Next Move

[Anonymous]

Good morning everyone,

I have been reading the forms religiously since I found myFICO. There is so much great information on here to take in.

I am wanting some advice on where I should go from here.

My CH7 BK was discharged: 12/2017

I currently have the following:

Navient: Student Loan (01/2012)

Navient: Student Loan (01/2012)

US Bank Secured Visa: 500 CL (Joint) (04/2019) - wish I would've found this site beforehand.

Capital One QuickSilver: 3000 SL (11/2019) 3800 CL - Should be eligible for CLI any day now.

Mercury: 3000 SL (02/2020) 3750 CL - No increase since the 6-month mark and can't request one.

Ford Motor Company: 61,000ish (Joint) (06/2020) - 0% APR

Zales: 4000 SL (07/2020) 5000 CL - just received the 1000 increase this week

Apple Card: 3000 SL (02/2021) - This took forever. Started checking every month since 11/19 and finally got it. Declined CLI for recent lates which I haven't had since the BK.

Ford Motor Company: 28,000ish (Joint) (04/2021) - 2.9% APR

Capital One Spark Business: 2000 SL (05/2021) - 3xHP on personal credit but the card doesn't report to personal credit.

Verizon Visa Signature: 5000 SL (05/2021) - I was so happy to get this card and it is my highest SL yet!

I have paid off two Auto loans with Honda since the BK. I got both loans in 04/2019.

I'm an AU on these:

Discover it: 3000 CL

Chase Freedom: 1000 CL

AMEX Blue Everyday: 1000 CL

My Utilization across the board is less than 2% and my highest card is Zale’s at 9%.

My Scores are: Fico8: 674TU 686EX Fico9 709TU 721EQ   All current within the last week.

Discover still will not take me back even though they send me emails to apply. They were IIB for 4400.00

I recently got a flyer in the mail for PenFed Power Cash Rewards and did a lot of research on here before applying for it and it sounded like I had really good odds in getting the card but after 2 recons I was unsuccessful with the following reasons:

• Serious delinquency, and public record or collection filed (BK 12/2017)
• Too many accounts with balances ( I have the two car loans, two student loans, and on credit card with a balance of 320.00)
  • Length of time revolving accounts have been established (this I can understand since my oldest card is just over 2 years)
• Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown ( No delinquencies since BK)

This just makes no sense to me at all. 

I am really trying to get my scores up to apply for a mortgage sometime in the next year or so and AMEX next Oct since that will be past the 5.1 mark. 

My next question is should I just garden now or should I app for another card? If I should app for another card, what would you suggest?

Thank you all for your help and the great forums.

[pizza1]

Well for starters....your Cap1 Spark Biz cc most definitely reports to personal. This is why a lot of folks don't apply for their biz cards for this reason alone.

Next... Discover is tricky. They may or may not let you back in for awhile. Have you checked their Prequel page to see if they offer you anything? They mailers you get are just marketing materials, and not firm offers. Let Discover go for awhile.

You have plenty of cards/loans for rebuilding purposes. If you're looking to get a house next year, I'd not apply for anything else at all, nothing no CC"s and certainly NO loans.

To get yourself set up better I'd do the following...

- Garden!!
- Try to put extra money against your loans, that will help reduce your overall DTI ratio when the time comes for UW.
- NO more INQ for anything
- When the time gets closer for your mortgage app, make sure all your CC's are at a zero balance except for ONE CC, and that one cc, have like $50 reporting or nothing more than a balance that equals 1%.

You're only a little over 3 1/2 yrs post DC...in reality, thats not very long, and FICO wise, thats not long either, hence why you'll see "Time since last delinquency too recent".

So, I'd just sit tight, garden what you have, freeze your reports, and just keep doing what you're doing, and if you can chuck away more on your loan balances.

[Anonymous]

Well dang!!! I thought I had read starting around Oct of 2020 they stopped reporting for new cards. I would have waited on this one or looked for a different one. Well to late now...

Yeah, that is the only way I have checked with Discover even with them sending emails and flyers to me. I'm not taking the HP when there is a SP alternative with them. I'll check back with them at the end of next year. I don't really need that card since SO has one.

