Application Help

Anonymous · ‎08-27-2017

Hi,

I want to build my credit profile long-term and I could use some advise. Currently I have two credit cards (WF & Discover), each with a $1,500 limit. I got them both about a year ago. I pay them off in full each month and don't have have no negative marks. Last year, when I applied for the WF and Discover I also applied for a Citi ThankYou for Students, but was rejected for too little history. Now with some history/experiance I want to expand and improve my file.

Before the end of the year I want to get 4 new cards (Barclay Apple Rewards, Citi Double Cash, AmEx EveryDay, & CapitalOne Venture). I was the get the Apple Rewards card to use the 6 month special financing to get a new iPad & iPhone (both of mine are almost 4/5 years old and my iPad doesn't hold a charge anymore). Then after the balance is payed off I want to product change it to the CashFoward card (I plan to keep this card long-term for the score benefits). I want the Double Cash card as another keeper card, since it has great benefits. I want the EveryDay card to get in on the Membership Rewards points and as a keeper card. AmEx keeps sending me pre-approvals with 30,000 point offers (As well as the 50,000 point Premeir Gold Rewards preapprovals). I want the Venture card so that I can take advantage of the 50,000 mile bonus, then after I use the bonus I want to Product change to the QuickSilver in order to help my score long-term.

My problem is that I dont know exactly how to go about this. I only spend about $750-$850 a month so I need to be strategic in order to get the sign up bonuses and not spend money I normally wouldn't. So currently my plan is to get the Apple Rewards within the new two weeks (get the iPad now and the iPhone when it releases latter this month). I plan to get the EveryDay and Venture for the hollidays (one near Thanksgiving the other Christmas) but I'm not sure in what order, or even if it's a good idea. and I'm not sure when to get the Double Cash. I also want to see about getting credit limit increases for my existing cards but I'm not sure how to integrate into my plan. Any help or advise would be great.

Scores:

EQ - 711 (myFICO) ; 730 (FAKO)

TU - 719 (myFICO) ; 721 (Discover) ; 731 (FAKO)

EX - 715 (myFICO) ; 712 (WF - BankCard 2)

Anonymous · ‎08-27-2017

I will provide input from my experience........

First of all, why is your score low when there are no derogs? Something is off here. If you do not have any loan experience, search SSL in this forum.

Apple reward card, from my experience, is almost useless. There are many cards offering 0% promotion. And it will be almost impossible to PC Apple to other product although there are some threads here and there, all those are a few years old.

I do carry Amex ED but it is rarely used. I just keep it to retain MR points when I cancel PRG in the future. I am not sure ED alone is worth to carry.

For Venture, it is a point card, while Quicksilver is cash back. I assume which you want to get is depending on your needs.....

Anonymous · ‎08-27-2017

Thanks for you input! I didn't realize my scores were low for someone with only a year of history. I've been monitoring my scores since the first card arrived and they all tend to go up 10ish points every month. Is there somewere else I should be looking for errors/issues (other than myFICO & CreditKarma)? I've read those threads and the difficultly PCing is deffinatly important. What card(s) would you recomend? As far as the EveryDay, I want it for the same reason you do. Especially since I do want to get the PRG at some point in the future. I want both the Ventue and the QuickSilver. The Venture for some travel mid-late next year and the Quicksilver because the Venture isn't worth it after the 1st/2nd (depending on your situation).

Anonymous · ‎08-28-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for you input! I didn't realize my scores were low for someone with only a year of history. I've been monitoring my scores since the first card arrived and they all tend to go up 10ish points every month. Is there somewere else I should be looking for errors/issues (other than myFICO & CreditKarma)? I've read those threads and the difficultly PCing is deffinatly important. What card(s) would you recomend? As far as the EveryDay, I want it for the same reason you do. Especially since I do want to get the PRG at some point in the future. I want both the Ventue and the QuickSilver. The Venture for some travel mid-late next year and the Quicksilver because the Venture isn't worth it after the 1st/2nd (depending on your situation).

Your scores aren;t low for someone with just 1 year of history. As you have seen, they will rise steadily as your accounts age and payment history is reflected.

I too too recommend that you look towards a different card for the Apple purchases. The ED card comes with 12 months of 0% financing so that way you could put those purchases there without having to apply for another card.

As for monitoring your reports, MF and CK are just fine for that purchase. Periodically look at your reports but from what you've posted, everything seems fine so far

Anonymous · ‎08-28-2017

Thanks for your help! How reliable are the Amex PreQuals? Also I was looking and the Freedom Unlimited also has 0% APR for 18 months. But I haven't gotten any prequals from Chase. And I've read some other threads from people with my scores and they got rejected so I'm a little worried.

Anonymous · ‎08-29-2017

@Anonymous Thank you for your help (suggestion)! I Applied for the Amex PRG (1k in 3 months for 50k points offer) and the Everyday Preferred (1k in 3 months for 30k points offer) and got approved for both. And to top it all off I only got one hard pull from it.

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for you input! I didn't realize my scores were low for someone with only a year of history. I've been monitoring my scores since the first card arrived and they all tend to go up 10ish points every month. Is there somewere else I should be looking for errors/issues (other than myFICO & CreditKarma)? I've read those threads and the difficultly PCing is deffinatly important. What card(s) would you recomend? As far as the EveryDay, I want it for the same reason you do. Especially since I do want to get the PRG at some point in the future. I want both the Ventue and the QuickSilver. The Venture for some travel mid-late next year and the Quicksilver because the Venture isn't worth it after the 1st/2nd (depending on your situation).
Your scores aren;t low for someone with just 1 year of history. As you have seen, they will rise steadily as your accounts age and payment history is reflected.

I too too recommend that you look towards a different card for the Apple purchases. The ED card comes with 12 months of 0% financing so that way you could put those purchases there without having to apply for another card.

As for monitoring your reports, MF and CK are just fine for that purchase. Periodically look at your reports but from what you've posted, everything seems fine so far