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[Anonymous]

Ok I've done research and reviews on credit cards and store credit for bad or no credit. My credit score is 525 according to credit wise, I don't have a FICO score.
I've seen that people with no credit or scores lower than mine get approved so what am I doing wrong? I was told to use the information like name and address on my credit report but if I do that they will mail it to the wrong address. Everything I've seen others get approved for I'm getting denied. I can't afford the stupid processing fees or deposits of some cards hence why I'm trying to apply for credit. I'm self employed and only get cash.
Can someone tell me what I might be doing wrong here?

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I've done research and reviews on credit cards and store credit for bad or no credit. My credit score is 525 according to credit wise, I don't have a FICO score.
I've seen that people with no credit or scores lower than mine get approved so what am I doing wrong? I was told to use the information like name and address on my credit report but if I do that they will mail it to the wrong address. Everything I've seen others get approved for I'm getting denied. I can't afford the stupid processing fees or deposits of some cards hence why I'm trying to apply for credit. I'm self employed and only get cash.
Can someone tell me what I might be doing wrong here?

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Do you mean you don't know what your fico scores are, or that you have not established credit long enough to generate a fico score? The fact that you say according to credit wise your score is 525 leads me to believe you have a chase credit card...or is there another way to get a credit wise report? That score, by the way, is a fairly useless Vantage score, and almost no creditors use it. Also if your income is so low that you can't afford fees or deposits, that is likely a good reason for denials. Fico scores are just part of what is considered for approvals, and income is a major factor...so if someone with a lower score has 150k of income and no debt they might very well get approved. It is a common mis-conception that creditors just use a score only to make a lending decision. If you need a credit card because your income is too low to make ends meet without one...then a credit card is not the answer and will only lead to even more problems. If you are as you say self employed and only get cash, then I assume you have no means to prove income which will also cause a problem with approvals.

[sarge12]

Sorry...credit wise is a capital one product, and can be obtained without a card...Chase has an equally useless credit score called CreditJourney that is an equally useless Vantage score.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I've done research and reviews on credit cards and store credit for bad or no credit. My credit score is 525 according to credit wise, I don't have a FICO score.
I've seen that people with no credit or scores lower than mine get approved so what am I doing wrong? I was told to use the information like name and address on my credit report but if I do that they will mail it to the wrong address. Everything I've seen others get approved for I'm getting denied. I can't afford the stupid processing fees or deposits of some cards hence why I'm trying to apply for credit. I'm self employed and only get cash.
Can someone tell me what I might be doing wrong here?

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1. Your Vantage score is not meaningful so forget about it.

2. My advice is join a credit union, put some money in savings, take out a secured credit card, and pay it in full every month. After 6 months check your FICO score.

3.  You should always use your correct current address on any application.

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I've done research and reviews on credit cards and store credit for bad or no credit. My credit score is 525 according to credit wise, I don't have a FICO score.
I've seen that people with no credit or scores lower than mine get approved so what am I doing wrong? I was told to use the information like name and address on my credit report but if I do that they will mail it to the wrong address. Everything I've seen others get approved for I'm getting denied. I can't afford the stupid processing fees or deposits of some cards hence why I'm trying to apply for credit. I'm self employed and only get cash.
Can someone tell me what I might be doing wrong here?

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1. Your Vantage score is not meaningful so forget about it.

2. My advice is join a credit union, put some money in savings, take out a secured credit card, and pay it in full every month. After 6 months check your FICO score.

3.  You should always use your correct current address on any application.

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+1 on SouthJamaica's advice.

In addition, while you're in that same credit union

getting a secured credit card, you can also apply

for a "credit builder" loan. The CU makes you a loan

of $500-1,500 and they deposit the funds into a savings

account. After you make 12 equal monthly payments,

you get the $500-1,500 deposited into your CU checking

or savings account. Make sure you only work with CUs

who report monthly to all 3 CRAs. Not only will this help

you establish a real FICO score, but your scores will rise faster

than you think. Thanks for reaching out for help. Best of luck!

[Meanmchine]

openskycc.com

Good luck

[jesseh]

+1 on getting a secured card at a CU

Just treat it well for a year and you should be able to go unsecured.

But what did you mean with the 'causing the card to be shipped to the wrong address'? Does it still show an old address reported by an account you no longer have or something? In other words: please check you credit reports (through annualcreditreport.com) and share whether any (old) accounts show.

[SBR249]

You don't necessarily need to get a secured card from a credit union. Any secured card should do, Discover and Capital One are pretty popular on here. Seeing as essentially there is no risk to the lender, you shouldn't have too much trouble being approved. 

While I agree that credit unions offer a different type of experience to traditional lenders and banks and may be more personal and flexible, but it doesn't sound like the OP has extenuating circumstances that would require that kind of flexibility. So I would say, if you have access to a good local CU, then by all means go for it. But don't shun the more mainstream lenders either. 

As for the address issue, that shouldn't matter. You are associated with a credit profile based on a number of identifying pieces of information including name, birth date, SSN, addresses, etc. When I moved back to the US from overseas last night, I applied for many credit cards using a new address that was not previously associated with my CR (my mail was being sent to my folks' place as a permanent address), the only blip that came up was I had to call in to a few banks to answer a few questions and confirm my identity. 

What I think may be happening is that you don't yet have a file with one or more of the credit agencies and your applications just couldn't be processed because there's nothing to pull. Nothing to do with your address really. 

[pizza1]

Welcome to the forums!! Glad you're here, and it looks like you're getting good advice

[Cred4All]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I've done research and reviews on credit cards and store credit for bad or no credit. My credit score is 525 according to credit wise, I don't have a FICO score.
I've seen that people with no credit or scores lower than mine get approved so what am I doing wrong? I was told to use the information like name and address on my credit report but if I do that they will mail it to the wrong address. Everything I've seen others get approved for I'm getting denied. I can't afford the stupid processing fees or deposits of some cards hence why I'm trying to apply for credit. I'm self employed and only get cash.
Can someone tell me what I might be doing wrong here?

2. My advice is join a credit union, put some money in savings, take out a secured credit card, and pay it in full every month. After 6 months check your FICO score.

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I agree strongly with this recommendation.  When others are not willing, the credit union is.  They are there for the members, and regardless of how bad your credit is, they can and will work with you on getting where you need to be.  If they can't give you a card off the bat, they'll walk you through how to get to that point and earn a card.  Credit unions are always the way to go in a situation like this, my 2 cents.  Good luck OP, you'll get there!