Like others have suggested, if you "do your time" in the "garden"(I realize it can feel more like a jail), your scores will go up and you will have more proven history.
You also said you'll have a lot of inquiries dropping off soon. Even though some folks go on about howthey dont effect the score after 1 year, it may be wise for youto wait for a bunch of them to drop off. Your scores arent that bad, but you have ample room for improvement, and I think it's possible in a very short time if you play your cards right.
I'm not sure if your brother or anyone can get you more AU status on older cards, but it can be a quick fix for a boost. I seen you already are an AU, but I'm quite curious if another 1 or 2 might help you more if they are older? Do any experts want to weigh in and let us know if this "quick boost" is even possible or not? Like a good CSR, I want to marshall my resources and help see this through. Any help is appreciated. I'm losing my ability to post for some reason, yet I felt this one ws important enough to try something.
As others have said, the prequal sites can be a GREAT tool for measuring where you are in their eyes. CapOne has a good one, and I wish Barclays did. Those were my first 2 cards after bk7(although I waited 3.5-4 years to even start. It's not technically gardening, so I named it "fertilization", a time of preparation. It worked well for me, things went well and grew quickly in the fertile soil I prepared. I'm just saying what worked for me, not necessarily recommending anything,
And you're right about Discover's pre-approval site. It is a joke and should be taken down. I wonder if all of us could email whomever is in charge of such things. Anyhow, I'm falling asleep, so if this seems incoherent, it's the no sleeping at all last night, and not just the alcohol. OP, I wish you the best. Think of gardening as like practice for a sporting team. You get yourself ready to go nuts at a later time!!
