So in the past week, I sort of sneakfooted out of the garden, where I've been patiently waiting for the right moment to pounce.
I guess I picked the right moment.
For background, and I've posted this before. I started this journey in September 2015, mid-to-high 500s, mostly dated charge-offs and collections. It was just the right time to clean up, because it coincided with stuff falling off. A good time to rebuild, not that there's ever a bad time. A good time to have an easy time of rebuilding, I'll say. I've worked hard, cleared some things early, accumulated no lates or other derogs, and here I am nearly 2 years into a rebuild, gone from $5K available to over $60K.
This week's wins, and reasoning behind them:
I've had the AmEx HHonors card for a while, and it's been helpful. I travel for work and for fun, and am brand-loyal to Hilton. Gotten several free nights out of them. Amex has been stingy with the CLIs, but that's fine, I bide my time. This week I pulled the trigger on the AmEx BCE, for the rewards, and successfully upgraded my HHonors to Surpass, which gets me 75,000 points and Gold status. Perfect timing, because I've got 12 nights booked over the next three months.
The other score was the Citi Costco Anywhere. Again, for the rewards. We use Costco quite a bit. Last time I applied was maybe six months ago, cold, denied. I read somewhere that prequals have better luck than cold, with the same qualifications, so I ran through the prequal, and what do you know, it looked good. So I took a chance, plugged in my Costco membership number, and lo... They gave me my new highest limit, 7K. My current scores are in my signature if you're curious.
That's a good set of wins, and I'm back to the garden for a while. Maybe when the packet comes I'll check out the BT options in Citi. I think it said 7 mos 0% APR. That could help consolidate a few smaller balance cards and sockdrawer them for a while.
As always, thanks to this site for inspiration, information and instruction. Never stop stepping up your game. Never consider yourself "done." As they say in AA, keep coming back.
