Discover It Cash Back approval, 25% APR, $800 limit! Woo hoo!
Up until a week ago, I was always getting pre-approved for Discover secured. My Experian score jumped up 20 points at the beginning of the month (from 616 to 636) and right after I got pre-approved for both Cash Back and Chrome!
Data points:
Experian FICO 8: 636
TU & EQ FICO 8: They were about 615-620 a few weeks ago, but I speculate that they all jumped up when Experian did. (EX had a 20 point jump at the beginning of Feb.)
Baddies: 90 day late, between 3-6 months old, depending on which credit bureau you ask. Settlement (paid for less than full amount), 3 months old, but no charge offs, no judgments. High utilization due to closed cards that I am paying off on a low-interest payment plan. (89%.) No current lates.
Low income (under $20,000).
Three other open trade lines: Two store cards with low limits and low utilization, and a secured Visa with low limits and low util.
Hard pull on Equifax. (Equifax only had one inquiry before this.) I'm really glad they hit EQ, because TU had four inquiries and EX had two already.
I have a checking account with Discover. I think that probably helped too.
I also suspect that my 90-day late turning 3 months old (according to Experian) partially contributed to my recent score jump. Not sure if this had any bearing on Discover approval, though.
I'm really, REALLY happy about the credit limit. I was thinking with all my recent baddies, I'd be lucky to get $300. So $800 is fantastic!
I've chronicled my Discover IT approval saga in the Rebuilding your Credit forum. I was initially going to wait to apply (I got my first pre-approval last week) but decided to pull the trigger just in case they asked for income verification. (My earnings have "fat" and "lean" months. In a few months, I'll be in a "lean" period—and I save up for that ahead of time—but I'd prefer to be asked to verify income during a "fat" month, like right now. They didn't actually ask for income verification, but just in case...) So I thought, apply now and get it over with, I can ask for lower APR later.
