Did you mean Experian rather than "FICO" on that last score?
Anyway I'd say yout scores are borderline, and an approval could go either way (assuming those are FICO 8 scores). Your current limits are very low, and while lenders of course decide on their own what your limit will be, generally speaking, seeing higher limits on your file could possibly influence them/make their AI more "comfortable" seeing higher limits.
One final thing, ignore any and all "approval odds" you may see on Credit Karma or Experian or Wallethub or wherever. They're not true pre-approvals. They're just marketing and they just want you to apply through them because they get a little kickback if you do and happen to get approved. If you want to *actually* gauge your approval odds, I'd suggest going directly to the lender's site and running their pre-approval tool, though in this case neither Citi nor Chase currently has a working pre-approval tool.
Finally, even with a thin file, your scores seem rather low. Do you have high utilization and/or any derogatories present?
There are many many types of FICO scores and you may have different scores for each bureau with each model. Do you know which bureau the "FICO" score is, and which version? (Experian FICO 8, Equifax FICO 9, etc.) Are the Equifax and TransUnion scores from a site such as Credit Karma that provides VantageScore 3.0 scores? Almost all lenders will use FICO scores (Synchrony and VantageScore 4.0 is a noted exception) and FICO 8 is the most commonly used version for credit card lending. You can get all 3 of those FICO 8 scores from a free trial at experian.com to use one example. VantageScore 3.0 scores rarely align with FICO scores, many people will have scores that differ +/- 100 points or more and that is a huge difference in credit scoring where "good" credit has such a narrow range.
For your average age, many credit monitoring sites will exclude authorized user accounts or closed accounts when displaying your average age, however both do factor into scoring. Is the discrepancy from months to years due to authorized user account, open or closed loans, etc.?
Any derogatory info like late payments, chargeoffs, collections, etc.?
@ksuudilla wrote:@Remedios
@K-in-Boston
@OmarGB9
@coldfusion
So, the "fico" score is fico 8 from Experian, and Discover scorecard.
OK that's a good one
The other two Vantage Scores are from Credit Karma, but I use other freebies such as CreditWise, Wallethub … my Equifax hasn't boosted from my last reporting.
Those are all meaningless. Disregard them.
- I have one derog payday loan itemized from (reported on Aug 18 2018)
- Kays Card from 2012 (never used/shows as closed, ~10 years ago)
- Barclay Card from 2011 (never used/shows as closed, ~10 years ago)
- Walmart Store Card from 2011 (closed and does not show)
- BestBuy store card from 2012 (closed and does not show)
- capital one card that I went over on the CL by 5.60, interest ... I made a payment immediately but it was too late because I hadn't known the difference between due date and statement dates. I've got that down now, but it has heavy usage. I normally use it for everything, pay it down, fill it up again (generally 900.00-1200.00/mo depending) before my due date, and then I pay all but 2.00-3.00, leave it be until my statement cuts. and the CU on it right now is 2% -
- Credit One card has very low usage, but it's at 6% CU right now.
- I also have an installment loan right now, that's a little less than 500 principal left (51% interest) that will be done on July 22 unless i pay it off early.
51% interest? Pay it off.
- I haven't missed any payments since opening any of these accounts. (Cap1, Credit1, OppFinanc Loan)
OK my suggestion would be to apply for one of these: Discover IT card or Amex Blue Cash Everyday card. If you get approved, take good care of it and revisit your scores in 3-6 months. If you get denied, wait 3-6 months and try again.
Outside of some niche uses like occasional use for apartment renting, payday loans, rent-to-own agreements, utilities, etc. the VantageScore 3.0 scores provided by those sites are unfortunately not very useful. The scores cost less to obtain than FICO scores, but they were never adopted by any traditional credit lenders.
The Kay's and Barclay cards are definitely helping due to their age and clean history, although if they were closed 10 years ago they may fall off at any point going forward. You stated the closed Walmart and Best Buy cards are not showing; if they are not on your credit reports today it is unfortunately just as though they never existed.
While your CapOne card may show that your highest balance was over your current credit line, utilization is a snapshot in time (ignoring new models like VS4 and FICO 10T that use trended data, the former only used by Synchrony and the latter not yet in use as far as we are aware) and does not affect scoring.
Hoping that the 51% interest on the loan is either missing a decimal point or refers to the portion of payments on what your payments will consist of if you maintained the existing installment plan? 51% APR seems like it could be a violation of usury laws, although those do vary by state. If it really is 51% interest pay it off as soon as you are able. If it is more reasonable, you may want to ride it out as you are receiving a healthy scoring boost by having an open installment loan if it is reporting as such.
Sounds like you are managing the utilization on your open credit cards quite well. What type of derog is the payday loan reporting as? Late (how many days)? Collections? Charged off? A little over 2 years is at least not too recent but will still sting regardless.
They have a class action they just settled, this company "OppFi" … the only issue is, I needed to build the credit and I needed the money. I don't know how paying it off will affect me. That's something I've been looking into, I just havent come across the right "treat me like I'm five breakdown."
I thought about purchasing a credit-builder loan, before I close this one or pay it off. But I do know it's atrocious … I'm reminded everytime a payment comes out and I see how little my principal decreases. @K-in-Boston
As for the derog loan, it's in collections at 951.00.
That shows 158.91% APR, which is absolutely insane. By all means, absolutely pay that off as soon as you possibly can. I just did a quick look and according to a Reuters article about CA suing them, "On average, the loans carried interest rates of 153%, while California caps interest on small consumer loans at 36%, according to the lawsuit." Apparently, their partner bank is located in Utah which has no usury laws that limit interest rates.
You may take a bit of a score hit if there are no other open loans, but you can rectify that with doing a Share Secured Loan at a credit union that does not shorten the loan term when additional payments are made (i.e. deposit $xxx, borrow $xxx, immediately pay back most of it).
With the other account still being in collections, I don't think the Chase or Citi cards you are looking for will be an option for the time being.