wait or apply?

[Anonymous]

I have had bad credit for a very long time. I have been letting things slowly fall off. I'm at the point where I haven't had a late payment of any kind in over 3 years. But I also only have 2 open accounts building for me. I have an auto lease a year and a half old and a secured credit union card. I only have 2 HP on my credit and both were the same day for the auto lease.

I went to the pre approval of Amex and Discover last night. Both came up with "Congratulations you have been pre approved for these cards". Discover was IT card and IT chrome card. Both were 24%, not a range. And Amex was the Premier Rewards Gold and the traditional Green card. I did have an Amex that I defaulted on over 20 years ago. But I read on here somewhere if they blacklisted you, you wouldn't get through the pre approval process.

So my questions are:

Do they seem like legit pre approval?

Are most people successful receiving the cards after pre approval?

Should I choose one over the other for success?

Would one help my credit more than the other?

Should I try both?

Thank you for any thoughts

[Anonymous]

Also my current card is only 6 months old. I would like to get one or two more cards now since my AAoA is low and won't hurt me later as it gets older and then I apply and drop a 2 or 3 year AAoA down to a year. This way they can age together and not hurt me later.

[Jnbmom]

Do you know what your FICO scores are? Discover and Amex pre approvals are pretty legit

[Anonymous]

No I don't. I recently saw my credit file from EX and EQ. Both looked identical. But there weren't any scores on them. 

That was one reason I was looking at the Discover card. It says they give you your Fico on every statement.

[Jnbmom]

You can go to discover scorecard (non members) and get a free report and score, then you would at least give you your EXP. But like I said those 2 preapprovals you got are usually pretty reliable.

[Anonymous]

Creditchecktotal.com
You can take their 7 day trial and get scores/reports from all 3 CRA's. Just be sure to cancel by phone before the trial expires.

Also,
You can check the credit pull database. Just google it. You can see what card issuers are pulling which CRA for your state.

[Anonymous]

First thing, Congrats on your so far successful rebuild.  I was there not so long ago myself.  So for the Blacklist, If you were on it, you wouldnt have preapprovals.  Even tho you may have burned them, did you pay it in full? if you did then amex will forgive.. eventually.  

Do they seem like legit pre approval?  Yes, amex and disco pre-approvals are solid. 

Are most people successful receiving the cards after pre approval?   most of the time, i havent seen on not get it

Should I choose one over the other for success?  Which one you go after is upto you and which will benefit you the most.

Would one help my credit more than the other?  No, as long as you manage them properly, they are the same in Fico's eyes. 

Should I try both?  You could, that is upto you and your credit goals.  

The optimal credit scoring is 3-5 cards and one installment loan.  As long as you know that you can do it without ending up how you got here before, then the sky is the limit. Sounds like you are doing a fantasic job so far, and have learned from the past mistakes. Keep up the great work. 

[Anonymous]

So I just went to Discover Scorecard and it said my Fico Score 8 based on Experian data is 720.

That is way higher than I expected. I thought low to mid 600's tbh. 

Based on that, should I go for both? Then I would have 3 cards(assuming approval on both) with a loan. And they can all age together and in about 2 years I can get something else and it won't affect my AAoA.

Or am I jumping the gun?

[Anonymous]

Both the Premier Rewards Gold and Green cards are charge cards; you generally would only want one charge card and the PRG is much more useful than the Green card.

[Jnbmom]

---

@Anonymous

---

@Anonymous wrote:

So I just went to Discover Scorecard and it said my Fico Score 8 based on Experian data is 720.

That is way higher than I expected. I thought low to mid 600's tbh. 

Based on that, should I go for both? Then I would have 3 cards(assuming approval on both) with a loan. And they can all age together and in about 2 years I can get something else and it won't affect my AAoA.

Or am I jumping the gun?

---

---

@Anonymous wrote:

So I just went to Discover Scorecard and it said my Fico Score 8 based on Experian data is 720.

That is way higher than I expected. I thought low to mid 600's tbh. 

Based on that, should I go for both? Then I would have 3 cards(assuming approval on both) with a loan. And they can all age together and in about 2 years I can get something else and it won't affect my AAoA.

Or am I jumping the gun?

---

 wrote:

So I just went to Discover Scorecard and it said my Fico Score 8 based on Experian data is 720.

That is way higher than I expected. I thought low to mid 600's tbh. 

Based on that, should I go for both? Then I would have 3 cards(assuming approval on both) with a loan. And they can all age together and in about 2 years I can get something else and it won't affect my AAoA.

Or am I jumping the gun?

Congrats nice score. Personally I would go for both, use them wisely and they will grow. Good luck and keep us posted 

---