Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster! I wanted to let everyone with lower credit scores know that there is hope, and bad credit isn't an immediate disqualifier! I've been on a credit fixing crusade for around 18 months now, and its slowly paying off! My fico 8 scores currently are 640-680 depending on bureau(which is far below reccomended). I was originally planning to wait to apply due to bad scores/history, I had so many negatives, and I was trying to drown out past late payments with more on-time ones. I wasn't even pre-qualified by Citi, but I got a wild hair to apply(only a day after applying for a Chase card) and was immediately approved for $5500. I'm curious what yall think!
Potential Negatives:
I have 5 Nelnet accounts reporting 120+ days late totalling 28 late payments collectively as of 14 months ago(2/18), and at the time of applying, I barely had a balance blow 100% of the original amount.
1 Recently opened account(1/18). I financed $600 of my 600 CL through CareCredit on a puppo surgery, however since them they have raised my limit to $2400 and I've paid it down to $300, in just 1/3 of the 6-month 0% APR period.
(12/17) Barclaycard with Apple Rewards closed my account with a balance of $2800 out of 2000CL(I failed to pay off borrowed amount during 18-month 0% APR period....I'll never make that mistake again) This account has since been PIF.
(4/19) I applied for a Chase Freedom Unlimited the day before and was instantly approved for $2800(Inquiry reporting but no account obviously)
Currently only 90% payments on time.
Only a $4200 TCL(would be $4700, but$500 from a previous CL with Capital One still isn't reporting)
No history with Citi(maybe that was a good things though)
Only about $50-60k Gross Income
One closest settled collections account
Positives:
Never late on Revolving Credit.
Oldest account was 8 years(student loan)
2 out of 3 open revolving accounts open over 4 years.
13 total open accounts(loans and revolving)
~9% total utilization depending on bureau(albeit still 30% as recent as january)
Just paid off all the interest on Student Loans, so I now only owe principal balance of $12k. While that is ~100% of original borrowed amount, the total value of the loans is smaller than national average.
No more than 2 inquries for any bureaus, even less over the last year
AAoA ~4 years
Capital One just upgraded my Platinum to a Quicksilver! First Cash-Back card so far!
I'm not used to all these instant approvals, so it feels really good! The feeling really validates all the effort I've put into fixing my credit over the last couple of years. I hope this inspires/encourages other people trying to recover from stupid young adult mistakes! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe these are the lowest scores to get approved for this card so far in this community, further proof that it isnt always about the number!
FICO 8. EQ - 682. EX - 703. TU - 703
FICO 9. EQ - 735. EX - 716. TU - 749
Capital One Quicksilver - $2350 || Care Credit - $23500 || Costco Citi - $7500 || Redstone FCU Secured - $350 || Chase FU - $6600 || Discover - $2100 || Apple Card - $5000 || Wells Fargo - $7000 || REI Co-op - $15,500 || Citi Diamond Preferred - $2800
AMEX Amazon Business - $5500 || Chase Ink Unlimited - $3000