NFCU Cash Rewards then what.......

[Anonymous]

Spent the past four years rebuilding and fixing my credit. Went from 580 to now over 730 across the board. Payed off nearly 15k in personal credit card debt recently and as a result my scores have skyrocketed and Im looking to finally start the process of getting long lasting top tier cards. Looking for advice...

Scores

eq fico8 742 fico9 742
ex fico8 734 fico9 741
tu fico8 730 fico 9 742

oldest account 14 years

oldest credit card 5 years

21% dti

0% utilization

I have 3 - 30 day late payments on my Citi DC card due to an error in how the processed my covid relief forebearance it should have been none but counted as 3. I have contacted Citi and since they have no record of the phone call and I have no record of the phone call they basically said I was automatically wrong and I have those 3 lates just sitting on my account. Should I dispute? Also will this affect my ability to get good SLs and better cards? The last 30 day late was July 2020.

I have had an account with NFCU for 3 years and I direct deposit my paycheck into it. I have zero doubt I will get approved for the cash rewards card, then plan to get a penfed account and apply there as well. I REALLY want an Amex green card, I plan to do some traveling and it looks like the best right now. When I prequalify on their site all I get is the Hilton Honors and the Delta Gold Skymiles. Will the green card show up as a prequalify? Will my recent lates affect my ability to get an Amex. Should I dispute first and attempt to remove those lates before applying for an Amex or wait the 14 months so they have less effect on my credit score?

Also are there other cards I am missing that will get good starting limits like NFCU and Penfed and have the awesome ability to get good clis like the Amex 3x cli and the NFCU 91/3 cli and second card??

Any advice will be greatly appreciated and also a personal thank you to all who have added information. I have been a LONG TIME lurker on this forum and used all the information to be get to this very point. I am both grateful and ecstatic!

[OmarGB9]

First, congrats on paying off debt and increasing scores. That is a great achievement in itself.

Now, as for your lates, they can and probably will affect approvals for new cards, being that they're less than a year old. Usually lenders want at least 2 years since your last late payment. As far as the lates themselves, you can definitely try disputing, but without evidence, it'll be hard to get them removed unfortunately.

As far as Amex, if you prequalify for their cobranded cards, it's likely you'd also qualify for their charge cards, but again, your lates will affect that.