Average Credit, High Income, Need Card ASAP

[Anonymous]

Hi! I am last minute going on a business trip in about a week and a half and need a credit card ASAP to book my flights and hotels. I currently only have a couple store cards and do not want to wait two paycheck cycles to be reimbursed for 2k in my bank account! 

However, I'm really nervous. My credit isn't that great. I really messed it up when I was in college by being irresponsible with these store cards. I have a super high utilization due to a relatively low credit limit ($2200) on an Amazon/Synchrony store card, but I've been aggressively paying it off the past couple months ever since I started a new job (income over 6 figures) but the payments from this month have yet to update on my credit report. CK says utilization is still 70%. I also have one open collection that I'm currently disputing. CK says my scores are 651 (transunion) and 672 (equifax). The friends I've confided in have recommended a cash back card given the business travel and say I should be able to be approved for Chase Freedom/Unlimited but my CK odds are "poor" and "fair" respectively. 

I should mention that this Amazon card has always at least been in good standing. I've also had a Chase Auto loan and never missed a payment (car is now paid off). I do have about $30k in student loans but the payment history is good there as well. 

I joined this forum because I wanted to know your thoughts on my odds, any advice you may have, and if you think the recon line would work for me given my decent income. I'm so nervous!! I don't want to go through a hard pull just to get rejected. Thanks in advance  

[austinguy907]

HP's are just a part of the game and no one gets 100% of their apps approved no matter what you see here or elsewhere.

CK odds are junk for trying to figure out what you're able to get though.  They use a totally different scoring model than what card issuers use.  Hit the normal pre-qual sites and see what pops up for 50/50 chances of approvals.

Get your EX FICO from - https://www.creditscorecard.com/registration

Get your TU FICO from your AMAZON account... it should be under rewards / benefits or something along those lines.

Once you have those 2 out of 3 scores come back here and let us know.  If you want all 3 then sign up for CCT https://www.creditchecktotal.com/ $1 for all 3 scores during the trial period.

It's just hard to go one way or another based on CK info if you're seriously considering applying for a card.  If I were to choose though I'd go FU for the 1.5% across the board and depending on where your real Fico's come into play maybe Disco Miles (3%) / BOA Cash or Travel (20K bonus and 1.5% after) cards might be a good fit as well.

Also, give Synch a call and ask for 25K as it's a SP and they'll counter back with the max they'll approve - 877-379-8173

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the advice. Just pulled both and was shocked to see that they were SIGNIFICANTLY lower than what CK showed me. I'm actually really embarrassed and there's no way I'm going to be approved for anything. Discover showed me 566 and Synchrony showed me 587. All of my factors are green and yellow but there's a note that says my score is super low because of an account in collections.

To give background about that account, it came from one of my stupid store cards from my college days (banana republic... also synchrony bank). I selected a payment plan to pay everything off, but somehow at some point my account netted $300+ despite me not purchasing anything. I didn't realize until I got a letter from the collection agency. But at this point I'm refusing to pay/disputing because I literally didn't buy anything but the collection agency is unable to show me where the charges came from. If I had to guess, a tiny bit of interest probably accumulated which I was unaware of and then $300 worth of late fees was added to that. But I don't know, and neither does the collector. 

I have no idea what to do now. I didn't realize my credit was this bad - 100 points below CK. The business trip that I need to put on a card is coming up fast but I have no idea what I could possibly even be approved for with any sort of point system. Am I better off just putting my debit card down, paying off the Amazon card, settling with the collector for like 20%, and applying for these cards later? 

PS - Called Synchrony and they were unwilling to raise the CL. Probably because they also owned the BR card. What a mess, I'm so disappointed and annoyed with myself. 

[enjoimorenow]

There's probably not much you will be able to do in the next week to get a card unless you want to get a secured card.

Otherwise, I would try to take care of the collection.  Either by disputing it, or offering to Pay for Deletion of the account to get rid of it.  After that, if you pay down your store cards so that they have low utilization you should see a significant score bump and be able to get approved for a card that is not secured.  However, since you will have to wait for the new balances and stuff to report it's probably going to take about a month or so before you see the score increase.  This may not help you for this immediate trip, but it will help you for the future.

[driftless]

Use a debit card for your trip and then live in the rebuilding section of this forum would be my advice.  

[austinguy907]

Sub 600's isn't a great place to be but, it's better than wasting HP's based on CK scores.

Now that you have your real info you have a place to start gaining ground from.  I'd do a PFD on the collection and that should get you above 600 pretty easily. It may take a month to show up in your scores but, once it's gone you should be good to go for some approvals to spend some time growing in the garden.

The alternative is the secured Disco (up to $2500 deposit) or BOA secured which can be up to $5000. Get them and use them as a piggy bank for your deposit while strengthening things in the meantime while working on the PFD/Dispute.  Disco starts reviewing for conversion at month 7 and if your scores jump above 650 or so then you're a prime candidate for conversion and a CLI.  BOA takes a little longer but, having the ability to buy yourself a $5K limit helps considerably once your scores come up.  

Unfortunately I don't see an approval for a regular card in the next week or two with that collection on there.  The secured option will give you the flexibility to not drain your checking though for 2-4 weeks while waiting on reimbursement though.  It depends on what you feel comfortable with and leveraging your cash to your advantage until you get things in order.

[NRB525]

OP, I would suggest applying for the American Express PRG. This is a charge card, not a credit card, so it does not come with a specific limit. If you are looking to book tickets right away, the advantage to this is, if you are approved, you get an electronic card number you can  use for such on-line purchases until the card arrives.

Yeah, your scores are not the best, it seems marginal whether you would be approved, i get that. But none of us here can tell you whether you will be approved or not. Given the short timeframe when you want to spend, it would seem to me worth the HP to find out whether you get a card or not.

