Blacklist - Which cards?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey everyone, I had a question and was hoping I could get some insight. A while back I had a good credit profile and held a few credit cards. (Cap1, Barclay, Commerce, Comenity, Chase). 

I went through some dark times financially after my divorce and an auto accident and ended up having most cards closed and/or CO'd. I started working on fixing my credit in January 21 and resolved all debts/collections and got my finances back on track. Currently going through underwriting for a mortgage! 

I have been receiving credit card offers in the mail now that my credit is improving. My question is whether or not I'm going to be blacklisted from say Cap1 or any of the other big companies due to COs and/or closed accounts? I really would like to get my CSP card back at some point. I'm hoping that since I did pay off the balances of what was owed that I might get another chance later on. I have got Capital One platinum offers and I figured I wouldn't have a chance to go back to Cap 1 for a long time. 

Im hoping once I sign the dotted line for closing on mortgage that I can start building my credit profile again. 

thanks in advance for any assistance. 

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I can speak for Cap 1.   I filed BK Chpt 13 8 years ago.  Included Cap 1 in there as I had just one credit card with them.   Got kicked out my Chpt 13 which means I still owed Cap 1 maybe $700.   Since it was still reporting monthly as late payments on my credit i decided to just pay them off so that it would stop reporting as late payments ever month which was killing my scores.   Once I paid them off completely maybe a few months later I got approved for a Cap 1 car loan and credit card.   So with that said Cap 1 is very very forgiving as long as you pay what you owed them.  I did not try and neg a payment with them as I paid them 100% of what I owed and they blessed me with a credit card and car loan no problem months after I paid off my past debt with them.   

[coldfusion]

Dont' waste your time with fako recommendations from the like of Credit Karma.   Those are based on general demographic information and not on your specific credit profile and exist primarily to encourage you to click through and apply.  Any time someone clicks through and applies CK collects a spiff, and if there is an approval they collect a larger spiff.   The only reason you would go through an affinity site to apply for a card is if they are offering an enhanced signup bonus or promotion that is better than what the card issuer is offering through their own site (which ironically enough isn't that uncommon with AMEX).

If you really want to get a sense of whether or not you might be approved for an AMEX card go to their website and check for a prequalfication. 

[Anonymous]

@coldfusion I figured that much, I am learning that CK is only good for monitoring the report and that's about as useful as it gets. I admit I did get a little excited to see the AMEX offerings, but I will go through the Pre-qual after I close on my mortgage on 5/14 to get a better idea. 

Oh one last question. Regarding "relationships" and getting my foot in the door, I have an Amex Corporate green card through my employer. I know technically this is not a personal card, but I did have to go through the typical approval to get it many years back, but it doesn't report to the BU. Will this help shape the relationship in anyway or do they not see this as part of my credit profile? 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous Thank you for your reply! That is assuring that atleast I will have Cap1 likely to return too! 

[coldfusion]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion I figured that much, I am learning that CK is only good for monitoring the report and that's about as useful as it gets. I admit I did get a little excited to see the AMEX offerings, but I will go through the Pre-qual after I close on my mortgage on 5/14 to get a better idea. 

Oh one last question. Regarding "relationships" and getting my foot in the door, I have an Amex Corporate green card through my employer. I know technically this is not a personal card, but I did have to go through the typical approval to get it many years back, but it doesn't report to the BU. Will this help shape the relationship in anyway or do they not see this as part of my credit profile? 

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It does.  

If you've already set up a login at americanexpress.com and linked your corporate card to it you an look under Benefits and confirm whether or not your company participates in their program that provides a rebate each year on your choice of 4 of their core cards.

You still have to apply and can still expect a hard pull but you'll be known to them.   You can also link your personal cards to that same login account.

The 'exclusive offers' are an increased SUB, although if there is an exceptionally good public offer like the 125,000 MR personal Platinum one it may be better to go that route and then calling in later to have the credit applied starting for Year Two.

[Anonymous]

@coldfusion  Thank you, I did find on my Amex website the exclusive personal card offers. However, it shows this offer Platinum 85,000 MR points is available until April 21, 2021. Either way it's good to see that the relationship has been started and I can use this too my advantage when the time comes! 

[Anonymous]

So I wrote a similar post previously but now I want to provide some more info to get recommendations on some cards for the future. I'm going to be closing on my mortgage 2 weeks from today and plan to try and get a CC after the loan has finalized. 

My question is what CC would be a good choice for me? I want a rewards based card, cash back or something to use towards travel. The wife and I like our vacations. I would use it for nearly everything daily like gas, dining, grocery, travel to reach any SUBs I may get.

I know I may not qualify for a travel/points card now, but I will use online pre-qualifiers anywhere if possible before applying.

(as of my last pull 4/15 myFICO 8 is 650EQ, 662TU, 644 EX) I expect another bump to my scores on the next pull 5/15 due to lowering utlization quite a bit to squeeze the most out of my scores and hoping it to be substantial to get me in the high 600s or magically 700 🙄. I'd be possibly apping sometime after that as we close on 5/14. 

I unfortunately burned JPMC (Amazon), even though I did pay them back, but I hear they have long memory regardless of payment. I also have closed Cap1, Barclay, Comenity, Commerce, but again all were paid but still closed and charged off at one point. I know that doesn't leave me with much, but Cap1 has been offering me to come back, but they aren't really on my radar at the moment. I am interested in Amex as I do have a Green Corp card, but thinking maybe BCP would be a good choice? Or even the gold, but the AF on these are steep and they require no balance carrying, which is fine as I intend to pay off monthly everything I use. 

What other options should I look into? Will I even get accepted having closed but paid COs if I can get my score into the high 600s/low 700?

income is $85k+ for myself. I only have 2 car loans and 1 is almost paid off, other at $15k. I am an AU on my wife's Cap 1 $300/6250. Otherwise no other cards or credit besides the soon to be mortgage, which is also why I want to start to establish credit history again. 

Sorry for the novel, just want to give some data and background. 

[designated_knitter]

Disco?  Based on the fact that it appears you haven't had a prior bad relationship with them.

Or credit unions... like Penfed. 

But depending on how recent the account closures were, you may have to go the secured route for awhile and doubtful that you would get large SLs necessary for travel.

Also, don't expect your corporate card with Amex to carry any weight unless you are the owner of the corporation.

Good luck with your closing and subsequent move!

[Anonymous]

* Thank you for merging my thread mods 🙏

@designated_knitter  Yes that makes sense and along the lines of what Cold had mentioned previously about possibly not qualifying for anything besides a standard credit line. The closures were about 3 years ago+. I guess I still had hope I could get my foot in the door somewhere with a decent reward card even if it were a small SL.  I will grow with it. If that is the case then I will just do what I need to do. 

I never really thought about Disco, I'll have to look into that. 

[designated_knitter]

I stand corrected in terms of the corporate Amex!  I wish my corporate Citi did the same thing!

Another option, though your scores *may* be a little low might be US Bank or Elan.  They let me in through their secured card but it does graduate and gives you a foot in the door.  AAA uses them for their credit card.

Supposedly, the travel co-branded Amex cards are easier to get so wonder if you could prequal for one of those through your corporate relationship with them.  Might be worth a phone call since it sounds like you're after Travel rewards.

Finally, if you have any Apple products,, the Apple Card might be worth considering.  Not travel related but GS is another "new to you" bank.  They're also buying the GM MasterCard from Cap1 so may be worthwhile to build a relationship with them.

Good luck!  At least it sounds like you have options and realistic expectations so that counts for a lot!