Trying to get a credit card to repair my credit

[Anonymous]

Also to explain the credit card we put $14,000 on it, it was a Home Depot credit card. After moving into our house, we found a really bad issue with the house.  Everytime it rained out, the water came through the windows and would be dripping off the blinds.  It would make puddles on the floor.  We had water stains on our ceiling from water leaking from the upstairs windows also.  In the garage, water was puddling up in the ceiling right where the hard wired fire alarm was.  (Not too safe.)  Everytime it would rain out, my wife, kids and I would stand by the windows with towels trying to catch the water.  We talked to our neighbor and he said he was over with the previous owner of our house and they had the walls ripped apart and couldn't find anything wrong with the windows.  He's the one that suggested he thought it was the roof (which the home owners insurance agreed.)   But after my homeowners replaced the roof and all the water damage, when it rained out, we were still having the problem.  Home owners insurance didn't cover windows replacement.  They said that was a normal home owners maintenance responsibility.  Replacing the roof didn't fix it.  I knew I had to do something fast before I destroyed everything that was just fixed.  That's when I took out the Home Depot credit card with the $14,000 credit limit.  We got all our windows replaced.  Replacing the windows did fix the issue.  We haven't had the windows leak again.  But the Home Depot card had no interest for 2 years.   After the 2 years were up, we were no where near having the $14,000 paid off.  So, then they of course tacked on $10,000 of interest.  I don't regret getting the windows replaced.  We had to have that done.

I'll admit, the other credit card with a $10,000 limit and the Best Buy CC with a $3,000 limit was irresponsible. 

[Anonymous]

I guess I wrote in my original post we had $40,000 in credit card debt.  I guess it was closer to $30,000.  Although after they tacked on the $10,000 of interest on the Home Depot card, it was close to $40,000.

[Anonymous]

One other problem with that Montana I forgot all about, it had sliding doors in the back.   One side was automatic.  Very often, the door wouldn't close.  You would close it and it would just open right back up.   You'd have to mess with the door forever to get the door closed and stay closed.  There were a few times my wife couldn't get the door closed and she just left it open while driving (which is totally unsafe.)  I took the door off and tried to put it back on to see if I could get it lined up better.  Putting on those doors I learned is not easy.  There are 3 bolts and if you're off by even the littlist bit, it throws the door way off when trying to close it.  After I did that, I thought I was never going to get the door back on.  After a few hours of messing around with it, I finally got it lined back up.  After I did that, the door did suprisingly work better.  It didn't mess up nearly as often.  But it still did on occassion.

[seattletravels]

OP - sounds like you were in a tough situation with windows. It's a shame that wasn't caught during inspection before you closed on the house. Also, while you might have overextended yourself with the cars, it seems like there was a need. That's in the past now.

I don't have an answer as to why a bank might decline a secured application. I'm guessing there is some sort of risk factor they use in their determination. At this point, I'd recommend just staying where you're at (1 approved cc plus the secured if you're approved), use them and pay in full each month. Nothing can heal the past but time and good credit behavior.

[Anonymous]

So, another story about the Home Depot card.  When I called Home Depot about  windows, they sent out a sales guy to our house to show us window options and give us a quote, etc.  We chose the windows, but then obvioulsy the next step is I needed to pay for them.  I applied for the credit through the sales guy at our house.  I told him how much I make.  He said something like, what do you see yourslef making in 10 years from now?  I told him a dream number.  He said, "OK, when you apply for the credit over the phone, you're going to tell customer service you make the dream number."  He wrote it down on a piece of paper.  He then called credit services and got the application going.  Then he had to pass the phone to me.  When the person on the phone asked how much I make, I accidently said the truth, the salary I get paid.  Then the sales guy pounds really hard on the table where he wrote the number.  I immediately corrected myself to the lady on the phone.  She was confused.  She asked, "so is the first number your base salary and the second number your salary after bonuses or commissions?"  I said yes.  So, that happened. 

About the cars, I guess I could've found something older with more miles on it and a lot less expensive that seated 7.  I probably would've ended up with a minivan, which would be a little bit embarrasing driving around.  But, I guess that would've been the better decision in hind sight.

[silver_idle]

Have you worked on paying off or settling the previous debt? Doing so would help you on the road of rebuilding your credit. Dont listen to companies because thats how you get in a lot more trouble and then not only would you be out of money to paid to those companies but you would be paying more to pay off the debt or settle. You can do everything yourself and get faster and better results.

People also do get denied a secured card and it could be for various of reasons. Even though they have $1000 as a security deposit, if something were to happen (eg you max out the secured card and default) they would not lose out on what you borrowed but they would lose out on any interest and fees they wouldve recoop from you, so they still look at various of risk. If you filed BK and burned them they can deny you. If you look to be prone to becoming bankrupt, you could be denied. So dont believe that just because its a secured card that its instant approval. What secured card did you apply for? You could apply for discover secured card since you would get cash back on purchases and have it possibly graduate in the future (though they might not graduate you until your situation clears up).

If you dont mind me asking, how what is your household monthly (net) income and whats your monthly expenses like (including auto loans, mortgages, etc) and whats the overall value of your assets currently?

[Anonymous]

I applied for a Merrick secure credit card. I dont want to reveal how much I make. I have my bachelor's degree and I'm an engineer. When I took this job out of state, I got about a 50% pay increase. My wife about had a heart attack when I told her how much they offered me.

[Anonymous]

All my previous debt was settled except the Home Depot card.

[seattletravels]

David, not sure you'll get much more out of this thread. Might try your luck in the rebuilding forum.

[Red1Blue]

If you are looking for a secured card, did you try to apply with OpenSky ? They will not do credit check for approval. Also Affinity Federal Credit Union in New Jersey ( you can pay $5 donation to become a member ) has a secured credit card that will not check your credit report / scores. Those are two best cards I can think for easy secured card approval with out credit check.