Possible SCT Choices

[Anonymous]

Well, so far I was able to get New York & Company ($250 via SCT. I was declined on both Sportsman's Guide and Overstock. My FICO scores are in the mid to upper 500s. Does anyone know of a possible MasterCard and/or Visa that I have a good chance of getting through SCT?

[Anonymous]

SCT for actual credit cards only works with higher scores. Store cards are much easier.

[Anonymous]

Many thanks. What store cards would you recommend for the SCT?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Many thanks. What store cards would you recommend for the SCT?

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This is important and cannot be stressed enough. Only get the card(s) you really, really want. There's a common misunderstanding that you need to get more cards in order to build your credit. This is not true. You need 3. Any more than 3 total cards does absolutely nothing to help your credit in the short term other than cover some utilization.

If you're just getting started with your credit build, the best way to do it is to get 3 credit cards. Use them all. Pay 2 down to zero before your statements. Let the other one have a small balance, under 10%. Rinse. Repeat. Let this occur monthly and over time your credit will improve. Getting more cards will not help at all. What will help is having an installment loan such as an Alliant Shared Secured loan, car loan, or student loan.

With all that stated, the easiest cards to get are J.Crew, Brylane Homes, Victoria's Secret, Loft, Coldwater Creek, and sometimes Overstock (seems to change from month to month). YMMV. Better to get a secured Discover, Capital One, and/or BOA. Again, whatever SCT cards you get, make sure they're truly keepers. If you don't want to tie up so much money for secured cards, SCT is fine to fill the gaps but you'll need at least one bank card as Experian separates out bank vs store revolving accounts.

The key is patience. The biggest mistake I made when I got started was getting 4 SCTs and Fingerhut. If I could go back in time I would have gotten my Williams-Sonoma through SCT because I actually use it regularly, maybe Wayfair, and then my Capital One and BOA cards. Nothing else. I'd be further along if I hadn't wasted space with useless SCTs and Fingerhut, plus Credit One. All are cancelled now and will ding me in 10 years when they fall off my report, but hopefully I'll be bullets by then and the ding won't actually hurt.

[MrsCHX]

Echoing. Do NOT go and get 10 Comenity cards because you can. A store card should be applied for if it's a store you shop regularly and there is some benefit to you. Even for rebuilders. And don't do Fingerhut. It's a bad card and the stuff is way overpriced.

Go with a secured. Try for Discover or BOA. Maybe Cap1 but I think the other two are more likely to graduate.

So what's on your reports holding you back? That's the actual key to rebuilding...cleaning up your reports...no just adding credit.

[dlm0820]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Many thanks. What store cards would you recommend for the SCT?

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None.  SCT are useless unless you actually shop at the store and even then it's sketchy.  Spend your time and effort focusing on fixing what's wrong and getting some secured cards.

[Anonymous]

You can technically get some sct cards, never use them, continue to pay cash. That MIGHT score you a tiny limit bank card next year because stuff has aged. Building credit is twofold, most would argue twenty-fold… while what you already have is used, paid off, and ages, you must train yourself how to use accounts. Having zero bank cards will not give you the self control so necessary in the real credit world. A secured with citibank and/or bofa is the way to go. With those you can do the training. Pay a bill online, immediately pay the card off, or pay when its due, whichever is in line with budget and paycheck timing.

[Anonymous]

If I were starting my rebuilding phase over again, knowing what I know now as of April 2017 and having read these forums from the beginning (as in late 2015), I think I'd have started with a secured Discover instead of a secured Cap 1 since the former is much easier to graduate than the latter. I do agree about the store cards, though; only get what you're actually likely to use. I've been seeing as I've read these forums over the last couple of months that a lot of people who have gone on app sprees with Synchrony or Comenity to get lots and lots of store cards, often with absurdly high lines of credit, have ended up in pickles of various sorts, often because the issuers themselves have taken AA's of various sorts, by reducing the CL's, sending out the infamous "blue envelopes" (4506-T's, requiring you to submit detailed proof of income), or even closing the accounts on you requiring you to jump through various hoops to get those accounts reinstated. As far as I'm concerned, the only store card I have is Amazon, because I shop there quite frequently (and even then I pay by cash, either directly or via gift card, as much as I can); I've considered getting a Walmart card and maybe a Best Buy card because I shop at those stores as well, but those are for the future once I've gardened my way to higher scores, and I have a hard time thinking of any other stores that I'd want to get store-specific cards from (with the exception of Costco's Visa, but that's an actual Visa rather than just a store card) at this time.

[Jerry45]

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@MrsCHX wrote:
Echoing. Do NOT go and get 10 Comenity cards because you can. A store card should be applied for if it's a store you shop regularly and there is some benefit to you. Even for rebuilders. And don't do Fingerhut. It's a bad card and the stuff is way overpriced.

Go with a secured. Try for Discover or BOA. Maybe Cap1 but I think the other two are more likely to graduate.

So what's on your reports holding you back? That's the actual key to rebuilding...cleaning up your reports...no just adding credit.

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Well said. I started my rebuild with secured card, Open Sky. They report on time and really helped me get top tier cards.