Approvals with Data

[Anonymous]

Hi!! I am new to this forum and new to rebuilding my credit.

Backstory: I pretty much destroyed my credit throughout college and shortly after. The hubby and I started following the Dave Ramsey plan and paid off a bunch of credit card debt and one of 3 student loans (currently working on the 2nd). Our son turns 2 in September and the plan is to purchase the "forever" home by his 5th birthday. So while the hubby doesn't think we need to focus on our credit/credit score...I am determined to bring it up so we can get a good interest rate when the time comes. (We recently purchased a vehicle and the rate was 9.9%! So I told him that's not happening with a house).

I applied for my first credit card in late January 2017 - Capital One Quicksilver and was approved for $1,000. My scores at the time were mid to high 500's. Thank to this forum, I have charged a lot on it, and I make multiple payments throughout the cycle. I hit the luv button in March and was increased to $1,100 (not good, but it's an increase. And I'm waiting for my auto CLI in a couple more months).

Last week (after reading more on the forum), I decided to try to get two more major credit cards so I could have 3. My scores are now low to mid 600s (in the past few months, I've gotten rid of two baddies - an old Verizon and ATT bill - and a couple of medical bills). I've been using CK and Experian to track my scores. I know CK is not completely accurate, but I'm still using it as a reference. My scores as of last week were: TU - 625, EQ - 664, EXP - 641. So I applied for the following:

Amazon Prime Visa - denied.

Citi DoubleCash Rewards - denied.

Discover IT - APPROVED. $6,500

Amex BCE - APPROVED. $500 (Low, but I'm still in with Amex now )

My card collection is complete (for now). I will be in the garden until June 2018, at which time I plan to apply for the Southwest card. My husband and I love to travel and usually use Southwest, so we really want that card. After that, I plan to be in the garden until it's time to buy the house.

And for the record, my husband is on board with what I am doing. He is ok with this as long as we only spend what we can pay on the card(s).

[Anonymous]

Credit Karma is useless for credit scoring so ignore those.

Experian has many different sites and some offer a FICO08 score (useful score) and others don't.  Make sure that ALL credit scores you pay attention to specifically say FICO on them, not "credit score".

You can get 3 FICO scores and credit reports for just $1 using the CreditCheckTotal trial and cancel the trial at any point in the first week or so.

Congrats on your approvals!

[AverageJoesCredit]

Nice going with Disco, dont worry , that Amex can be a monster in 3 years

[Meanmchine]

I disagree that CreditKarma is useless

While the actual score is meaningless, you see your complete credit files with TU and EQ. This is the only free site i know of for EQ tracking

Another website that i use regularly is Wallethub.com . On there you get free TU Vantage score updated daily with access to full TU file

[Anonymous]

I second that about Karma, the scores are useless but they have all other relevant info nicely organized, I wish they added EX though

[Total80sKid]

Nice approvals!

Disc and AMEX are my two big 'wants'.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi!! I am new to this forum and new to rebuilding my credit.

Backstory: I pretty much destroyed my credit throughout college and shortly after. The hubby and I started following the Dave Ramsey plan and paid off a bunch of credit card debt and one of 3 student loans (currently working on the 2nd). Our son turns 2 in September and the plan is to purchase the "forever" home by his 5th birthday. So while the hubby doesn't think we need to focus on our credit/credit score...I am determined to bring it up so we can get a good interest rate when the time comes. (We recently purchased a vehicle and the rate was 9.9%! So I told him that's not happening with a house).

I applied for my first credit card in late January 2017 - Capital One Quicksilver and was approved for $1,000. My scores at the time were mid to high 500's. Thank to this forum, I have charged a lot on it, and I make multiple payments throughout the cycle. I hit the luv button in March and was increased to $1,100 (not good, but it's an increase. And I'm waiting for my auto CLI in a couple more months).

Last week (after reading more on the forum), I decided to try to get two more major credit cards so I could have 3. My scores are now low to mid 600s (in the past few months, I've gotten rid of two baddies - an old Verizon and ATT bill - and a couple of medical bills). I've been using CK and Experian to track my scores. I know CK is not completely accurate, but I'm still using it as a reference. My scores as of last week were: TU - 625, EQ - 664, EXP - 641. So I applied for the following:

Amazon Prime Visa - denied.

Citi DoubleCash Rewards - denied.

Discover IT - APPROVED. $6,500

Amex BCE - APPROVED. $500 (Low, but I'm still in with Amex now )

My card collection is complete (for now). I will be in the garden until June 2018, at which time I plan to apply for the Southwest card. My husband and I love to travel and usually use Southwest, so we really want that card. After that, I plan to be in the garden until it's time to buy the house.

And for the record, my husband is on board with what I am doing. He is ok with this as long as we only spend what we can pay on the card(s).

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Congrats. Keep using creditkarma for reference. It's a great tool to keep track of your accounts.

Sign up for CCT for your FICO scores.

[creditlady43]

Congrats on your approvals!

[Aduke1122]

Hey congrats on the approvals Op , while CL scores can be vastly different from your real ficos it is still a tool I use to keep track of my reports and activity so I would keep it around just for that .