I should clarify that the long couple of years amounted to me, pulling the plug on six cards in Nov. 05 and not paying a dime on them until they were settled this last summer in 07. It got the job done. It was very messy and expensive and bad, bad on the old credit reports. But now it's past and I will never spend like I did again. I HAVE to start improving my scores because I will need them in the not so distant future. I have no negatives on any other accounts I've ever had including car loans, mortgage, school loans, and other retail cards which are all helping prop my scores up. I know many card companies will give you instant declines if they see such bad lates and settlements. I'm just trying to get a foot in the door again. I'm guessing WaMu won't help me in reality. I'm really doubting Amer Express will approve me for anything. If they give me a 500 dollar card, I won't try for the WaMu.
Basically I'd like to get all my inquiries out of the way now and stick with those cards so in two years, they all drop off at once. Cap 1 hit all three of my reports. Amer Express only hit Experian. Ebay only hit TU.
I disputed some things on my Equifax and unbelievably, they disputed just about all the negatives and I had a bunch of my negatives deleted off their report! Somehow. But nobody's looking at that one yet. I'm sure my Equifax got a big boost after that.
