I closed on my home last month and now have been on a bit of a CC app spree. I went through quite a bit of financial messiness about 10 years ago with the crash of the housing market and then a financially messy divorce. I had a foreclosure and about $100K in CC debt go into charge off status due largely to my ex-husband's financial practices that he was ordered to repay, but didn't. I have no idea what my credit scores were at their worst, but I would guess low 400s after having 780+ credit for most of my adult life. It took me a few years to even begin to face the reality of my credit situation, but I started working hard about a year ago to rebuild. Many of the badies fell off within the last year or so. Last April, I got my first secured Cap1 CC with a $200 CL (bumped up to $500 after 6 on time payments) - FICO 8 scores were in the mid- to upper-500s. In October, I got an unsecured Cap1 CC with a $500 limit (bumped up to $750 after 6 on time payment) -- FICO 8 scores were in the low-600s.
Between October 2018 and May 2019, my FICO 8 scores went up to the high 600s/low 700s due to some very good advice here. I got a great rate on my mortgage. Once I closed on my house, I decided to apply for a few CC (largely for the rewards associated with them). Here are the results:
Citi Costco Anywhere - $7000 limit. Immediate online apporoval. (HP EX 685 and EQ 702)
Discover IT - $12,000 limit. I was nervous about this one because I had a fairly high Discover balance CO back in approx. 2011. I did not get immediate online approval and received a message to call in. I thought for sure I was going to get a denial, but after I verified a few pieces of information, I was approved! (HP EQ 700 and EX 677)
AmEx - Denied. I was pretty sure I was on the blacklist due to a prior CO, but because they don't do a hard pull in that situation, I applied after pre-approval just to see. Immediate denial and then I received a call from AmEx re my prior CO. Ugh.
Chase Sapphire Preferred -- Still waiting. I initially got an email saying that they would be back in touch soon with a decision, then a 30 day message when I called in. The 30 day message changed to a 7-10 day message after a couple of days, which from what I have read means a likely denial. I called a spoke with someone who said that they needed to verify some information, which I provided, then she said I would hear in a couple of weeks. The message when I call in still says 7-10 days, so no idea what that means. At this point I'm expecting a denial, but I guess time will tell. (HP EX 678)
Regardless, I'm very happy with the Disco and Citi approvals and have gotten what I was looking for - to increase my credit lines and have some rewards associated with the cards. So back to the garden for me.
