@QueenBeeOC wrote:Brand new here.
I am working on rebuiling my credit for the last 6 months. I have been paying off baddies only have a couple left. And I have seen my FICO go up 10 points in that time.
I am now at 612 FICO. I have 2 credit cards that I pay on time but have a high utilitzation, a cap one and a orchard. (Orchard I just found out got bought by cap one)
Well I got this Merrick pre selected offer for a CL $700 w/AF and a set up fee. So really my CL would be $577 to start. So I was reading on here that a lot of people get CLI w/Merrick which Orchard and Cap haven't given me. Should I hold off keep gardening and paying off baddies or get this card and see if it will help w/my ultilization and my FICO? But I am really concerned about having an inquirie on my report.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Think that through and research here before accepting that offer. I still get their offers and laugh at their fees etc, never used them, esp glad I didn't after reading up on them here.
You don't want a lot of sub-prime cards in your file later when you eventually apply for prime cards. Your score would no doubt go up even more once you keep your utilization down. I've read where AMEX has included sub-prime lenders on CR's as a reason for denial. I had CreditOne for a while (who like Merrick is known to be primarily sub-prime by other lenders), thinking it was Capitol One and was glad AMEX didn't list that reason when I was denied, nor did they seem to mind once it was closed and I was approved for Blue after having Zync about 8 months.
A friend has Merrick with double that limit and hasn't had problems with it, however he applied for Zync and got a hard limit, denied an AMEX revolver as well as Discover. He's somewhat stuck in "toy limit L" for now, even though he has decent scores, clean reports, good income etc but with high util on his cards (he's financially ok but high UTIL on small cards doesn't say that to lenders). He also has a 4 year old mortgage and 3 auto loans (according to his CR's, the third is ATV) which are nearly done.
IMHO, you might be better off cleaning up your reports and waiting to apply for something like Zync. Also, avoiding the utilization issue as much as possible. AMEX looks better on a CR than Merrick ever will, no one can argue that.
@QueenBeeOC wrote:Brand new here.
I am working on rebuiling my credit for the last 6 months. I have been paying off baddies only have a couple left. And I have seen my FICO go up 10 points in that time.
I am now at 612 FICO. I have 2 credit cards that I pay on time but have a high utilitzation, a cap one and a orchard. (Orchard I just found out got bought by cap one)
Well I got this Merrick pre selected offer for a CL $700 w/AF and a set up fee. So really my CL would be $577 to start. So I was reading on here that a lot of people get CLI w/Merrick which Orchard and Cap haven't given me. Should I hold off keep gardening and paying off baddies or get this card and see if it will help w/my ultilization and my FICO? But I am really concerned about having an inquirie on my report.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Hi, again! I just replied to you on the Garden Club thread. 
High util can make a HUGE difference in your scores. How high is your util? How quickly do you think that you can bring it down?
I agree with the others about holding off on Merrick, especially if you're looking to buy a house soon. You already have two subprime cards, so you don't really need to add any more. Cap1 and Orchard are both decent for rebuilding. Used properly, these cards will do their job of building a positive recent history. Focus on getting any baddies off of your reports if at all possible and getting your util paid down. When you get your scores into the mid 600s, you may want to attempt a Zync. This will be a good foot in the door as you move from subprime to prime cards. Good luck and best wishes for a successful rebuild.
@Anonymous wrote:Yes. Zync is easiest to get.
As for credit cards, why is your util so high? Are you PIF every month? If you can afford you, try and set yourself up for ideal utilization one month and see what your FICO score is. You might qualify right now if you are in low 600's with high utilization. You know how to get reported utilizations to report the way you want them and you know what the ideal utilization scenario is for you right (if not, please post your limits for your cards by card)? BTW, how long have you had the 2 cards and what does your AAoA look like as well as oldest account?
I don't know how to get reported utilizations.. 
@QueenBeeOC wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Yes. Zync is easiest to get.
As for credit cards, why is your util so high? Are you PIF every month? If you can afford you, try and set yourself up for ideal utilization one month and see what your FICO score is. You might qualify right now if you are in low 600's with high utilization. You know how to get reported utilizations to report the way you want them and you know what the ideal utilization scenario is for you right (if not, please post your limits for your cards by card)? BTW, how long have you had the 2 cards and what does your AAoA look like as well as oldest account?
I don't know how to get reported utilizations..
Basically just paying down the balance before the statement cuts every month...you usually want ~10% of the limit to be reported to the bureaus. :-)
@QueenBeeOC wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Yes. Zync is easiest to get.
As for credit cards, why is your util so high? Are you PIF every month? If you can afford you, try and set yourself up for ideal utilization one month and see what your FICO score is. You might qualify right now if you are in low 600's with high utilization. You know how to get reported utilizations to report the way you want them and you know what the ideal utilization scenario is for you right (if not, please post your limits for your cards by card)? BTW, how long have you had the 2 cards and what does your AAoA look like as well as oldest account?
I don't know how to get reported utilizations..
I t hink you may have misunderstood Crash's response a bit. It's not that you "get reported utilizations", he means how you get your balances to report to reflect lower utilization. If you have a card with a 300CL and it's statement "cuts" (cycles) on the 20th and the balance is 200 on that day, it doesn't report a util%, it just computes out to 67% util as far as the CBs are concerned (scoring etc). Say your due date is the 1st, most people make a payment by the first. The payment is on time, but the balance still reported, even if the balance was PIF. If the balance or a large part of it were paid before the statement "cuts", then the card reports (and shows on the statement) the lower outstanding balance. If there's a balance and min payment required after that, it still has to be paid, but might only be a few $.
For best scores it's said to have a card report 9% or less at the statement date. If you can PIF before the statement cuts, your scores will go up. The fact that you have few cards with low limits and a couple "baddies" that sound like collections, is going to make it a bit harder for you to get Zync right away. AMEX hates collections showing on a thin file (most lenders do to some degree). If you can get those removed, by paying them to delete them from your credit reports, you're ahead of the whole game.
The situation you described makes getting prime cards unlikely right away (with the 2 collections and a late, even though old, but the collections reinforce that 1 late showing). So utilization isn't your main concern yet, seeing if you can get the 2 "baddies" removed might be. At least paid, even if still showing, I think that helps, but a lot of people have had success with offering to pay off a collection in return for having it removed from their reports (I think it's good to get that offer agreed to in writing before paying it off). It's also good that your last INQ is about to fall off the 6 month time line (not gone, but older), if the others are over 12 when you apply next as well, that helps too.
The upside to this (I know the above might seem a bit negative), is that you're doing things right and learning. Keeping everything paid on time is a HUGE part of building up a score (as well as a credit history). Past that, few people seek out the rest of the info (and it's a LOT) that can be found here, which you're doing now.