Where do I go next?

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to decide when and what my next card should be and I'm feeling overwhelmed!

Background...

January 2018 I started disputing some negatives on my account from my divorce and increasing my credit score from 539. I was able to remove all of them except one which will be 7 years old at the end of the year. In March 2018 I was approved for the Capital One Platinum with a 584 score and $300 limit that after 5 payments went to $500 which seems to be standard with that card. In October 2018 I applied for the Capital One Quicksilver One with a $300 limit that also went to $500 after 5 payments. Then I did nothing till the beginning of May when I did a soft pull Children's place card with $250 limit.

Current...

The last few months I've been sitting back just trying to build a solid use and payment history on the Capital One cards. The last two months I've been trying to decide what my next best bet is to apply for. Then 4 days ago without asking or any notice my Capital One Platinum jumped to a $1500 line, so a $1000 increase from the $500. My FICO 8 is 649 right now.

I've been terrified of taking a hard pull hit without getting approved, so I just keep waiting to apply scared to pull that trigger. That being said I'd really like a rewards card with higher limit that I could cycle through like I do the Capital One and that will allow me to build higher lines of credit to help improve my score. 

Any suggestions on cards or if I should wait longer or what I should do next will be greatly appreciated and relieve some of the anxiety I have! I know no one can say for sure about anything, but it's comforting having someone with experience behind the suggestion. 

[M_Smart007]

Have you thought of Discover Pre-Qualify page?

I helped a Friend Yesterday, who was scared and had , Home Depot $1k, Target $500 &

Merrick, Credit One, And Firstpremier., They had limits between $300-$500.

He was prequalified at Discover site, hit the button it spun and "Your Approved $10K"

then i told him, what else do you spend alot doing, he said Costco, so I said Go to Citi's site and just Cold app,

I knew he'd get it, his CK FAKO scores were High, and Zero inq's in 24 0/24

He Cold Apped Costco/Citi Reward Visa "Approved $8k"

He was overwhelmed!!!

GL2U

oh and Welcome To myFICO Forums!!!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've been terrified of taking a hard pull hit without getting approved,

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Don't be afraid to take a HP... It doesn't hurt until you get a few of them and only lasts a year for scoring purposes.  After about 10 of them they don't hurt your score in further points.

I'm not saying go put in 10 apps somewhere but, it's really not as bad as you think.

As to what you should aim for.... well, you're already doing a good job resisting the urge to app and it's paying off with time which is the biggest hurdle that helps things go UP.

So, if you're sitting at ~650 FICO you're on the cusp of opening some doors to some decent cards again.  I would concentrate on waiting until your scores hit the 675 level to give you some cushion for when you do apply for a couple of cards.  Your will drop a little bit but not too much.  The key to making your new cards work is to try to spread the INQ across the 3 CRA's.

So, I would check the pre-qual sites https://www.doctorofcredit.com/view-personalized-credit-card-offers/

Specifically though...

Uber card pulls TU and it's one of their easier cards to get 

https://www.barclaycardus.com/apply/Landing.action?campaignId=2398&cellNumber=6&referrerid=

Discover tends to be more lenient than other lenders and likes a thin file

https://www.discovercard.com/application/prequal - some get a SP approval and others get a hit on one of the three 

BBVA pulls EX mostly and if you're in TX/AL you can use this link

BB&T offers SP approvals and if it's a HP then it's going to be EQ

https://www.bbt.com/offers/checkOffers

This should be a good start to figuring out what your options are at this point and a good set of tools to see the changes as scores go up.