I’ve been rebuilding for a little under two years now and have been able to recently replace a bunch of subprime credit cards and shopping cart trick credit cards with higher quality credit cards. I initially used these rebuilder credit cards to essentially outweigh the “old bad” accounts with “good new” accounts and it worked for me, although I did have to pay plenty of fees to obtain those sub prime cards.
At any rate, I have the MyFico 3B app and check it often. I also check just about every other free Fico and Fako score that I can find. This includes the free Discover score card once a month and up until this last check, they always had an ad for a secured card. This was my informal look at what they were willing to offer me or at least what they felt I needed. I had also been checking Discover’s pre-approved page with no offers other than suggestions for a secured credit card. Nevertheless, a few days ago, I logged into the Discover score card website and noticed that they were advertising that I check to see if I was pre-approved for the Discover IT card, so I did. I was approved for it with a $1,400 credit limit. Granted, this is a relatively small credit limit, but I’m more concerned about getting in with the major banks as soon as possible with credit cards that don’t have an AF. My logic is that since I’m rebuilding, the no AF cards can be kept indefinitely and also show the banks that I’m able to handle better cards from them with higher limits as time goes on.
Feeling pretty good about being offered entry into Discover with a starting CL over $1,000, I decided to see if I could finally get the Sportsman’s Guide Visa that seemed so elusive for me, but so many people seemed to talk about giving them high limits. After throwing about $1,500 worth of items into my shopping cart, I checked out and got the pop up for the SGV and of course I took it. They offered me a $1,000 limit, so I was thankful for that considering it was the first Visa credit card that I was ever offered while attempting the SCT.
At this point, I had grabbed $2,400 in available credit, so I knew I could now dump my other SCT cards. I also had read about Comenity sometimes closing accounts, so I got rid of 4 out of 5 of them, keeping only my Overstock store card because they gave a CLI of $800 that same night, taking my $250 CL to $1,050. I immediately called in and cancelled my J. Crew ($250), Eddie Bauer ($250), Buckle ($250), and Victoria’s Secret ($350) store cards.
Next, I decided to apply for the Brooks Brothers credit card, but was told to call in and provide a little more info and did. I spoke with the CSR and had heard that it was better to have some small talk and humanize the call for possibly better results, so I told her why I was calling but then asked how she was doing and also apologized for my daughter crying in the background because she was sleepy and wanted a nap. This led to a small conversation about kids and then we got down to business. I gave her the number that was listed on the application page and she told me that she would need to step away from the phone for a few minutes. When she came back to the phone, she asked if the phone number on my application was a cell phone and I told her yes. She then asked if her coworker could send a confirmation code to it and I said that she could. It immediately came and I read the numbers to her and she instantly said, “Congratulations, you’ve been approved for the Brooks Card with a starting credit limit of $600.” I had always wanted a Brooks Brothers card, but I don’t think that I was approved for the MasterCard version, just the store card. I am still more than happy with this because I saw that this was a Citi issued credit card. Not having a Citi issued card, I viewed this card the same as I did the Discover IT card and that was a way to build a relationship with a major bank and be able to start growing with them while having a keeper card with no AF. As a side note, the CSR was very nice and I also see why breaking the ice with a casual conversation could possibly make the CSR try harder than they normally would to accomplish whatever you’re calling them for. Whether or not me being nice to her and taking a few minutes to just talk to her helped me get approved is debatable, but the fact is that I was approved, so all of my future phone calls to a CSR will be more down to Earth and not just strictly business.
Not ready to stop this app spree that I ended up venturing into, I also applied for the PayPal Cashback MasterCard after getting multiple emails from PayPal about it. I was approved for it, but the credit limit that they offered was only $300. Nevertheless, I wasn’t deterred by this because of my long term view of the card not having an AF and I already send $50 a month to a business partner, so now I’ll just use this for that purpose instead of a debit card.
I did make a couple of mistakes, or at least I think they were, by also applying for the Chase Slate card and the Amazon credit card, hoping to also get in the door with Chase. It was only after applying for both of these that I found out about their 5/24 rules and other rules that they have. Both of those applications gave me the “we’ll get back to you later, but you know that we’re not going to give you this card” message. Nevertheless, I’ll still try being reconsidered after I get a letter from them.
So after all was said and done with this app spree, I ended up with:
Discover IT $1,400
Sportsman’s Guide Visa $1,000 ($2,000 after card arrived.)
Brooks Brothers $600
PayPal Cashback MasterCard $300
Overstock CLI of $800
I’m going to step back from the applications for now, unless I’m enticed by a major bank’s pre-approval for a no AF card. Otherwise, I’m going to continue to pay down my 3 collection account balances and also push my utilization down to that sweet spot of somewhere between 1%-9%.
(Update: 2/14/18 Sportsman's Guide Visa was initially given a $1,000 CL, but when the card arrived, it had a $2,000 CL. Obviously, this ended up being double the initial quoted CL.)
