Firstly some stats on how my score stands
AAOA EX- 1YR 1 MON
AAOA TU EQ- 2YR 1 MON
EQ- 693 9% UTIL 7 INQ
TU- 687 10% UTIL 4 INQ
EX- 688 10% UTIL 3 INQ
Fair warning this post turned out to be so much longer than I thought it would. I'm an ex-theater kid so I can and will spin a story when I can. If you wanna save time each paragraph is an approval or denial with the SL and APR in there so you can skim for the pertinent info.
With that out of the way hello all! Long time lurker on these forums and first time poster! A bit of back story before I get to my app spree and approvals. I started my journey to repair my cedit in November of last year. Approaching 30 in 2 years, and now in less than a year eeeekkkk, I realized that after always saying I didn't need to own a house ever I was fine with renting I would in fact like to own one day. I also wanted to get back into a car after almost 2 years of not having one. The only thing stopping both of those is the credit I DECIMATED at 18-20. I defaulted on my first and at the time fully maxed out Wells Fargo card all the way to a lovely judgement on my files, he fell off this year and gave me a massive increase on my score thankfully. Oh but wait it gets better I also defaulted on both the government student loans I took out when I thought college was the right path for me, side note it was not and theres almost nothing I regret more in life than taking out those two loans since I never even finished school. One was shown as fully paid with all payments on time but the other shows as defaulted with 9 120 day lates ughhhhh teenage stupidity be damned! After a fews years of no tax refund for me that one is now fianlly payed back and just have to wait till it falls off. After burying my head in the sand for years I decided to take charge and get to fixing my terrible credit. While I don't know truly where I started since I was using Credit Karma as I didn't know any better, but am still grateful for what it provided me as a jumping off point, from what CK showed me I was in the mid 500's. After somehow tricking Cap 1 into giving me two unsecured platinum cards in a month after repsonding to two sperate mailers I started my journey. A short 3 months after the cards started their responsible use Cap 1 preapproved me for an auto loan in Janurary as well as a Buypower card which granted me part one of why I wanted to fix my credit and a third card to help me along! At 5% fixed for the life of my loan and $148 a month I'm eternally grateful to them for that. A gaggle of store cards earned from the SCT and a Merrick Visa later we get to this past November when I started an app spree that has been HIGHLY good to me and I'm feeling in the clouds over it all!
Early November I recived a preapproval letter from BBVA for the Compas Clearpoints Visa. Having never heard of them I did some searches on google and this fourm. The mixed reviews gave me pause but I decided to pursue it anyway because as a server I have learned that sometimes reviews may not always be the most correct and boy am I glad I did. Instant approval for a $4000 SL my highest SL ever and after the intro 0% APR expires in a year a 17.99% APR which again while higher for some is the lowest starting APR I've ever been granted given my past and since I don't carry a balance it doesn't bother me.
Searching this fourm then led me to PC my older of my two Cap 1 platinum cards and was able to get it changed to a QS with no af still, yes its still just a plat MC with a high APR but I'll take the cash back anyway I can. After getting a CLI from $500 to $600 the younger of the two cards was rolled into the older and closed giving me an $1100 QS!
I thought I was done but when we say that are we ever really lol? While doing my Christmas shopping on Amazon a few weeks ago I decided on a whim to apply for a Prime Store Card, I have way too many accounts in the last two years to even consider the Chase Amazon Visa, because the special 6 month fincancing or 5% cashback seemed to good to pass up. I went into that app fully expecting a denial so imagine my surprise at my instant approval with a $1100 SL! The APR is a high 26.99% but its a store card so that I expected.
Feeling cocky a couple days later I decided to apply for a TJX Rewards CC. I knew for a fact I wouldnt get the revolver MC version but I spend a good amount at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Homegoods every month so the rewards and some extra credit to help my UTL didn't seem like a bad idea. More surprise at another instant approval for a small $300 SL and high 27.74% APR but most of my store cards started small like that and have the higher APR so again expected but still a very pleasant surpise.
One might think I was done at this point but oh you would be sorely mistaken. At the start of this journey my goal was to obtain an AMEX revolver card. ANY AMEX REVOLVER CARD after getting my stuff in check. Right after the BBVA approval for laughs I went to their site and checked my prequals. PRG and Green showed for me which shocked me to hell but I didn't want a charge card with an annual fee they don't fit into my lifestyle to be honest. So last Friday again for laughs I check and to my imense surpise along with the PRG prequal I had one for a BCE and an ED! Jumped on the BCE and almost fell out of my chair at an instant approval with a $1000 SL!!! Not huge but I got in the door with AMEX and could care less at this point! Again with a 17.99% APR after the intro 0% for 15 months but I don't carry a balance and considering not 4 months ago my lowest apr was 24.99% I'm not mad at it.
