Mid 500s, on my way up - looking for my next card to target

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@PointsBonus wrote:
Not a vulture card if u pay it off every month before the closing date. Credit One helped me improve my score tremendously the first year.
Key is to pay it off beside like a $10.00 balance every month.
Need a coupl or three NON secure cards.

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Whether a card is secured or not doesn't matter. He's not applying for a Simmons or 20k personal loan in the immediate future.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

You should start by stating what your goals are. Add in expected spend and on what. If you're a big traveler, that would significantly change what's recommended to you versus if you stay at home and don't buy anything.

[Anonymous]

I had mentioned looking for CB cards, because generally most of my spending is more general. That being said, if there's an amazing travel card that it would make sense for me to use because the rewards would amount to travel, sure. But I don't need to travel for work, therefore I won't be able to buy 4 plane tickets a month to really build the rewards.

Hotels, kindof the same deal.

If there's a card thats similar to say the Discover/Amazon deal that I had seen - I would intentionally shift a % of my spending to Amazon, to effectively "game" that reward.

My goals for CL are simply "more" because I could handle it, I do make larger purchases that I would be able to pay down immediately.

Example: my CL on my Cap1 is 500 with a 1.5% cb and because it's my only card with a reward, I use it as often as I can. I've had it for a very short time, not even 1 full billing cycle and I've already got a little over $30 in cash back... But paying the card down on repeat just to keep using it is obviously obnoxious.

A $500 fee isn't a deal breaker for me if I'm getting a good program behind it, etc.

I think this might be more helpful? I'm VERY new to credit cards - I botched my credit and chexsystems within months of turning 18 and didn't pay attention to anything credit related for another 12+ years - and had another couple years of sorting things out before I just dove into cc land this year.

[zerofire]

Let me get this straight. Your current scores are in the 500's yet all of the negative info is over 10 years old? Sounds like instead of thinking of a card you need to clean up your reports instead. Pull reports of all three and get rid of any negative info via dispute since sometimes it likes to stay around past the max. Also you state you have 3 cards yet there are 6 recent HP's. What are the other accounts that you tried to get?

Since you are in the Mid 500's you really need to wait until you hit around 700 for your next card or even better 750. This will guarantee you the card and that you will get generous terms. Once all of the uncertainty of your profile clears up your score will shoot up like the bean stalk. With the increased score you will get higher limits on your existing cards. Discover will be good for this as a CLI with them is a SP. Capitol One also likes money going through the card. Eventually they will probably give you and Auto CLI or if you wait 6-12 months after it graduated you can just ask them. Then they could have also have put you into credit steps which slowly increases your avalable limit as long as you pay on time. In that program an Auto CLI is scheduled at 4 months.

Right now your biggest issues are any negative info left over from your mess and the low limits on your existing cards. Work to get solid relationships so that they will trust you with a higher limit. The low limits are what they wish to risk on you(your risky) and are messing with utilization. Skip AZEO since it artificially improves your scores and let it report balances but PIF. Lenders will see that you need a CLI.

[Anonymous]

I think I was short in my description, but didn't intend to leave details out - 

I had old accounts, I cleaned all that up 2 years ago.

I didn't give a full back history on my accounts as I was just kinda looking for a few card suggestions, tips on building up to cards, etc.

[zerofire]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think I was short in my description, but didn't intend to leave details out - 

I had old accounts, I cleaned all that up 2 years ago.

I didn't give a full back history on my accounts as I was just kinda looking for a few card suggestions, tips on building up to cards, etc.

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So what is your current score? If your in the 500's then you still have a problem. Cleanup or not. You want CLI's not new cards if it is where you say it is.

[Anonymous]

Was just looking for card suggesting, not suggestions on how to improve my current credit profile - I've already got a plan there, it's already in motion, I just didn't feel the need to explain my entire score profile when asking for future reward card suggestions. They are not tied to each other, so it's what it is.

[FireMedic1]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Was just looking for card suggesting, not suggestions on how to improve my current credit profile - I've already got a plan there, it's already in motion, I just didn't feel the need to explain my entire score profile when asking for future reward card suggestions. They are not tied to each other, so it's what it is.

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They are tied together. What your hoping for and others are trying to explain to you are your scores are not inline with what you want to obtain at this time. Only thing right now to "improve my current credit profile" is time. Its not a race. Spend time fixing whats holding your score down first. Then worry about what cards you can get when the scores go up. Yes try to get CLI's on what you have. The higher your CL's the higher the SL's will be on future cards. They are tied together also. Right now in all honesty there will be a few or more wasted HP's and declines. It took me about 2 and a half yrs and I started with 1 Cap1 card at $2000.

We are here to help anyone and everyone get their profiles stronger for their goal cards and get their scores up to get those cards. If you dont want to list whats holding you down. Your choice. Then we dont have much to go by to help. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

My score is 607 across the board as of this moment, I've paid off every collections account, I've opened a Discover Secured card recently to increase my % - my usage was always high because my CL was low, as well as was approved for a Cap1 Quicksilver - they haven't reported yet, they are very new.

I'm getting a self lender, I'm also opening an account with NFCU because they seem to be a pretty amazing CU to deal with and my only previous issues with CU was location - NFCU is in a lot of locations, so its a perfect thing for me in that sense.

Most of the reasons for my score being held down is/was mostly lack of age and lack of total accounts. I've been working on the things I can, paid off all my collections last year, student loans as well. Checked my report, wiped that all out. I'm patient as well - but also realized that I could have probably avoided all of these issues a decade ago if I understood credit back then. Haha.

So my question was, are there any rewards cards I will want to start a relationship with or should know the qualifications for and use those as goals.

My score is going to be in the 700s as soon as all of my cards kick in, plus - age. I know some cards look for X accounts open, X CL available, X useage, X number of pulls in the last year, etc.

I wasn't trying to disregard any advice and I appreciate all of it . I just didn't need advice on bringing my score up, just wanted to set some prepared goals using rewards card suggestions.

[Anonymous]

NFCU has great cards with high starting limits for those in your current situation. Get one of those and then garden.