Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time caller. I've detailed my experience to help you compare it to your situation!
Background:
I just wanted to pay it forward (and celebrate!) and share my experience. I've had a few charge offs about 7-8 years ago that I've paid off through collections/garnishment a few years ago (with one floating around in collections, but not on any of my credit reports anymore).
For the few years prior to that, I had closed my few remaining accounts (to include checking). I restablished myself about 3 years ago, with a checking account and a few average-credit approvalable accounts (Wells Fargo Secured, QS1 card, Walmart, another synchronicity account). I used creditkarma to monitor and educate myself, finding MYFICO more recently, now that I am taking a more serious look at deliberate and responsible credit choices and opportunitites.
My VS3 score went quickly at first from high 500s to mid 600s just by having those cards and making on time payments. VS3 rose to high 600s, low 700s within the last year. I had about 70-90% utility with only $5k-6k total credit. I paid it down to under 10% utility, and, with the help of auto-CLIs that doubled my total credit to $11k, my scores landed in the 750-778 zone.
I've been shopping around to: start using a rewards card and take advantage of offers for miles, lower interest rate, and to start building a good looking credit portfolio to grow from. With help from all of you here (and creditkarma.com), it offered me the support needed to have confidence in this venture!
My decision was to do the "Chase two-step", whcih is to get the CSP for 1:1 miles transfer, and then combine that with the Chase Freedom card, for bonus categories and 1:1 miles transfer. I will also apply for Cap1 Venture and try to transfer my QS1 history/CL to that and then close that account. One down, 2 to go!
CSP app experience:
I first went to chase.com and Cardmatch to check for pre-qualified offers. Cardmatch showed that I pre-qual'd for all Cap1 cards and Chase didnt have any offers. Chase's pre-qual tool's response was that I may have opted out of screening for offers, which was likely true. I went to optoutprescreen.com to opt back in a few days ago, but it hasnt make a difference, as of yet.
After spending about a month to make sure my Fico 8 scores and credit reports were as optimal as felt i needed it to be to qualify, I pulled the trigger last night and went online to apply. The immediate respose was "We need to review your application a little longer", and said to expect 7-10 days for card if approved. I immediately recieved an email that said they'll let me know their decision within 30 days.
I slept on in and then called the verification and recon line this morning. The gentleman on the line asked a few basic questions, which never went beyond any info that I would've put on an application anyway, so I wasnt worried that he was trying to uncover any skeletons. He put me on a 2-4 minute hold and, upon return, said "I was able to make a decision on your app today and the decision is that you are approved with a $5k limit".
Final thoughts/recommendations:
Everything that you've probably read in these forums, it's almost all solid advice, so what I have to say will likely mirror what you already have read.
The biggest take-away I want to offer is this - don't be afraid to call! Sleep on it, just for your peace of mind and stress levels if you'd like, but the call itself was not a stressful experience, so dont let it get into your head too much and keep you from getting what you want!
To monitor your Fico, use all of the free sites with VS3 scores that meet your needs, my VS3 was an excellent indicator for me of my credit situation, even if it didnt match my FICO score to the tee. If anything, my FICO was consistently higher than my VS3, YMMV.
Experian.com has a $1 deal to view your score and a deep-discounted 1-month trial. I subscribed to the 1-month trial, which benefited me greatly, as I logged in every day to check to see when my card payments finally hit my reports (and increased my FICO score).
Transunion has a 7-trial option from which you can see your score. However, it turns out that it is a transunion FAKO score and not a FICO score, so it didnt seem to offer anything that the free sites didnt already offer.
Good luck!