I have now frozen all of the bureaus and will garden. 

Thank you so much @pizza1! 

One more question, I can payoff my student loans now in full but they are of course interest free ATM. The other issue is they are my oldest trade lines and the only things to survive the BK (never been late either). Would you suggest paying them off or keeping them as long as possible to not lose the approx.10 years they've been reporting and dropping my AAoA from the closure of them? 

[pizza1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well dang!!! I thought I had read starting around Oct of 2020 they stopped reporting for new cards. I would have waited on this one or looked for a different one. Well to late now...

Yeah, that is the only way I have checked with Discover even with them sending emails and flyers to me. I'm not taking the HP when there is a SP alternative with them. I'll check back with them at the end of next year. I don't really need that card since SO has one.

I have now frozen all of the bureaus and will garden. 

Thank you so much @pizza1! 

One more question, I can payoff my student loans now in full but they are of course interest free ATM. The other issue is they are my oldest trade lines and the only things to survive the BK (never been late either). Would you suggest paying them off or keeping them as long as possible to not lose the approx.10 years they've been reporting and dropping my AAoA from the closure of them? 

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@Anonymous , If you have the extra money, and its not a burden to do so, you could pay off your student loans, and then whatever payment you were making, just put that away in savings or towards one of your other loans.  Freeing up on of your loans will get rid of that payment, and help your DTI ratio when its time for UW for your mortage. 

Also, closing the student loan out, and it reporting closed on your reports will not change anything.  AAOA refers to the opening of new accounts including loans.  Opening new TL's is what effects your AAOA. It also will not change your AHOA either. The TL will stay positive on your reports for up to 10 years.  You already have two others loans reporting for fico scoring purposes. Its completely up to you. Me personally, if I had enough extra money lying around to pay off my SL, I would. I would rather be more financally stable and set up better for a home loan, and less debt. . Just MHO

[Anonymous]

Thanks again pizza1.

That is great to know. I thought once it was shown paid and closed that the time for that account was no longer counted for the age of accounts. 

I will get them paid off then and continue to garden.

I did get a CLI from Capital One for 450.00, I was shocked. My CL is now 4,250.

[pizza1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks again pizza1.

That is great to know. I thought once it was shown paid and closed that the time for that account was no longer counted for the age of accounts. 

I will get them paid off then and continue to garden.

I did get a CLI from Capital One for 450.00, I was shocked. My CL is now 4,250.

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@Anonymous , that great! Any and all CLI's , no matter how small is always a positive thing and a step forward.  Means the lender is starting to trust you more, and reward you by increasing the limits.  Keep doing what you're doing!

[Anonymous]

You have a ton of accounts. It's hard to tell but I'm thinking your utilization is up there; how many vehicles do you have?? You mentioned paying off auto loans but if I understand correctly it looks like you have 2 ford auto loans currently (and one of them is HUGE, 61K?!?)

*Edit: ok I see you said 2% utilization but I think you're not thinking about the student loans and auto loans. Don't know how much your student loans are but a 61k auto loan is probably like... 1k/month? And a 28k one is probably close to 500/month? Plus the student loans, plus your housing expense... unless your income is very high, your DTI is likely on the high side.

PenFed is reasonably willing to work with people repairing credit BUT they are conservative about exposure. I don't see any way they are going to mess with you until you pay some stuff off. Unless your income is absolutely massive and documented. Even then maybe not. They don't like a lot of debt.

[Anonymous]

That is correct, it was at 2% utilization at the time they pulled my credit. I am now at <1% and that is just because of me keeping the payment on the Zale's card until the end of the 18 month promo.

With everything included on my credit bureaus and rent, my DTI not utilization is under 38%. Yes, it could definitely be better and will be better really soon after I pay off my student loans. 

I really don't need the PenFed card, it was just one I thought I would app for because of what I have read on here and the high CL they give. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah 38% isn't so bad. A lot of mortgage products can even go to 50% DTI.

PenFed is just very conservative about how much credit and debt you have. (Speaking from first hand experience.) It used to be an amazing card then they kind of downgraded the rewards program a lot... now I would say it's just decent.