We started rebuilding DH's credit with the help of these forums back in June 2008 when his EQ score was 593. At the moment his EQ score is 713 even though he still has a BK 7 from Dec 2002 and a paid collection from June 2006. For now he only has a couple of CC's that he's primary cardholder on. Most of the CC's on his report are for my CC's that he's an AU on. The baddies associated with the toughest period of his life have finally fallen off his report and aside from the collection and BK7 the only other baddies are a few 30 day lates from 2005.
A year ago he was approved for a Navy Federal VISA with a very nice credit limit. Last summer he received a pre-approved offer in the mail from AmEx, but when he called AmEx, he was declined. I hate it when stuff like that happens. It really messes with a person's head.
After noticing a recent bump in DH's FICO score and reading some of the recent positive experiences with AmEx I convinced DH to give AmEx a call two nights ago and apply for a card of his own. He's an AU on my AmEx account which was opened in 2006. When he made the call the CSR told him "I see you've been a member since 1985." Apparently he had a charge off many, many years ago when he was working for a company that went out of business and the company didn't reimburse him for the expenses on his personal AmEx card. He was young and broke and couldn't pay the bill. He had hoped that AmEx might have forgotten that experience.
The CSR took all his information over the phone. She asked if he wanted to add any AU's so I told him he better add me even if there was the slightest chance to get the card. My account shows a date of 2006, but I'd much rather have an account that's backdated to 1985. We waited and waited but in the end she said that the application couldn't be processed at that time. DRAT! DH immediately thought the worst. I tried to hang on to a thread of hope. Later that evening I went to the web site to see what it said about the application status and saw the message that it was In Progress. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't declined. Then I came here and read about people getting approved even though it didn't happen instantly. I fell asleep holding on to my shred of hope.
Yesterday morning I got an email from DH saying that he got an email reply from AmEx that he was APPROVED!!! I was overjoyed for him. When we got home that evening he called AmEx to try and find out what his CL was. He called and found out through the automated system that his CL was $18,000! He was so happy. It's been tough to see the toll it has taken on his self-esteem during all those years of having bad credit. His BK7 should fall off by the end of this year. I know he'll be so relieved to get that ugly mark off his CRs.
