No CLI, no new credit cards?

[Jervo007]

I've been working on improving my credit situation over the last year. (Was pretty bad)

Current scores:

TU: 709

EQ: 698

EX: 653 (Just disputed an account that showed 95% paid, when it was 100%)

82% Payment History (12 late payments over 7 year span)

10% Credit Utilization

No Derogatory marks

No collections

Last time I made a late payment was 1 year 7 months ago

Current open accounts:

Discover Card - Opened this card as a secured card May of 2018. $1000 CL, graduated to unsecured and they CLI'd me to $1,750 in December of 2018 and sent me a check for the $1,000 back. I always pay the balance every month. Current/Never late

Apartment - $2250/month - Opened March 2019. Current/Never late

Well, I called Discover last week to inquire about a CLI. They pulled a soft check and denied any CLI due to late payments (the 12 over 7 years)

I'd like to add a new account/card to my quiver. On one hand, I've got Credit Karma (all the apps) showing me that I have good to excellent approval odds for almost every card under the sun. How the hell would I get approved for a new card if Discover wont even give me a CLI? 

Should I try anyway? Wait? Open another secured card instead? 

Should I call Discover and ask again? Write a letter?

I don't want a CLI or new credit card to just go on a spending spree. I want to continue to build credit and add accounts to show lenders I'm good to go. 

Thoughts? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Disco already said no due to the late pays.  They don't recon typically.

CK and other CMS's are just marketing "odds" for a pay per click from the banks.

Finish your dispute and then target some options based on the CRA they pull.  You're right on the cusp at 700 across the board but, to outweigh the negatives you have to get them higher for approvals and decent limits.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Pay no attention to Credit Karma recommendations, they are purely marketing. Secondly, check out the prequals for Amex. You might be in range. You might be approved for other cards just dont go blindly apping. Slow and steady, research and youll get there

[Jervo007]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Pay no attention to Credit Karma recommendations, they are purely marketing. Secondly, check out the prequals for Amex. You might be in range. You might be approved for other cards just dont go blindly apping. Slow and steady, research and youll get there

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True! I do know it's marketing for sure. I will take a look at the Amex prequals and read up on each card. I am on the page to check to see if I pre-qualify. Won't check quite yet til I do some due-diligence. 

Thanks for the tip! 

[Jervo007]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Disco already said no due to the late pays.  They don't recon typically.

CK and other CMS's are just marketing "odds" for a pay per click from the banks.

Finish your dispute and then target some options based on the CRA they pull.  You're right on the cusp at 700 across the board but, to outweigh the negatives you have to get them higher for approvals and decent limits.

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The dispute has been resolved as of this moment. The account status was adjust to 100% and is now 'closed' (This was an auto loan) My score went up a bit as well. Coolio!

Thanks for the reply. Gonna keep an eye on things and see if I can work on a possible AMEX account. 

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the dispute.

Make sure you wait long enough for Amex to SP a fresh score again before hitting them up for a new card.  There's some delay between when the new score shows up online and when it's used for new apps.... could be a week or so before the new score is loaded into the system.

[Jervo007]

OK - 

So I scoped out the pre-qualified AMEX offer page. Filled in the details and submitted. The gold and green cards popped up.

I do travel quite a bit - but beyond that, the $250 annual fee isn't worth it. The Green card seems to be ok reward wise. Nothing earth shattering. $0 intro annual fee for first year, then $95 after. 

Gonna deep dive into the cards and chk the pros/cons and overall data. Then give it a shot mid August. 

[Anonymous]

Well, I never got a pre-app from Amex and finally just jumped in head first after many years and snagged a BCE @ 10K.  Don't let the results deter you from picking the card you NEED / Want vs what they're marketing to you.

Green - useless

Gold - has some perks / earns better than Platinum

Platinum - has better perks but average earn.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/increased-american-express-credit-card-bonuses-incognito-are-back-lis... Use this method for checking the bonuses for the highest payback for the app since you can only get them 1 time per lifetime on each card. 

However, if you start with ED/BCE and take the upgrade offer for $250/$1000 spend and downgrade when the AF hits again at your anniversary you can still take the upgrade bonus again when it comes up again. Between the pro-rate AF for the upgrade + bonus it's usually a really good deal.

Some of the co-brands are worthwhile doing the same thing and sometimes the upgrade bonus is more than the application bonus.

[Jervo007]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well, I never got a pre-app from Amex and finally just jumped in head first after many years and snagged a BCE @ 10K.  Don't let the results deter you from picking the card you NEED / Want vs what they're marketing to you.

Green - useless

Gold - has some perks / earns better than Platinum

Platinum - has better perks but average earn.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/increased-american-express-credit-card-bonuses-incognito-are-back-list-of-offers-working-from-referral-link-too-ymmv/  Use this method for checking the bonuses for the highest payback for the app since you can only get them 1 time per lifetime on each card. 

However, if you start with ED/BCE and take the upgrade offer for $250/$1000 spend and downgrade when the AF hits again at your anniversary you can still take the upgrade bonus again when it comes up again. Between the pro-rate AF for the upgrade + bonus it's usually a really good deal.

Some of the co-brands are worthwhile doing the same thing and sometimes the upgrade bonus is more than the application bonus.

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Thanks for the info ! Very helpful. Made some notes and will do a bit more research on the ED/BCE options as well. 

[Anonymous]

Amex has a lot of card options and they cover a lot of spend categories. Read up on here and on the Amex site to see which ones best fit your patterns and normal spend. The Gold has been a great card for a lot of us and is definitely worth looking at. Agreed that until Green gets a refresh, it’s pointless.