case people don't live in NV, they can find a similar product.
Shols, do you see any changes I've missed?
-SM
Thank you for the help and encouragement everyone 
I applied for CreditOne's unsecured credit card. Application status states approved but when I called the 1-800 number I was told the process takes 2-3 weeks, so that is a good sign to say the least.
There is a credit union in my area. The rep I spoke to mentioned they approve for secured credit card and don't pull credit report to base their approval, which is a good thing as I already have many inquiries. They do report to all 3 credit bureaus and consider turning the card unsecured after a year. Additionally, they offer a consumer loan if the score is 600. So I was thinking of using that instead of doing a credit loan builder since I do not live
Will Capital One consider me for an unsecured card 6 months later even though they rejected my application? Also, I was reading somewhere that Discover does give another chance to a consumer even though that consumer listed them in the bankruptcy. Is it true?
I applied for CreditOne's unsecured credit card. Application status states approved but when I called the 1-800 number I was told the process takes 2-3 weeks, so that is a good sign to say the least.
There is a credit union in my area. The rep I spoke to mentioned they approve for secured credit card and don't pull credit report to base their approval, which is a good thing as I already have many inquiries. They do report to all 3 credit bureaus and consider turning the card unsecured after a year. Additionally, they offer a consumer loan if the score is 600. So I was thinking of using that instead of doing a credit loan builder since I do not live
Will Capital One consider me for an unsecured card 6 months later even though they rejected my application? Also, I was reading somewhere that Discover does give another chance to a consumer even though that consumer listed them in the bankruptcy. Is it true?