You don't have a card right now. Worst case scenario, you get a HP and still don't have a card... but then you know for certain you need to work on those scores.

Positive result: you get a decent travel card, start rebuilding your credit history through AMEX, and start working on the 50,000 MR bonus.

What airline are you thinking of booking with? Delta AMEX Gold card has a nice 60,000 miles bonus going on that expires soon. Similar underwiting, though this one is a credit card and might be approved with only a $1k limit to start.

And are you certain your employer does not have any arrangement with AMEX to provide you a corporate AMEX Charge card? Some have noted that certain employers also have AMEX arrangements where they vouch for the employee for a personal card, and AMEX grants a charge card such as a Green or PRG.

[Anonymous]

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@austinguy907 wrote:

Sub 600's isn't a great place to be but, it's better than wasting HP's based on CK scores.

Now that you have your real info you have a place to start gaining ground from.  I'd do a PFD on the collection and that should get you above 600 pretty easily. It may take a month to show up in your scores but, once it's gone you should be good to go for some approvals to spend some time growing in the garden.

The alternative is the secured Disco (up to $2500 deposit) or BOA secured which can be up to $5000. Get them and use them as a piggy bank for your deposit while strengthening things in the meantime while working on the PFD/Dispute.  Disco starts reviewing for conversion at month 7 and if your scores jump above 650 or so then you're a prime candidate for conversion and a CLI.  BOA takes a little longer but, having the ability to buy yourself a $5K limit helps considerably once your scores come up.  

Unfortunately I don't see an approval for a regular card in the next week or two with that collection on there.  The secured option will give you the flexibility to not drain your checking though for 2-4 weeks while waiting on reimbursement though.  It depends on what you feel comfortable with and leveraging your cash to your advantage until you get things in order.

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What's your advice on the PFD? I read that these companies pay pennies on the dollar for bad debt so I'm wondering how much I can settle for while also convincing them to delete from my credit report. Do you have any negotiating tactics you can share?

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

OP, I would suggest applying for the American Express PRG. This is a charge card, not a credit card, so it does not come with a specific limit. If you are looking to book tickets right away, the advantage to this is, if you are approved, you get an electronic card number you can  use for such on-line purchases until the card arrives.

Yeah, your scores are not the best, it seems marginal whether you would be approved, i get that. But none of us here can tell you whether you will be approved or not. Given the short timeframe when you want to spend, it would seem to me worth the HP to find out whether you get a card or not.

You don't have a card right now. Worst case scenario, you get a HP and still don't have a card... but then you know for certain you need to work on those scores.

Positive result: you get a decent travel card, start rebuilding your credit history through AMEX, and start working on the 50,000 MR bonus.

What airline are you thinking of booking with? Delta AMEX Gold card has a nice 60,000 miles bonus going on that expires soon. Similar underwiting, though this one is a credit card and might be approved with only a $1k limit to start.

And are you certain your employer does not have any arrangement with AMEX to provide you a corporate AMEX Charge card? Some have noted that certain employers also have AMEX arrangements where they vouch for the employee for a personal card, and AMEX grants a charge card such as a Green or PRG.

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I fly Delta and book Starwood (now Marriott) - I was previously in a career that required me to travel a lot (and had a company card!) and those were my two loyalty programs. 

My current employer does have an arrangement with AmEx - however, it asks for my social security. When I previously had a corporate AmEx charge card, that wasn't the case... so I'm not sure what kind of card it is. And I'm also not sure I want my employer knowing that I've been rejected if that were to happen. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

OP, I would suggest applying for the American Express PRG. This is a charge card, not a credit card, so it does not come with a specific limit. If you are looking to book tickets right away, the advantage to this is, if you are approved, you get an electronic card number you can  use for such on-line purchases until the card arrives.

Yeah, your scores are not the best, it seems marginal whether you would be approved, i get that. But none of us here can tell you whether you will be approved or not. Given the short timeframe when you want to spend, it would seem to me worth the HP to find out whether you get a card or not.

You don't have a card right now. Worst case scenario, you get a HP and still don't have a card... but then you know for certain you need to work on those scores.

Positive result: you get a decent travel card, start rebuilding your credit history through AMEX, and start working on the 50,000 MR bonus.

What airline are you thinking of booking with? Delta AMEX Gold card has a nice 60,000 miles bonus going on that expires soon. Similar underwiting, though this one is a credit card and might be approved with only a $1k limit to start.

And are you certain your employer does not have any arrangement with AMEX to provide you a corporate AMEX Charge card? Some have noted that certain employers also have AMEX arrangements where they vouch for the employee for a personal card, and AMEX grants a charge card such as a Green or PRG.

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I fly Delta and book Starwood (now Marriott) - I was previously in a career that required me to travel a lot (and had a company card!) and those were my two loyalty programs. 

My current employer does have an arrangement with AmEx - however, it asks for my social security. When I previously had a corporate AmEx charge card, that wasn't the case... so I'm not sure what kind of card it is. And I'm also not sure I want my employer knowing that I've been rejected if that were to happen. 

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Unless you have burned Amex previously then more than likely Amex will give you a card that your company has.  I'd definitely try that.

Have to disagree bit with NRB.  The chances of you being approved for a PRG are very very small.  Yes, an HP isn'tthe end of the world and their effect is vastly overstated but there isn't any point in just applying for the sake of it.  Amex has a preapproval link that you can try and see if there is anything that shows up.

Id see about the corporate card and then come back here and head to the rebuilding forum.  Before long your scores will go up and then you can apply for your own card.  Don't pay the collections as even a paid collection has the same effect on your credit score as an unpaid one.  You can get assistance with Pay for Delete requests in the rebuilding forum.  Good luck and there are lots of knowledgeable people that will give you good advice,