Hello All,
I am 3.5 years post Chapter 7 discharge. I have been reestablishing myself with various Auto Loans, a boat loan, different unsecured loans, and have 98% paid on time. I do have a 30 day late on 2 cards that I will try ad Goodwill.
My Credit cards are
Capital One Spark Business-$1000
Capital One Quicksilver One-$750
Mission Lane Card-$500
Merrick Bank-$600
Chase Freedom-$1000
Synchrony Paypal-$250
Synchrony Amazon-$560
Discover Secured-$200
As you see some of these cards are sub prime I guess. My limits are not really where I want. I get denied on CLI because of Bankruptcy although these cards have been gained AFTER bankruptcy. I dont get it. So I was lookiong in Credit Karma and it says preapproved for some Mercury Card. I pulled the trigger tonight and was approved for:
'
Mercury Master Card-$2500.
Seems I'm all over the place and going about this journbey wrong.. Any advice on anything? I really would like my Disco to unsecure and my Chase Freedom to raise the CLI. Ive done the Recon and all and been DENIED!!! Should i keep all the cards, or close the trashy ones. They are all lest than 3% Utilization combined whereas some do not carry a balance at all.
Scores are 657 Efx. 667 TU. 682 EXP.
Do I garden and wait 3 months.. Do I give up until my BK falls off of my credit (2023)
Thanks!!!!!
Starting Score: 614
Honestly, I would slow down. You have enough cards. Apping for new cards isn't going to get you higher limits. It's going to get you mire inquiries, more junk cards/limits, and probably more denials. Garden for six months to a year. Start a goodwill campaign while you are in the garden to try and get those lates removed. You'll probably have to send tons of letters, and then it still might not be successful. Two 30 day lates after a bankruptcy is just showing creditors that you are headed down the same path you were on before. All of that credit seeking just seems like you're looking to go back into debt. If you've been late on cards with smaller limits, how do you expect someone to trust you with larger limits. It's a marathon not a sprint. Rebuilding is a slow and calculated process most of the time. Also, Credit Karma gets paid from those links, that's why they suggest them for you. They're not trying to help you, just make a profit off of you. I hope I don't come off as harsh, but this is the truth. If you don't take your time, you'll end up right back with the same problems that led to the bk. Good luck.
Goal Scores: 700 across all three
By the way, Congrats on the $2.5K approval! 👍
You have been given blunt yet very, very good advice thus far - which most of us had to follow for ourselves.
(1.Payment history, 2.Low Util, 3.DTI and 4.Scores)
I would tell myself to spend 1yr working on those.
If you could manage that for at least 9 months then you will see those first two listed above will begin to help the last 2.
Then eventually some inquiries will also fall off at which point you will probably be in the position which you expected your profile to reflect today.
Slow down for now.
Start jogging - this is akin to running a marathon.
Good luck!
@Credit4Growth wrote:By the way, Congrats on the $2.5K approval! 👍
You have been given blunt yet very, very good advice thus far - which most of us had to follow for ourselves.
(1.Payment history, 2.Low Util, 3.DTI and 4.Scores)
I would tell myself to spend 1yr working on those.
If you could manage that for at least 9 months then you will see those first two listed above will begin to help the last 2.
Then eventually some inquiries will also fall off at which point you will probably be in the position which you expected your profile to reflect today.
Slow down for now.
Start jogging - this is akin to running a marathon.
Good luck!
My apologies if I came off as blunt or rude. I did not mean to sound that way. We all make mistakes in our rebuilding. Look at the two store cards in sig for an example of such mistakes. Luckily I didn't take a hard pull for either one. However, if I was starting fresh, I would completely skip those two cards. The cards report positively every month, but are taking up spaces that could have been used for more useful (to me) cards. It's a learning experience. Patience is also something that develops over time and is of upmost importance when rebuilding. Gardening is not easy. Especially if you frequent this forum and constantly read about amazing approvals. Realizing that everyone's profile and current situation are different, is important also. You can not judge where you are as compared to someone else. Even if the scores are the same. OP take pride in what you have accomplished this far after your bk. Give yourself time to grow and nurture your current accounts. You'll be happy that you did.
@BmoreBull wrote:Honestly, I would slow down. You have enough cards. Apping for new cards isn't going to get you higher limits. It's going to get you mire inquiries, more junk cards/limits, and probably more denials. Garden for six months to a year. Start a goodwill campaign while you are in the garden to try and get those lates removed. You'll probably have to send tons of letters, and then it still might not be successful. Two 30 day lates after a bankruptcy is just showing creditors that you are headed down the same path you were on before. All of that credit seeking just seems like you're looking to go back into debt. If you've been late on cards with smaller limits, how do you expect someone to trust you with larger limits. It's a marathon not a sprint. Rebuilding is a slow and calculated process most of the time. Also, Credit Karma gets paid from those links, that's why they suggest them for you. They're not trying to help you, just make a profit off of you. I hope I don't come off as harsh, but this is the truth. If you don't take your time, you'll end up right back with the same problems that led to the bk. Good luck.
This ^^^ . If they see you are already having late payments regardless of how much after a BK they're going to think nothing has changed. It's easy to let emotions and personal biases get involved in a process that takes years. So take those out and just look at the facts. It takes time and you're on your way, it's the quality of a credit report not the quantity of credit on it.
@BmoreBull wrote:
@Credit4Growth wrote:By the way, Congrats on the $2.5K approval! 👍
You have been given blunt yet very, very good advice thus far - which most of us had to follow for ourselves.
(1.Payment history, 2.Low Util, 3.DTI and 4.Scores)
I would tell myself to spend 1yr working on those.
If you could manage that for at least 9 months then you will see those first two listed above will begin to help the last 2.
Then eventually some inquiries will also fall off at which point you will probably be in the position which you expected your profile to reflect today.
Slow down for now.
Start jogging - this is akin to running a marathon.
Good luck!
My apologies if I came off as blunt or rude. I did not mean to sound that way. We all make mistakes in our rebuilding. Look at the two store cards in sig for an example of such mistakes. Luckily I didn't take a hard pull for either one. However, if I was starting fresh, I would completely skip those two cards. The cards report positively every month, but are taking up spaces that could have been used for more useful (to me) cards. It's a learning experience. Patience is also something that develops over time and is of upmost importance when rebuilding. Gardening is not easy. Especially if you frequent this forum and constantly read about amazing approvals. Realizing that everyone's profile and current situation are different, is important also. You can not judge where you are as compared to someone else. Even if the scores are the same. OP take pride in what you have accomplished this far after your bk. Give yourself time to grow and nurture your current accounts. You'll be happy that you did.
I honestly did not intent negativity from the use of the word Blunt
Also, I am not eloquent with my words.
I had only hoped by using the word 'blunt' vs honest or any other word, that the advice given up to this point would been seen as "direct".
I know I had to have a good understanding of as well as put the advice into practice to get where I am verses 1.5 years ago. - Garden and let your lines mature some more.
That is all.
You stated your bk is due to fall off in 2023? That would put it at 6.5 yrs. It normally would stay on longer then that upwards of 10 yrs.
Either way it's a waiting game.
