his is my first post. I've been lurking over here for about a week now. I've been researching credit cards, for a number of reasons, but mostly want to be able to close a secure card we have and replace it with something that gets rewards. We opened the secure card initially in my husband's name to help with his credit (opened in 2012 currently has a $3000 limit) and we've been successful. Now his score is at 715. The major negative thing on his credit is a default student loan though, and I'm worried it will still impact his being approved for the better cards, at least until the lender expunges it from his record as they're supposed to (legal settlement....long story).
So I decided I'd explore opening a card in my name (stay at home parent, but my research indicates that they look at household income).
Other than the secured card that I'm an authorized user on, the only other credit card I've ever had is a Commerce Bank Visa that mostly acted as overdraft protection for my checking account. It had a $1000 limit and was open for 5 years (closed in 2013)
The 4 other accounts I've had are all federal student loans that I paid off in 2010. The largest account balance was $4800 and the total was around $15,000.
There is one utility bill in collections from 2010 that I intend to persue, but as I've never been contacted about it, I'm not sure how to go about that. Can I just send a check to the address on file? I hate making phone calls... I don't care if it's taken off completely. Just that it gets closed. Would you wait until that is resolved before applying for a new credit card?
Credit Karma has my score at 710
Overall, I want a card that has the following:
No annual fee: Any card I get now, I want to plan on keeping open indefinitely. The secured card has a $35 annual fee, which is part of the reason I want to be rid of it.
No foreign transaction fee: We love to travel, and do so overseas enough that this is a priority. We're tentatively planning a trip to England for next summer.
Decent rewards: I don't want a card that I just end up wanting to replace in a few years.
So anyway...my top pick is the CapitalOne Quicksilver, but upon further perusal of their website I learned that I might not fit the qualification of having credit in excess of $5000 for more than 3 years, unless my combined student loans count. The biggest balance was actually only open for about a year before I closed it.
However, when I filled out the pre-qualify form, it spat out both the Quicksilver and the VentureOne. I'd rather have the Quicksilver, because it's cash back, instead of miles, but it seems the VentureOne might be a little easier to qualify for. We probably would use the miles eventually, but I doubt we'd rack up enough quickly enough to use them more than every other year (unless the rate is better than what I'm used to).
Should I see that as a green light, or will something in my history cause a denial?
I'm not overly concerned about the APR, because we pay everything in full every month.
If they deny me the Quicksilver can I then apply for the VentureOne (or a different CapOne card) using the same pulls?
If I'm denied for either, should I increase the limit on the secured card to $5000, and try again in a few months?
Or just try for something like the Discover It card? Probably my last choice, because it's not as widely accepted as Visa & Mastercard, so the fact that there are no foreign transaction fees may be moot.
Is there a card I'm completely ignoring that I should be considering?
Thanks!
