Help with Next Credit App

[Anonymous]

Hi. New to the forum. I've been reading this forum every single day for over two weeks, just a wealth of knowledge and everyone seems so helpful.  Just started on credit rebuild but looking for some advise on next step.

Current EX: 654, TU: 647 EQ: 641 (about 3 months ago my score was 520)

Recently applied for Amazon Store Card (approved $1000), Walmart: (approved $200) and Target: (approved $300), along with an Audi Financial and Mercedes Financial car lease approved.

All of my current credit cards are secured (capital one platinum, First progress) except for credit one bank and capital one quick silver one. 

13 Hard Inquiries. Current utilization is at 28%

Only thing negative is a collection item from Hunter Warfield for about $10,000 (past apartment) which I am working on resolving.

I want to get one more major card and then I'm going to garden for a year. I was thinking about Citi double cash or citi costco visa since I have a citi bank account or a discover card. 

What are my chances? I would appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. 

[Remedios]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi. New to the forum. I've been reading this forum every single day for over two weeks, just a wealth of knowledge and everyone seems so helpful.  Just started on credit rebuild but looking for some advise on next step.

Current EX: 654, TU: 647 EQ: 641 (about 3 months ago my score was 520)

Recently applied for Amazon Store Card (approved $1000), Walmart: (approved $200) and Target: (approved $300), along with an Audi Financial and Mercedes Financial car lease approved.

All of my current credit cards are secured (capital one platinum, First progress) except for credit one bank and capital one quick silver one. 

13 Hard Inquiries. Current utilization is at 28%

Only thing negative is a collection item from Hunter Warfield for about $10,000 (past apartment) which I am working on resolving.

I want to get one more major card and then I'm going to garden for a year. I was thinking about Citi double cash or citi costco visa since I have a citi bank account or a discover card. 

What are my chances? I would appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. 

---

Hi and welcome to the forums 

You got three new accounts, so now it's time to let them age at least six months or longer 

I do not think you have a good chance with Citi at this time, Discover has preapproval page you can check 

If you continue applying, you're looking at approvals with toy limits with poor terms  or denials. 

It would be better if you try resolving that unpaid collection account prior to attempting any more applications. 

[pinkandgrey]

Welcome! Congrats on those beautiful cars lol.

As Remmy said, I would wait for awhile, especially with Citi. Citi can be highly selective at times and 13 inqs may not look so good. If you really want the DC (It is a great card!), then I would garden for at least six months and try in the meantime to get rid of that negative. If you really want/need a new card, Disco or Amex may give you a preapproval. The SL may be small, but either of those would grow well. 

Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I have found myself reading this forum for like 1-2 hours every night for the past month before I go to bed. Its been very addicting but very satisfying when I implement what I read and it works.

Ok, I will resolve the Hunter Warfield collection first. My hard inquiries are a lot but 8 inquiries was for the car shopping, some of these dealerships like to run multiple apps its very annoying. 1 Audi dealership alone hit me with 3 inquiries.

I really just want 1 more major card with >$2000 limit and then garden for a year but not sure if that is possible without resolving Hunter Warfield first.

If I get denied for Citi or Discover do I have a good chance of recon with 1 collections?

[Anonymous]

For scoring purposes if the car INQ were within a 2 week spread they should be scored as a single INQ.

10K on an apartment is a lot of money.... If you legit don't owe it then I would start w/ the leasing company and push them a bit w/ verifying the debt is legit.  I had an issue with a leasing company where they said I owed them money instead of returning my deposit for some damage but, I knew they were writing up my neighbor's unit instead of mine and kept pushing them on it to ultimately being withdrawn and resolved.

Owing them for a lease breach might be a little more difficult but, they should be willing to work with you on it if they want to collect any money on it vs letting the SOL run out on it and get nothing.  Circumstances matter when it comes to fighting w/ leasing companies.

For the time being I wouldn't bother with trying for more cards since you have a few under your belt already and it's really not going to payoff in terms of a high CL or anything unitl the collection is resolved or aged significantly.

[CreditInspired]

Agree with everything that has been said here. 

So how old is the collection? Also, since this is the only negative on your report, if you can get it paid off and deleted, you are going to be amazed at how high your scores will jump and then you can apply for cards that won't start out in toy limit land.

Yes, if it were me, my goal would be to get that taken care of before applying for anything else.

An example. When I had an IRS lien on all three CRA, for eons it seems, once it was removed, all my reports jumped between 59-66 points because it was the only negative on my reports. It made all the difference in the world when I applied for a mortgage 6 months later. I got the best rates and terms. 

Yep, let getting that negative corrected be your goal.

Oh yeah, and welcome to MyFICO. And yes, the forum is addictive, fun, and so informative.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the kind advise. Very helpful.

The collections is about 4 years old. They have been offering between 50%-75% depends on who I talk to. I thought about hiring a collections expert to see if they could get it down lower but I think I'll just take the 50% offer and call it a day. Pay $6000 now and have my credit score jump and save interest later is my logic. Its the only thing negative on my report. 

[Anonymous]

What are your experiences with the first progress card? I was thinking about getting one but have only heard bad things about this card. Could you give me some insight?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't. I mean from a technical standpoint you give them $300, they give you $300 credit line which is nice, but their system is so stone ages in terms of payments. When it comes to pay, you can't put like a standard ACH information in. You have to manually go to your financial institution and setup a bill payment instead which can add an extra business day or so to the payment process. Their online system also goes down all the time, can't update and impossible to get ahold of anyone on the phone. 

I did First progress because I didn't know any other options at that time but now I understand the system a lot better. I would definately go capital one secured 100% of the time if you are able to get approved. They will at least graduate you after 5 months and double your credit line. I went from $200 to $750 with them after 5 payments. 

[CreditInspired]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the kind advise. Very helpful.

The collections is about 4 years old. They have been offering between 50%-75% depends on who I talk to. I thought about hiring a collections expert to see if they could get it down lower but I think I'll just take the 50% offer and call it a day. Pay $6000 now and have my credit score jump and save interest later is my logic. Its the only thing negative on my report. 

---

If you decide to go this route, definitely ask for a pay for delete.