App spree after closing?

[terminalhockey11]

We are closing next Friday, FHA loan with 640 range at the moment.  

1 Charge-off and show a tax lien (on a payment plan).

Debating on if I should try to open up a couple of lines or try and hold out.  Right now all my cards are sub-prime.  I have an First Premier, Credit One and a Capital One.  I thought the Capital One was unsecured because it was opened shortly before the wedding.  According to the EO it is secured.  

I was thining of trying for a Cash Rewards card because I could probably recon if declined.  Also looking at a Lowe's Card for some incidentals and the shopping card trick had me approved for J Crew.

After this the goal is to get a couple of items off the report and not apply for anything until I'm over 700 and at least 1st Quarter of 2014.  That should give the inquiries a chance to fall off and continue to build the AAoA and possibly some CLI's along the way.  

Thoughts on the strategy? Any other recommendations?/ Thanks for the help

[terminalhockey11]

bump

[Cheryla18]

---

@terminalhockey11 wrote:

We are closing next Friday, FHA loan with 640 range at the moment.  

1 Charge-off and show a tax lien (on a payment plan).

Debating on if I should try to open up a couple of lines or try and hold out.  Right now all my cards are sub-prime.  I have an First Premier, Credit One and a Capital One.  I thought the Capital One was unsecured because it was opened shortly before the wedding.  According to the EO it is secured.  

I was thining of trying for a Cash Rewards card because I could probably recon if declined.  Also looking at a Lowe's Card for some incidentals and the shopping card trick had me approved for J Crew.

After this the goal is to get a couple of items off the report and not apply for anything until I'm over 700 and at least 1st Quarter of 2014.  That should give the inquiries a chance to fall off and continue to build the AAoA and possibly some CLI's along the way.  

Thoughts on the strategy? Any other recommendations?/ Thanks for the help

---

Have you thought about posting this on the CC forum?  Sorry I'm just getting started on rebuilding myself.

[HiLine]

At that score level it is unlikely you'd find many good cards to apply for. Why don't you go for 1-2 unsecured cards, then garden for a few months, wait for your score to go up, then apply for the ones you think you'll find actually useful? 

[los_west]

Congratulations on the loan!  Way to go!  That is one of my immediate goals (hopefully within 6 months).

As for App spree.....well, with the current score, and the possible slight drop after closing, you may not qualify for very many prime cards.  There are some store cards you can get, and it is only a soft pull, through the shopping cart trick.

You can see if you can get pre-approvals from some of the major cards like Discover or Amex....and see what comes up.  This way, you don't mess up your credit reports with a bunch of hard inquiries that wasn't productive.

[terminalhockey11]

Appreciate the advice and input.  We are working on a few items, my wife appears to have quite a few paid medical with companies that do PFD so she should see a boost soon as well.

I figured I would be best off waiting and letting 1-2 items come off soon and then trying when I got to 700 or very close.  it would appear that the lien is the big issue with companies and I don't blame them as the IRS trumps all.

I didn't realize that my $49 payment to Cap1 a couple years ago was actually for the secured card.  When I called the EO they were amenable to moving me to Cash Rewards and a higher CLI.  Thought about applying for that and then Recon if declined.

[kimmiller112]

If you are asking about opening a couple of trade lines before you close, don't do it.  Wait unitl the house closes, then you are fine.

[terminalhockey11]

Yes, after the close.  I know they will do a soft pull to see if we've opened anything new later in the week.

Trying to determine what the best options are if we decide on a mini-spree.

Thinking.

1. Capital One

2. Lowe's

3. Shopping Card Trick (got a pop up from JCrew) 

[boomhower]

Give it a few days after closing for the loan to fund before apping for anything.  That said, I'd wait if you can.  Lowes is borderline at the score.  I'd say 50/50, could go either way.  Prime revolvers are unlikely at best.  Keep working on the reports and app once the score gets higher.  Apping now is just going to ding the score even more with new INQ's. 

[terminalhockey11]

CO isn't an escrow state so once we close we are "funded"

agreed on the 50/50 for most, we just lost 3k towards closing costs with an UW that was slow to sign off and weren't able to lock until the bond market went nuts Wed-Fri so some available credit wouldn't hurt if we need it ....