So hes finally done right? Yeah no sorry the saga continues. Against the advice I read online about applying for two AMEX revolvers so close together the prequal for the ED was just sitting there taunting me to try. So against all sanity I did and this time I did fall off my sofa a little at a second instant approval! A very modest $500 SL but on the AMEX verison of credit steps so not too terrible in my humble grateful opinon. APR situation is the same as the BCE but just the fact that I thought I would never get approved for an AMEX in my life and in about 25 hours was approved for 2 was proof to me that my hard work and stress the last year had started to pay off.
So at this point he definitely is done right? Well I thought so too until I got home from work tonight. Got my mail and had yet another prequal, I get these at least 2 times a month, for a BoA Alaska Miles card. I don't travel often or really ever unless its to see my family that lives in Portland and my usual flight there is an Alaska one so I thought well I've been on a massive roll lately I may as well roll the dice one last time before I spend a minimum year in the garden. I had been denied this card in the past so like Amazon I went into the app fully expecting another denial and a final inquiry from my spree to wait out since I had so many new accounts. Well dang it feels good to be a baller because it was another instant approval with a $3000 SL but I wont know the APR till I get my card but at this point I'm not stressed. I know since it wasn't a $5000 limit it isnt the siggy and just a platinum plus so the bennefits and bonus aren't as cushy but considering where I was just a year ago I'm not mad at it!
The story isn't all roses and kittens. In all that feel good approval there was a single denial. Discover just hates me as I recieved a third denial for a Discover IT even after getting a prequal notice in the mail with a solid APR. While it stung I did expect it since I apparently cant scale the walls of their garden yet but hopefully in time I'll climb that wall lol!
This is also in additon to the massive CLI's I got on my store cards I got through the SCT to help my utilzation for the rare time I did have to carry a balance. J Crew went from $250 to $750, Wayfair from $500 to $2000, HSN from $600 to $2100, and Overstock from $350 to $1850. I still have a Victoria Secret and Buckle cards that didn't get a CLI as I forgot to register the online account, these are my two least used store cards, and after I did I tried and got the 7-10 day message but I can't complain 4-6 aint bad.
So in all, BBVA Clearpoints $4000, Amazon Prime Card $1100, TJX Rewards $300, AMEX BCE $1000, AMEX ED $500, and BoA Alaska $3000 in a about a month and a half. I started November with $5000 in available credit across 6 store cards and 4 revolvers and will be ringing in the new year with $20000 in available credit across a swath of new and much more prime revolvers and store cards. The new year will bring some closures to some of the store cards I don't use as much but sufice to say after the couple months I've had I'm definitely gonna be taking my time to garden and see what I can do next year around this time. A million thanks to all of you on this fourm for the wealth of info you gave me that has helped me reach this point! You guys are the real MVPS and if you read all of that you're crazy but awesome 
Thanks for the advice! I don't plan undoing all the hard work I've done over the last year so believe me the plans are already in place! I'm the frugal one in my family so I feel like I'm okay on the overspending front. I will literally spend a good hour or more in a store if I'm buying something weighing the pros and cons of buying whatever it is, price comparing on my phone to see if I can get a better deal, asking myself if I really do have the money to spend and so on and so forth. I know I overkilled it a bit but the high of an approval definitely got to me after working so hard to make it so I could get approved for cards I actually wanted and not just what I could get because I had bad credit. There were serval occasions since I was getting preapproval notices for Credit One or Indigo near daily, look at me now lol, that I almost caved on getting them. But I could never bring myself to actually do it after the research I did about them and I'm so glad that I had will power now! I also almost always PIF except for one or two rare occasions that somethiandmajor came up and I wasn't able to. I've been almost obsessive in my research on how to effectively manage fixing my past mistakes so I think I have a fairly okay grasp on what to do! I'm definitely in the garden for at least a year after this spree as I definitely don't need anymore cards and need to focus on tending to the Christmas gifts I got this year
Wow, excellent read. Thanks for sharing your story. Youve done an amazing job. If that excited you, take s year in the garden and watch your seedling grow
. Dont push it now as its alot of accounts to add in short time . Youll be grateful to let these bad boys age some. The Boa approval was killer, that will gtow big time as they get to know you. Discover picks and chooses who they like from a shoebox, do dont mind them lol. Happy holidays
. Dont push it now as its alot of accounts to add in short time . Youll be grateful to let these bad boys age some. The Boa approval was killer, that will gtow big time as they get to know you. Discover picks and chooses who they like from a shoebox, do dont mind them lol. Happy holidays