Is there a way to tell if your card is bucketed?

[BlindDog]

From lurking, I've seen many references to "bucketing" and I've wondered if the issuers tell you that or if you guys just notice that many people with the same product never get CLI's and have deduced that they are bucketed.

I currently am 1-2 years into a rebuilding effort and have the much-derided CreditOne platinum card still with the original $300 CL.

I got the card in November 2021 and I have made all payments on time, except for Feb 2022, which was late. (I understand that this could easily be the reason I never get offered a CLI)

Because of the situation I have with numerous negatives (2-4 years old), I'm thinking that card utilization is the only way I can make meaningful progress toward raising my score, so I was wondering if anyone knows whether I should stop trying to get CLI's on this CreditOne card.

Only other active cards are a Self card( which has never increased the limit and only does by small amounts any way) and Fingerhut ( which I'll obviously not actually use and will be closed at the 6 month mark of non-use).

I have HEARD of people getting up to $1,500 CL with CreditOne, but maybe that's what they're initially approved for and they never raise limits for my particular card?

A card with a $300 limit is really only valuable for the tradeline on your report.

Just gotta be patient, I guess.

I'm maintaining, income-wise, right now, but not in a position to make serious headway on any negatives, which are starting to get aged out.

I just throw away any additional trash/subprime card offers i get.

[Anonymalous]

No, nobody tells you, but we know it happens. Bucketing is deduced by observation, and is explained by how credit card debit is securitized:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Credit-Card-Asset-Backed-Securities-ABS-and-w...

But Credit One targets the subprime market, so all their cards are bucketed compared to cards from lenders who target prime and super-prime customers. So that's not really a good explanation for why other rebuilders get CLIs from Credit One, and you seem stuck. If I had to guess, it's that 6 month old late. Even if it wasn't reported to the bureaus as a derog, Credit One knows you were late, it's a red flag, and it's very recent. The only fix to that is time.

Are you carrying a lot of revolving debt? Because a low CL doesn't have to hurt your scores, as long you pay it down before the card reports to the bureaus.

[BlindDog]

My amount of cc debt carried month to month varies. For July, I was at 31% util., but that's lower than usual. 

I do have substantial collections/charge-offs, with the largest being a  16k NFCU card (the rest are between 500-1,200), but they are all 2 or more years old. A Citi/BestBuy for about 1k, Indigo for 600. A couple different insurance/cable collections for a couple hundred, stuff like that.

My score just seems so etched in stone. 550s no matter what.

Maybe I should just stop trying to tinker with the idea of a CLI or, really, even bothering maining a low card util and just stay current on my current cards and check back in a year or so to see if enough time has passed on the negatives.

I did a year-long Self loan and got basically no effect on credit score. 

Rent started reporting (no fee) a few months back and no effect on credit score. They even reported many prior months, as well.

[Pway]

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@BlindDog wrote:

My amount of cc debt carried month to month varies. For July, I was at 31% util., but that's lower than usual. 

I do have substantial collections/charge-offs, with the largest being a  16k NFCU card (the rest are between 500-1,200), but they are all 2 or more years old. A Citi/BestBuy for about 1k, Indigo for 600. A couple different insurance/cable collections for a couple hundred, stuff like that.

My score just seems so etched in stone. 550s no matter what.

Maybe I should just stop trying to tinker with the idea of a CLI or, really, even bothering maining a low card util and just stay current on my current cards and check back in a year or so to see if enough time has passed on the negatives.

I did a year-long Self loan and got basically no effect on credit score. 

Rent started reporting (no fee) a few months back and no effect on credit score. They even reported many prior months, as well.

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The charge offs and collections are hurting you the worse. 

[W261w261]

Sounds like you have a few derogatory items. What is their status? In collection? Charged off? Any payment arrangements? It would be good to know your history better, because it sounds like you might be better served concentrating on the older items rather than chasing more credit from a bank that probably barely trusted you in the first place, then watched you be late within the first 4 months.

To rebuild it's better if you have as solid a base as possible. There's a rebuilding section in the forum here, they can perhaps be of assistance. 

[OmarGB9]

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@BlindDog wrote:

My amount of cc debt carried month to month varies. For July, I was at 31% util., but that's lower than usual. 

I do have substantial collections/charge-offs, with the largest being a  16k NFCU card (the rest are between 500-1,200), but they are all 2 or more years old. A Citi/BestBuy for about 1k, Indigo for 600. A couple different insurance/cable collections for a couple hundred, stuff like that.

My score just seems so etched in stone. 550s no matter what.

Maybe I should just stop trying to tinker with the idea of a CLI or, really, even bothering maining a low card util and just stay current on my current cards and check back in a year or so to see if enough time has passed on the negatives.

I did a year-long Self loan and got basically no effect on credit score. 

Rent started reporting (no fee) a few months back and no effect on credit score. They even reported many prior months, as well.

