Getting the cards I want (Poor credit, poor income)

[Anonymous]

Hi, I recently got into the CC rewards abuse business and I've been meaning to expand my stable of cards. I'm a deadbeat customer who always maintains positive equity and pays off all his/her cards twice a month online, but my credit score is mediocre and my income is nothing to brag about either. Credit is roughly FICO 677 right now, with yearly income of about $36,000. I have essentially all the cards I'd need / want, with a current stable of Discover it, a legacy HSBC Mastercard (when I manage to get another 5,000 rewards points I'm definitely checking out and just leaving it on occasional use to extend my credit history), US Bank Cash Rewards, Chase Freedom, Capital One Quicksilver (they granted me a 10,000 CL for some reason), a joint HSBC Mastercard with about 8 years of history, and the Sallie Mae Mastercard, with the only Signature / World card being the Capital One.

The adverse factors on my credit right now are that I have a ton of hard inquiries in a rather short span of time, I have "too few revolving credit accounts paid as agreed", although as a deadbeat this is obviously just a matter of waiting until my credit report fully updates and this issue goes away, a relatively average revolving credit account age (it'll be down to 18 months once my Capital One hits the credit reports), and two negative reports from god knows when (the first, a 30 day late will expire in Jan 2015, while the other, a student loan account that reached collections will expire sometime in mid 2016)..

My target at this point is to get two cards and to get them in the shortest amount of time possible. First, I want the US Bank Cash Rewards card converted to Cash +, because the goal all the time has been to get access to the two 5% categories, especially the restaurant one. Second, I want to obtain a Fidelity Amex for the 2% rewards. I already applied for the Fidelity Amex back when my CR was listed by Experian as 704, but I was rejected, with reasons cited including my lack of revolving credit accounts paid as agreed.

I've since opened a Fidelity CMA and I will probably move to Fidelity for brokerage activities. I am trying to figure out how to hack my credit to the point where I stand a decent chance of being approved for the Fidelity Amex. As with the US Bank Cash Rewards, I applied for the Cash Plus and was initially approved, but because my allowed credit limit was only $3000 their system instantly downgraded me to Cash Rewards. I have been told to wait at least 6 months before applying for a CLI, then try to get over $5000, then upgrade to Visa Signature and Cash Plus. Ideally, I'd also love to upgrade all my cards to either Visa Signature or World Mastercard, but since my current combined credit limit is already approaching 100% of income, I would rather prioritize my attempt at obtaining Fidelity Amex and US Bank Cash Plus before trying anything else.

I'm posting here today asking for input and advice, and I'd gladly accept and appreciate criticism on my credit card management schemes. Thank you for reading this post.

[Anonymous]

So no information on getting Fidelity AMEX for someone with limited credit? How about upgrading US Bank Cash Rewards to Cash +?

Also, how long should I expect it to take before my new credit accounts begin improving my credit? IIRC, Fidelity pulled my Experian, will they pull my Experian next time as well?

[Creditaddict]

How many months has it been since you applied for Fidelity?

Is your Cap1 reporting to your credit?

Is the USBank reporting on credit yet?

[longtimelurker]

While I understand your desire, are these cards really going to make that much difference?

The difference between QuickSilver and Fidelity Amex on smaller incomes is pretty tiny.  (This was recently discussed in another thread)   So even if you put all your income on one of these cards, which of course won't happen,

you would get $720 on Fidelity, $540 on QS, so just $180 in the impossible case, and much much less with the spending you woul actually do.

Similarly, how much can you spend on the Cash Plus 5% categories?   They max out at $8K a year, giving you $400 (+ $100 bonus), which is certainly better than the $120 you get on the QS, but will you really spend that much?

So if anything, I would focus on trying to get the Cash Plus, which probably involves using the Cash Rewards as much as possible, paying on time, and doing all the usual things to maximize credit score.  

[SomeGuyOnTheWeb]

Your income is higher than mine. I guess I must be living in absolute poverty then 

[AvadaKedavra]

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@SomeGuyOnTheWeb wrote:

Your income is higher than mine. I guess I must be living in absolute poverty then 

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It's all relative to where you're living 

[CreditDunce]

Time is all you really need to improve your score.  Only app again once your score has improved enough to have a realistic chance of approval.  Check a credit pull database to get an idea of what the lender is willing to approve.   If you use Discover to monitor your score, just remember your other scores may be lower.

If you don't have an installment loan, you could consider a secured installment loan.   However, I don't think the cost would be justified for the chance of getting a higher score sooner. Especially, since a new installment loan will probably be a small short term negative on your CR.

[Anonymous]

Capital one is not yet reporting to my credit. Most of my applications occurred in July, and I believe Fidelity should have denied me around the start of July.

With regards to "small difference", well, TBH, the plan is for the long-term and having .5% and +3/4% via the Amex and US Bank respectively would make a difference to me. Think about it this way, if I have a smaller income, the Amex and US Bank, on the basis of a proportion, matter a lot more. And TBH, the income is not what I'm earning but rather a tax-free stipend from family, and I hope to have a larger income long-term.

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About the installment loans, I do consider them as factors, but at the same time I'm proudly and happily positive equity (although I'm not saving as much as I'd like) and when I look at installment loans, all I see is that I'd start losing money based on interest rates above inflation. The only reason I even took a student loan was because at the time I was under the understanding that someone else would cover my interest rate (the government, unless I was mistaken) and that the moment I had to start paying interest, I'd pay out the entire loan and come out ahead due to interest.

[Anonymous]

I just filed for a credit line increase with HSBC (just because I frequently hit utilization limits with only a 1k limit) and with US Bank. Both I'm sure will bounce, but it's nice to see what the status is at the moment.

[Glkslngr]

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@SomeGuyOnTheWeb wrote:

Your income is higher than mine. I guess I must be living in absolute poverty then 

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Me too.