My wife and I need to expand our home in order to accomodate our growing family, but we face some challenges. First, the house is only worth as much as we owe, so a HELOC/cashout refi is not an option, but an "as completed appraisal" we had done shows that the home will increase in value by about $60K if we add a bedroom and a bathroom. It will only cost about $15K to do the work ourselves (yes, with permits, etc...we're basically going to be finishing currently unfinished space-not adding onto the existing structure), so we are trying to get credit to purchase the materials. The idea is to do a cash-out refi once we have our new CO and appraisal in hand to pay off the credit cards/loans/whatever we used for the renovations.
The problem with all of this is that we had a CH7 BK discharged 2.5 years ago, but other than paying our mortgage, car payments, and student loans on time, we did not try to reestablish credit by opening credit cards, etc... I applied for a Lowes card over the weekend and was approved for an $800 CL, not bad, but then I tried to call for an increase and was denied. I then tried Lending Club and Avant since they are both SPs and was denied on both counts. As a side note, I'm now getting non-stop phone calls on my cell from what I assume are predatory lenders which jump on the folks that Lending Club and Avant deny... I figured I would also try for Home Depot and went for the "Project Loan" card since it sounded easier to get based on what I read here (it's a bank called GreenSky-not Citibank who backs their regular store card)-I requested a $10K CL and was denied. I assume that this was also a HP which I'm guessing damaged my score further.
At this point what should I do? My wife's scores are about the same as mine, so I figure she can get the Lowes card so we'll at least have nearly $2000 worth of credit there, but that's not nearly enough. Should she try for the Home Depot project card on her own? The online app did say that I could reapply with a co-borrower, so should we try that instead, or should we just quit applying for credit for a few months and try again later?
@StihlBilly wrote:My wife and I need to expand our home in order to accomodate our growing family, but we face some challenges. First, the house is only worth as much as we owe, so a HELOC/cashout refi is not an option, but an "as completed appraisal" we had done shows that the home will increase in value by about $60K if we add a bedroom and a bathroom. It will only cost about $15K to do the work ourselves (yes, with permits, etc...we're basically going to be finishing currently unfinished space-not adding onto the existing structure), so we are trying to get credit to purchase the materials. The idea is to do a cash-out refi once we have our new CO and appraisal in hand to pay off the credit cards/loans/whatever we used for the renovations.
The problem with all of this is that we had a CH7 BK discharged 2.5 years ago, but other than paying our mortgage, car payments, and student loans on time, we did not try to reestablish credit by opening credit cards, etc... I applied for a Lowes card over the weekend and was approved for an $800 CL, not bad, but then I tried to call for an increase and was denied. I then tried Lending Club and Avant since they are both SPs and was denied on both counts. As a side note, I'm now getting non-stop phone calls on my cell from what I assume are predatory lenders which jump on the folks that Lending Club and Avant deny... I figured I would also try for Home Depot and went for the "Project Loan" card since it sounded easier to get based on what I read here (it's a bank called GreenSky-not Citibank who backs their regular store card)-I requested a $10K CL and was denied. I assume that this was also a HP which I'm guessing damaged my score further.
At this point what should I do? My wife's scores are about the same as mine, so I figure she can get the Lowes card so we'll at least have nearly $2000 worth of credit there, but that's not nearly enough. Should she try for the Home Depot project card on her own? The online app did say that I could reapply with a co-borrower, so should we try that instead, or should we just quit applying for credit for a few months and try again later?
Just wanted to say Congrats on your Lowe's approval and don't lose hope. I started off in late April with $500 SL. I have some lates and a collection still on my report, so I have been working constructively on getting credit limit increases. In less than 6 months, I have managed to get my limit up to $10k. If you work diligently, you can get it there. It might not happen overnight, but you will get there. On a side note, I use the chat function a lot, especially after a payment posts. Good luck
@Pway wrote:
Congrats on the Lowe's approval. Yes you are doing more damage to your scores right now by applying for cards and being denied. I would check out the prequal site of Capital One and see what they have to offer. The biggest mistake is not rebuilding after your bk 2.5 years ago. Is your mortgage and car loans reporting, because typically after a bk they stop.
Thanks for the suggestion. I did go to Capital One's site and got a preapproval for a card with no interest until June 2016 which would be good for us given our goals. So since this seems like a go, should I go ahead and apply and take the hard pull? The car loan and mortgage are still reporting-the car loan is only in my wife's name and she reaffirmed it after the BK, so it's not helping me, but it should be helping her. We did not reaffirm the mortgage but it's reporting anyway, we're not sure how or why-we've never been late on either, so I guess that's a good thing. Finally, can someone tell me what "SL" stands for?
@Anonymous wrote:
it will be a triple pull. What card were you approved for? And what kind of CL are you seeking?
Captial One Quicksilver Rewards - At this point I'm just looking to have a card or two in order to start rebuilding. I didn't realize what kind of damage 2.5 years of not having any open cards was doing to our credit. We do want to charge some things to do home improvements and then pay the balances off with a cash out refinance, so we'll take whatever credit limit we can get.