Let Discover Card Age or apply for Cap one

[Anonymous]

HI everyone,

I'm pretty new here but have been strufying post for about 8 months now.  You all are great!  I have learned so much ! 

I have a question.  I only have 4 credit cards.  1 over 2 years, 3 this year.  My Discover secured card graduated this month and they gave me 2K CL. 

I have a Credit Union C/Card for 1K and a Cap One Platnium in the credit steps program.  2 more months for that.

I am trying grow my credit score and I am reading I should have 6 cards or accounts reporting.

I have had a good year.  Started 520 Fico and now am 635 EQ, 638 TU, 637 EX Fico as of today.

I would like a Chase card, but know my scores cant handle that. 

I really like Discover as my whole family has them and with the 2% on gas and restaurants, thats where most of my spending is anyway.

I was approved for the Cap One QuickSilver One but afraid of the 3 HP pull for them. 

I was reading that DC can give a pretty good CLI around 60-90 days.  If they gave me a 2-3K boost on the first voluntary increase I could use them exclusively.  Do you think thats realistic?   Should I apply for 1 more card and hope for 1K to 1.5K and not worry about another inquiry?  I have 4 for this year right now...( didnt get the Amex) or hold out for a couple more months and see if Discover likes me....

Thoughts?

Thanks! 

I

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

HI everyone,

I'm pretty new here but have been strufying post for about 8 months now.  You all are great!  I have learned so much ! 

I have a question.  I only have 4 credit cards.  1 over 2 years, 3 this year.  My Discover secured card graduated this month and they gave me 2K CL. 

I have a Credit Union C/Card for 1K and a Cap One Platnium in the credit steps program.  2 more months for that.

I am trying grow my credit score and I am reading I should have 6 cards or accounts reporting.

I have had a good year.  Started 520 Fico and now am 635 EQ, 638 TU, 637 EX Fico as of today.

I would like a Chase card, but know my scores cant handle that. 

I really like Discover as my whole family has them and with the 2% on gas and restaurants, thats where most of my spending is anyway.

I was approved for the Cap One QuickSilver One but afraid of the 3 HP pull for them. 

I was reading that DC can give a pretty good CLI around 60-90 days.  If they gave me a 2-3K boost on the first voluntary increase I could use them exclusively.  Do you think thats realistic?   Should I apply for 1 more card and hope for 1K to 1.5K and not worry about another inquiry?  I have 4 for this year right now...( didnt get the Amex) or hold out for a couple more months and see if Discover likes me....

Thoughts?

Thanks! 

I

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What is keeping your scores on the low(ish) end? 

[Anonymous]

I went through some bad times. I now only have 2 collections. Had several. One paid from 2015 and 1 unpaid from 2016 for a doctor bill I am paying this Monday for $350. Biggest learning lesson was how NOT to screw up my credit again. A lot was my fault but have learned a lot since then. Trying to turn it around now.

[dynamicvb]

I don't really know the answer to your question, but I can say that Discover has been good to me. My scores were a little higher than yours when I got mine in August, but not a lot. They gave me an initial SL of 12K and this was with a BK 13 reporting. Since then I've ran a decent spend through the card and been paying it off almost every month. I do have a little balance now since its still 0 APR for another 8 months. I've gotten a 4K CLI and a 1500CLI since I got the card for a total of 17500 CL on it now. 

Discover has grown a lot more than I've been able to get my cap one to grow. They have only given me a small increase on it. It sounds like your file may be a little thin and you did not mention an installment. If you don't have one, then perhaps a small loan or SSL might be a good idea to help the mix and get your scores up enough to get that Amex. 

[FinStar]

Hi OP, welcome to the forums.

I would suggest let time do its thing and manage the cards you have, especially the most recent ones acquired.

Out of curiosity, what is the source that you read regarding having 6 cards/accounts reporting to grow your scores? In all actuality, you'd really need about ~3 to optimize things over time. Perhaps adding a loan of some type to the mix down the road for diversification but that's a matter of evaluating your long term strategy.

But, based on what you already have CCs-wise, seems like you're doing well so far!

[Anonymous]

Thank you ! \

That is what I am thinking as well.  Just hold tight and hope Discover opens up to me.

I have AAOA of about 20 years.  Have had 2 mortgages and have a couple car loans paid off, but had late payments before my everything fell apart during the Divorce.  Got sick and had alot of medical bills which went into collections.   Things are much better now and have stabalized so trying to get things back on track. 

I dont want a car payment just to have a payment. Fico says my mix is excellent but say the collections and the later payments 2 years ago are hurting me and will just take time to fix. 

I know Amex prefers a clean slate or at least a very old issue to even consider me...so right now....until I can get up to 700 I think working the cards I have now and praying for a nice boost from Discover will be my best game plan.  I had read alot of people did not get the Disciover to graduate for way past the 7 months and mine did at 7 months so hopefully they like me.

Utilization stays around 5 % with 5 K in credit at this time...so hoping I get notices.  never carry a balance.

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@dynamicvb wrote:

I don't really know the answer to your question, but I can say that Discover has been good to me. My scores were a little higher than yours when I got mine in August, but not a lot. They gave me an initial SL of 12K and this was with a BK 13 reporting. Since then I've ran a decent spend through the card and been paying it off almost every month. I do have a little balance now since its still 0 APR for another 8 months. I've gotten a 4K CLI and a 1500CLI since I got the card for a total of 17500 CL on it now. 

Discover has grown a lot more than I've been able to get my cap one to grow. They have only given me a small increase on it. It sounds like your file may be a little thin and you did not mention an installment. If you don't have one, then perhaps a small loan or SSL might be a good idea to help the mix and get your scores up enough to get that Amex. 

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[Anonymous]

Thank you Fin!

To answer your question it was Wallet Hub I think.  I know that I need to take what they say with a grain of salt but I was thinking if I had a couple more reporting then it would help get my scores up.  Boy I learned that it takes forever to fix your credit but just a second to mess it up!!

I would be happy to get a card with 4-5K on it and use it as my main card vs having to use several cards to keep Utilization down.  Thats what I hope the Discover will do for me as I work my way through to process to get to 700 and above and get a real nice card.....

[Anonymous]

Just curious...

were the CLI's Auto? or did you hit the luv button?   IF auto..when did they give you your first auto CLI?

[aircobra]

You definitely don't need 6 cards to maximize scoring. If you really want a Chase card, you shouldn't apply for any other cards (you already have 4 cards just this year). If you apply for anymore, you'll end up needing to wait around 2 years before applying for Chase. I would focus on letting your accounts age and produce good credit history, rather than applying for another card (especially if you're looking to get approved for a card with a SL of $4,000 or more, which is unlikely to happen with your scores).

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for the advice. That’s what I was looking for. I will wait till Summer and see what happens.