Advice on Next Credit Card

[Tiger888]

Hello,

I wanted some advice from the professionals on what my next credit should be and how I should approach my situation.

BACKGROUND

I've been fixing my credit for the past few months and I have deleted all baddies except 1 Verizon Charge Off which is only reporting to Transunion. All others are clean.

FICO SCORES

Experian = 705

Equifax = 670

Trans = 614

CURRENT CREDIT AND LOANS

2x Secured credit cards. Capital One and Citibank. Total credit line of $1500 (1000, 500).

1x Secured loan from Self lender

QUESTION

So I want to add more credit to my history and since Experian is the highest score without any baddies I figured I would apply for a card that pulls from there. From my research I get Amex, Chase, Discover but I need checking pre qualified pages and no dice for a couple weeks. Should I keep checking pre qualification pages or should I risk a hard pull and just apply to those that pull Experian only and risk it? Please let me know your thoughts and appreicate your advice in advanced.

[pinkandgrey]

What is your inq situation? 

I would think that a Discover card might be the perfect next step. If it were me, I would give it a little more time though to see if I could get a prequal. Even without one, though, you could still get an approval. Disco likes thinner/newer files and sometimes you get high SLs. 

You do have two cards and a loan reporting, so you're in a pretty good position and don't need to be in a huge rush to add cards. 

Good luck with what you decide! 

[Tiger888]

Ok thanks for your info. I was thinking discover as well as Chase and Amex seems to like a fatter history records.

Just to clarifiy a little further. In terms of credit hard history I did have an authorized user capital one card that was closed (per owners request) but is still reporting. This card has a 3-4 year history so to my knowledge it will help a little with my aaoa.

Do you think it will be worth it to apply to discover now even though they won't give me a pre qual or would it be safer to wait?

[pinkandgrey]

---

@Tiger888 wrote:

Ok thanks for your info. I was thinking discover as well as Chase and Amex seems to like a fatter history records.

Just to clarifiy a little further. In terms of credit hard history I did have an authorized user capital one card that was closed (per owners request) but is still reporting. This card has a 3-4 year history so to my knowledge it will help a little with my aaoa.

Do you think it will be worth it to apply to discover now even though they won't give me a pre qual or would it be safer to wait?

---

That's hard to say. I would THINK that you would be safe to cold app assuming you haven't been credit seeking lately (going back to my question about your inqs). 

[Tiger888]

I do have 2 recent inquries since I openned up the secured credit cards in the last 3 months. Seems like the prudent thing to do is to wait a couple months before trying to apply for the discover card or even just checking the pre qual page frequently to see if I get anything.

[Jannelo]

---

@Tiger888 wrote:

I do have 2 recent inquries since I openned up the secured credit cards in the last 3 months. Seems like the prudent thing to do is to wait a couple months before trying to apply for the discover card or even just checking the pre qual page frequently to see if I get anything.

---

Discover stopped offering me a prequalified secured card option after I received another new credit card, making it two CCs and a car loan within the previous four  months.  I kept checking the prequal page every month though.  When my newest credit card had cut three statements, that's when the Discover offer came back, this time for an unsecured credit card.  

[Tiger888]

Ok thanks for that info. So bascially around 3 month time after my last credit card is when I should expect to wait before I can expect a pre qual.