Cannot get approved - Any Tips or Help??

[Slabenstein]

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@firemartinez1980 wrote:

I had a 30 day late from Credit One show on my report, but that was fixed and deleted since it was never actually late. Other than that the only explanation I get for denial is "Too many inquiries" and "Balances to high" yet the only balance I have is an auto loan, all my other debt is paid off.

I 

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For installments, an aggragate balance:loan ratio of > 9.4% is going to produce a reason statement that loan balances are too high.  So unless your car loan is already close to paid off, you'll see that on denials, even though it probably did not play a big role in the UW algo's decision.  How many inquiries do you have on each of your reports currently?

I think the above suggestions to check the Disco prequal and check out Navy Federal are both good ones.  I expect Disco would only offer you their secured card at your current score, but if you're open to putting down a deposit it's about the best secured card available: no annual fee, cashback rewards, and the possibility of graduating to an unsecured card in < 1 year.  The Navy Fed prequal site is not reliable, but they have a reputation for being a more open lender than the major banks and can be a good place to look if you're building up a profile.  To be eligible for membership, you or a member of your immediate family needs to serve or have ever served in any branch of the U.S. military.  For their purposes, grandparents count as immediate family, which is how many here are able to join.

Capital One is another lender I would look into in your position.  They also have a prequal page for their starter cards and, though their starters probably won't be long-term keeper cards, they work very well for establishing positive history as you build to better things.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, you should only see the high balances reason statement if it's one of the top four things having a negative effect on your score, so I don't think it would be there on your denials if it was just from the car loan not being at the optimal B:L for scoring.  Did you have large revolving balances that you paid off recently?  Prequals can use old pulls, so if you did, it could be that they haven't caught up to your current profile yet.

[firemartinez1980]

Where it shows on my credit as "negative items" it takes into account everything from years past...

I had a Chap 13 BK back in 2011 and 2 late payments on cards about 6 years ago that were eventually paid off, plus it shows my vehicle balance as "high" and then I had a lot of Inquiries due to getting my Mortgage, but overall, Nothing is really negative for me, especially within the past 2-3 years as I was paying everything off.

It's just crazy I got approved for my mortgage with a 2.65% rate with NO issues, but cannot get a credit card approval, lol

[Anonymous]

I've heard it said that with store cards, like Lowe's and Home Depot, your odds are better in person than online. Reason is online you're a number. In the store, you're a person at the register with a cart full of stuff you're about to spend money on, and they don't like to disappoint or embarrass paying customers. Your odds may well be better at the store. I've heard also that at both of those stores, the employee can call in to recon an SL for you. 

Have you tried prequals for cards that pull your highest score/bureau? Might help too. And along those lines, I don't know if it's still the case but in years past according to people who have posted here, Lowe's pulls TU online but EX in the store, so that could be a consideration as well.

[Slabenstein]

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@firemartinez1980 wrote:

It's just crazy I got approved for my mortgage with a 2.65% rate with NO issues, but cannot get a credit card approval, lol

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It's not really crazy at all.  Mortgages and credit cards are different kinds of lending with different UW standards.  Mortgages are secured installments while credit cards are unsecured revolvers, and there are mortgage products available to borrowers who would not qualify for a prime credit card.  You've only shown us your EX scores, but, as has been pointed out upthread, your EX2, which is what would have been pulled by your mortgage lender as part of your trimerge, is much higher than your EX8, which is what a lot of cc lenders would be looking at.  Just because of that, more lending opportunities based on the EX mortgage score are going to be open to you than those based on EX8.  You're also comparing a mortgage approval to cc preapprovals, and not getting a preapproval offer on a cc isn't the same thing as not being approved for one.

[Anonymous]

Do I did if nothing is working,  I opened a secured Discover CC and 8 months after making all my payments I graduated to their unsecured card with a 2500 CL, after that I applied to West Elms and Overstock and go approved... build the history with the secure then the sea will open for you

[Anonymous]

Congrats on your new home purchase @firemartinez1980 ! 

Have you tried the prequalification link for Dell?  That is if you're in the market for new device.

Kohl's also has a prequalification link on their website, although I personally had more success in store with Kohl's.

You were just approved for a mortgage so you got this!

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@firemartinez1980 wrote:

Below is a screenshot of my credit info from Experian as of today. My scores are average I would say.

I just closed on a new Mortgage and that hasn't hit my credit yet, so the only balance I have on anything is my vehicle.

I have missed no payments in the last 3 years on anything

Yet I have tried to do the "Pre-Approvals" for credit cards from Lowes, Home Depot, Wayfair, etc and they ALL get denied. Now I know this isnt the same as an actual application, but the approval process is, correct?

So why am I getting denied for everything? I just bought a $250,000 home with NO issues, but cannot get approved for a store card, lol

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[Anonymous]

I would say it's the negative items on your CR that are tarnishing your profile.  If you've got your utilization in a good place and your scores are still mid 600's it can only mean that negative items are the cause.  And, being that Payment History is the largest slice of the Fico pie, lenders are going to consider it strongly when it comes to risk assessment.  Just because denial reasons don't specifically call out this issue doesn't mean it didn't play a large role in the decision.  My suggestion would be looking into options as far as removing the negative items from your CR.

[Anonymous]

Be careful when pulling Apple Card for prequal does not hard hit tu to prequal but does hit sagestream hard so keep that in mind if applying for sync or us bank in the future

[randomguy1]

If the Discover card interests you, give it a shot. If you don't get approved, it's not the end of the world. Let success or failure be your guide on whether to try more applications. You can prequalify somewhere and still get denied. You won't score any runs if you never go up to bat.

That being said, you haven't addressed questions regarding your profile. Have you looked into optimizing your chances by addressing items in your profile? What does your utilization amongst all your CCs look like?

Have you taken the advice given to you here by South Jamaica?

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Increasing-Credit-Line/m-p/6188740/highl...

[Anonymous]

You've got pretty bad credit scores. Those are in the secured card range. If you really want a card you can check out the Petal card. It doesn't use credit scores for approval. It uses other metrics like consistent income. It's actually a decent card too. It starts It as only 1% cashbacj, but increases to 1.5% cash back after enough consecutive payments. Otherwise you're looking more at secured cards with your scores.

You can maybe pick up a Discover card too