577 Fico. 614 Vantage, 25 to 35 Hard inquiries. ANY HOPE for recon?

[Anonymous]

I really want the Apple and PayPal card. Been denied. Only one approved me was Citi secured MasterCard. Anyone know of any other unsecured credit cards I can get. I make decent money now and I had 5 negative items removed from my report. Should I just go with citi or what? Kinda torn on what to do and the poor decisions I’ve made in the past... I tried Bank of America and Cap one, credit one and indigo, got approved for an auto loan. No one will give me a personal loan. I just really want those two cards and that’s it.

[Anonymous]

Use your Citi for 12 months each month and pay on time.

Doors will open once you've established some positive payment history.

[ChargedUp]

You could also attempt some "goodwill" letters to get rid of any negatives that are holding your score down. Whether it be lates or collection activity, search "Goodwill letters" on My FICO and you'll get some handy advice.

Welcome to MyFICO! 🙂

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Use your Citi for 12 months each month and pay on time.

Doors will open once you've established some positive payment history.

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True. Time heals! My first card after my credit meltdown was secured. A month or two later (after I paid off/settled my baddy) I got a few retail cards (Overstock, Walmart). Then a few months after that, an unsecured Discover It. Secured is where it's at. That gives you a chance to get your foot in the door.

[AllZero]

You need to address all the other derogatories on your credit report. Make your profile more attractive to lenders to increase your approval odds.

[calyx]

25 to 35 Hard inquiries

Stop applying.

Use your Citi Secured for AT LEAST 6 months - 12 months is better.  Let those INQs age.

Work on getting the negative/derogatory information removed.

You need time. 

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I really want the Apple and PayPal card. Been denied. Only one approved me was Citi secured MasterCard. Anyone know of any other unsecured credit cards I can get. I make decent money now and I had 5 negative items removed from my report. Should I just go with citi or what? Kinda torn on what to do and the poor decisions I’ve made in the past... I tried Bank of America and Cap one, credit one and indigo, got approved for an auto loan. No one will give me a personal loan. I just really want those two cards and that’s it.

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Hi and welcome to myFICO

In order to get those two cards or any other cards you have to garden. This means:

1. STOP applying for CCs
2. Clear up negatives on your CRs (a FICO score of 577 tells us there is a lot of damage there). Throw the VS out because the majority of lenders don't use it.
3. If you are already approved for the secured Citi MC, use that card and pay on time for 12-24 months. It's going to take quite a bit of time to get your scores up to 670 where application approval is more likely than not.

You got approved for an auto loan because it is a secured product.

So in a nutshell, you have to put in the time, patience, and diligence required to work on your credit profile. Nope, it's not easy. But the payoff is well worth it.

GL2U

[Felony_Phil]

Inquiries are scored for the 1st year. So a lot can happen after that 1 year mark, as far as opportunities opening up.

Believe me... doing 1 year is better than doing 5.

[randomguy1]

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@calyx wrote:

25 to 35 Hard inquiries

Stop applying.

Use your Citi Secured for AT LEAST 6 months - 12 months is better.  Let those INQs age.

Work on getting the negative/derogatory information removed.

You need time. 

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I would think even 24 months Creditors will look at the amount of inquries along with the low credit score and deny. I wouldn't expect anything other than possibly a Discover Secured but that amount of inquiries is telling. Need that inquiry number much lower. I get taking a chase when you have low inquiries, but high inquiries and a bunch of denials is telling someone, there is a very low chance of approval and they need to stop.

[calyx]

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@randomguy1 wrote:

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@calyx wrote:

25 to 35 Hard inquiries

Stop applying.

Use your Citi Secured for AT LEAST 6 months - 12 months is better.  Let those INQs age.

Work on getting the negative/derogatory information removed.

You need time. 

---

I would think even 24 months Creditors will look at the amount of inquries along with the low credit score and deny. I wouldn't expect anything other than possibly a Discover Secured but that amount of inquiries is telling. Need that inquiry number much lower. I get taking a chase when you have low inquiries, but high inquiries and a bunch of denials is telling someone, there is a very low chance of approval and they need to stop.

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Absolutely more time would be better.   At 12 months, the inqs stop counting towards the score - so I think if the report is clean and the Citi has been used well, going after a card isn't unreasonable then, as long as the UW standards aren't too stringent.   If it's, say, a USBank card that'll be sent to a human UW, then yeah, all those inqs would look pretty bad.

And honestly, while 24mos is definitely better, when you are starting off with bad credit, that can looks/feels like forever, wheras 6 months seems a lot more acheivable (and a little less disheartening).