No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
My credit took a dump last year because I unfortunately forgot to pay my student loan and a Chase card one month. I couldn't believe how quickly it dove. I've been working on improving it so last month, I app for a Target Red Card and Amex. I was denied by Amex but not surprised. Target approved me for $300 SL. I've already made and PIF a purchase from last month before my first statement.
Today, after perusing the threads about some store cards, I app for a Kohl's charge and was approved with a $300 SL and a Victoria's Secret with a SL of $250. I'm hoping to get back to my score of 744 I had just a year and a half ago. I've been diligently paying on time and more than the minimums on my cards.
Currently, I have one Cap One Secured (balance: $600; my very first card -- had it for 6 years); Cap One QS (balance: $700); Citi (balance: $600); Chase (balance: $3400). I also have a car loan with BoA with $6300 remaining of $16,011 loan @ 2.9% APR.
I've been reading that it's better to carry a balance of roughly 10%. I'll be trying out this theory. My CU has a debt tracker that calculates pay off based on your spending habits and income and says I'll have all of my cards paid by January 2019. I'm excited to rebuild.
I appreciate everyone's advice, through trial and error. I'm looking forward to learning more about the credit game
Congratulations on your approvals! Best of luck on your rebuild.
@MrDFinance wrote:
Congrats on the approvals....I feel ya.. I still have some late payments on my report from my less then perfect days and even though my most recent late was 2 years ago it still hurts... The only thing I could think of was to bombard my account with on time Payments to help combat the effect of the lates......Even did Self Lender for a year.....Lates hurt but over time with on time payments you will dig yourself out that hole.......Best wishes on your journey
I don't want to be a downer here, but those lates will probably lower your score by a lot for 7 years. I have one 30 day late from 6y5m ago on my experian report and I am at 732 FICO 8 with 9 inquiries in last 12 months. There used to be 4 lats on the same account until last month and my score didn't change 1 point. TU fico 8 went up 66 points TO 773 last month with that 1 late being removed to make a clean report with 7 inquiries on TU in last 12 months. You will get some 5 point gains here and there but from my experience, that one is going to stick with you.
FYI for everyone, the FICO SCORE SIMULATOR from my 3B REPORTS predicted my scores pretty darn accurately over the last year. Within 10 points and almost always on the conservative side for what its worth. FICO SIMULATOR predicts for me 828/840/850 next July if I don't apply for anything and I will have zero inquiries on all reports in the previous 12 months.
I guess I would strongly encourage auto-pay for EVERYTHING so life doesn't get you!
@KELSTAR wrote:
@MrDFinance wrote:
Congrats on the approvals....I feel ya.. I still have some late payments on my report from my less then perfect days and even though my most recent late was 2 years ago it still hurts... The only thing I could think of was to bombard my account with on time Payments to help combat the effect of the lates......Even did Self Lender for a year.....Lates hurt but over time with on time payments you will dig yourself out that hole.......Best wishes on your journeyI don't want to be a downer here, but those lates will probably lower your score by a lot for 7 years. I have one 30 day late from 6y5m ago on my experian report and I am at 732 FICO 8 with 9 inquiries in last 12 months. There used to be 4 lats on the same account until last month and my score didn't change 1 point. TU fico 8 went up 66 points TO 773 last month with that 1 late being removed to make a clean report with 7 inquiries on TU in last 12 months. You will get some 5 point gains here and there but from my experience, that one is going to stick with you.
FYI for everyone, the FICO SCORE SIMULATOR from my 3B REPORTS predicted my scores pretty darn accurately over the last year. Within 10 points and almost always on the conservative side for what its worth. FICO SIMULATOR predicts for me 828/840/850 next July if I don't apply for anything and I will have zero inquiries on all reports in the previous 12 months.
I guess I would strongly encourage auto-pay for EVERYTHING so life doesn't get you!
I've used the simulator, too. It's pretty helpful. As for auto-pay, I had a bad experience a couple of years ago when a merchant deducted too much and it was a pain to get the money back. I have alerts set for due dates in my phone and via email. My husband and I want to buy a house in the next couple of years and are using the time to clean up our credit and decrease our debt.
Congrats on your approvals!
@Anonymous wrote:
Have you ever tried getting that secured Cap 1 card unsecured?
No, I wasn't aware that was a thing. How would one go about doing so?