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Your scores will not grow much until your derogatory items are addressed, unfortunately. Also, 2 years is actually not very long in the credit world. CLIs will be far and few between with ANY lender due to your unpaid derogs. I'd focus on trying to take care of those if you have the means. You don't necessarily need to pay in full. Oftentimes creditors are willing to settle for less. 

[BlindDog]

Lol, I do have derogatories. I literally listed them above. I'd have to go look at my report for the exact age on each of them, but things really came to a head for me in early 2020, prepandemic, actually, so the newest of them are from that time-frame

Take my word for it that I don’t have the income right now to meaningfully work at the approx 20k in collections.

If I need to just keep being patient with the cards and CLs I have, I'm completely fine with that.

Really, I had just been asking CreditOne for a CLI every month( and getting denied) with hopes that the card util % boost would help improve my score, but wanted to know if I was wasting my time in making those monthly attempts.

Probably, a CLI wouldn't help anyway because there's no score change if I go from 70% card util one month to 30% the next, or vice versa.

Many of the collections are approaching or beyond the SOL in my state, so, barring a significant increase in income, I have little incentive to attempt paying them down, let alone the means.

Gotta be patient, I guess.  Thanks guys!

Also, aside from hoping for a score boost, even getting a CLI to make my limit $600 would be, just, helpful insofar as I could actually use it to pay bills. While I know I should feel lucky to have gotten approved for a $300 unsecured limit, it would be nice to be able to pay an entire, say, electric bill in a single transaction on that card 😆

[Anonymalous]

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@BlindDog wrote:

Also, aside from hoping for a score boost, even getting a CLI to make my limit $600 would be, just, helpful insofar as I could actually use it to pay bills. While I know I should feel lucky to have gotten approved for a $300 unsecured limit, it would be nice to be able to pay an entire, say, electric bill in a single transaction on that card 😆

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I can sympathize. When I only had my Capital One card with a CL of $300, there was a point when I need to buy a half a dozen cheap electronic devices for $155 a pop, and realized I'd have to buy one, pay if off, wait for the payment to clear, and repeat 6 times if I wanted to put them on my card. Not really practical.

But while I couldn't put all my routine expenses on it, the card did serve its purpose. It was there to build my credit. I paid for most things the usual way, with debit cards, checks, bill pay, and so on. With the card, I focused on managing utilization, and especially developing the habits needed to pay off the card on time, every time. The same's true with your card. You're not at the stage where you can just put your everyday spend on the card without thinking. Rather, it's primarily a tool for building a positive credit history.

[SUPERSQUID]

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@BlindDog wrote:

From lurking, I've seen many references to "bucketing" and I've wondered if the issuers tell you that or if you guys just notice that many people with the same product never get CLI's and have deduced that they are bucketed.

I currently am 1-2 years into a rebuilding effort and have the much-derided CreditOne platinum card still with the original $300 CL.

I got the card in November 2021 and I have made all payments on time, except for Feb 2022, which was late. (I understand that this could easily be the reason I never get offered a CLI)

Because of the situation I have with numerous negatives (2-4 years old), I'm thinking that card utilization is the only way I can make meaningful progress toward raising my score, so I was wondering if anyone knows whether I should stop trying to get CLI's on this CreditOne card.

Only other active cards are a Self card( which has never increased the limit and only does by small amounts any way) and Fingerhut ( which I'll obviously not actually use and will be closed at the 6 month mark of non-use).

I have HEARD of people getting up to $1,500 CL with CreditOne, but maybe that's what they're initially approved for and they never raise limits for my particular card?

A card with a $300 limit is really only valuable for the tradeline on your report.

Just gotta be patient, I guess.

I'm maintaining, income-wise, right now, but not in a position to make serious headway on any negatives, which are starting to get aged out.

I just throw away any additional trash/subprime card offers i get.

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I have no room to talk since i had to file bk7 in 2019 but in 2 years my scores are approaching 700 and i get decent cards and get cli's.

If you are unable to pay your prior debts due to hardship and low income perhap you should consult a bankruptcy attorney and see if there is an option there to wipe your slate clean and start over again.

31 pct util is kind of high to most lenders.

If you dont settle the old debts they will stay on your reports for 7 years and you will be stuck where you are.

[quikj9]

I wouldn't count on or even hope for CLIs from Credit One. It's serving its purpose simply being a positive tradeline on your report, as long as you continue to pay on time. 5% utilization on a $300 limit counts the same as 5% on a $30,000 limit for FICO scoring purposes. 

Your negatives are keeping your score suppressed for sure. An unpaid charge off counts as a maxed out credit line. Given that you have a particularly large charge off balance, your utilization on a hypothetical $1,500 card likely wouldn't matter too much anyway. 

Your score won't meaningfully improve until you're able to take care of the negatives or until they fall off of your report. As someone with a paid charge off and a paid collection still on my reports for another year or two, I'm an example of that. I won't break 700 until at least one of those drops off of my report, regardless of my utilization. The only way I've been able to get the cards I have in my signature is because I paid my charge off a couple of years ago and it stopped reporting as maxed out. That's where you'll see the greatest gains immediately.