Hello everyone,
The time has come again for me to bug you guys with my credit woes. Thank you for your time.
All of my collections have been paid and fallen off the reports. The only baddie I have on file is a voluntary repossession of a lease vehicle that I co-signed for. I tried to work with BMW financial but they are unreasonable. The vehicle was returned in perfect condition 3 months before the lease was up which would have been $2000 in payments for said 3 months, but they won't budge from $6500 that they say I owe them. I decided to just wait it out and it is due to fall off in April according to my TU credit report.
As of February 4th my TU FICO score (From Walmart) is 700. I am waiting for the repo to fall off before I get a triple myFICO report with up to date scores, but they should be close to my current TU score. As far as inquiries go, I have 2 on EQ, 4 EX, and 7 TU... these include the mini app-spree I went on a couple of days ago. My util% is super low, never even reaching 10% despite my low available credit. However, the score gains have stagnated for a while now and I have hovered around the same score since last September despite several baddies falling off. I realize that there are multiple factors contributing to this, but I am having a hard time making any progress on any of them. Here's the breakdown:
1) Lack of installment accounts. I own my condo outright. I'm paying cash for my university and won't be needing a loan till graduate school a year and a half from now. I am somewhat happy with my current beater car and don't really feel the need to tie myself down to a car payment just yet. Do you guys think it's worth it to take out a small unnecessary student loan just to diversify my credit profile? Or maybe another way to get some kind of small installment loan?
2) Small number of accounts. You can see all my open accounts in my signature. The barclay card doesn't count as I just got approved for it yesterday. It took a lot of convincing to get an approval over the recon line as they weren't happy with the number of inquiriies or the repo. I had to fight tooth and nail to get each and every one of my accounts... even the secured ones. I keep getting the 7-10 day message for all my apps followed by a denial later due to high inquiries, delinquent account, low AAoA, and not enough credit experience. I can't help but feel like maybe this is a little unfair considering my scores? It's not even like I was apping for high end cards, just kept getting denied by Barclaycard Rewards, Discover student, US Bank Cash+. I am refraining from apping to BoA and Chase due to worries of blacklisting as I burned those bridges a long time ago. Other banks I won't app because I know I will be denied (like CITI.) Many banks require a banking relationship before you can app (PNC, Wells Fargo,) and I already have several bank accounts that I'm using. I am not a veteran so I can't apply to NFCU, USAA, or any of the other awesome military unions. I feel like I ran out of options to apply for, everything is either out of my credit rating range of I have already tried and keep getting denied for. I have given up applying for anything else as I feel like I'm doing more harm than good.
2) Bad quality of cards/small limits: Most of my cards are secured and of those, none of them graduate. Both Cap1 cards gave me an automatic CLI after a while but do not consider any other CLI requests. The Optima is from an Oasis program and is prohibiting me from apping for any other Amex cards unless I close it. My CU card is also secured and doesn't graduate. Walmart card denied two CLI requests due to lack of use at the current limit. Nothing needs to be said about the OpenSky secured card, It's just there until I get another account or two so I can close it.
I have made great progress from fall 2012 but now need help getting my foot through the door to prime cards. If I can just have a few accounts with acceptable (1.5-2k limits) and no AF I will be very happy. If you guys have any advice please share. Should I just wait 6 months and try for the same cards again? Should I just garden for longer? Is there some easy to get card that I have missed? Should I close any of my crappy secured accounts or wait for more approvals? Should I go for more store cards even though they will be collecting dust in a drawer? Should I try to take out some kind of an installment loan?
I am sorry for the wall of text and thank you guys for your time.
