My credit journey and the road to redemption....

[Anonymous]

Where to start,,,,

About 9 months back i made the decision to take a look at my credit profiles across all three agencies and found that i had fell off the planet for a better sense of the word.  A little background on my story,, in 05 i had enough of the rat race and checked out i left the states and went walk about in central and south America my credit was decent back then i just had a fire sale and got out from under a mortgage sold my truck paid off what i could and split Roll tape forward 14 years and (time fly,s when you don't have a care in the world) needless to say when i returned to the U.S a lot had had changed on the financial landscape the sub prime bubble burst banks and insurance companies were going down in flames and i had the credit score of a new born ,,, a big fat 0 . so with all my good bad and ugly completely gone from my records i had a hard time doing the basic things like opening a bank account and renting a place to live.. I sat down and did some serious research and read until my eyes were bleeding and came up with a plan with set goals for along the way,,,

first stop credit karma to monitor my non existent credit profile... ordered a citi secured card sent them the interest free loan of 200 bucks and we were off and running as soon as it hit the vantage 3 numbers skyrocketed and we had a major bank reporting to all 3 agencies,, we let that grow for a while with steady use and 3 months later we shot a app to capitol one for a unsecured card and wella we nabbed their entry level credit builder platinum card with a $300 CL nice ....plan is on track vantage scores are moving nicely in month 4 looking to come out strong in month 6 when the real numbers post You know FICO so we kept slogging those two poor little cards and on month 5 cap one gave us a 200 CLI as advertised and the following month FICO posted in the low 600,s across the board,  so next on the list was a car loan and with my super thin file nailing down a decent rate was tough i wanted to borrow around 20k on a decent late model vehicle under a 100k in miles and that's a tall order but i stuck to my plan and took no crap from the salesmen and dealer and was able to put together a loan in the 9.2 range with minimal down on a vehicle with less than 65k in miles ,,,, nice !! car loan done >>>

plan is progressing on a fast pace the two little over worked cards and the car loan reporting away. I let things cook and doped up my monthly payments on the auto loan to knock down the amount on my over all credit utilization as i found this to be the miracle grow on the garden.  wow sorry guys this is turning into a essay on how not to be a adult,,, any way the car loan numbers are dropping like a stone i have kept utilization under 10% on all three open accounts and on month 9 sent Discover a app and was approved for a 2k limit !  finally a decent rate for a card with some nice rewards as i use my CCards like debit cards and refuse to spend a nickle of my money that don't give back either reporting and now cash back so with the increase in available credit utilization its gonna be easier to manage.  

Here we are finally to the question in august my oldest account will be over a year old and things are perfect,,,,  no late,s no missed,, the discover by that time will be cooking for three months and building ,,,  I am plotting my next move,,, the ultimate goal here is scores in the mid to upper 7,s current EX724 EQ728 TU731 do you guys think mid august a chase product will be possible ? perhaps 2 this will fill my 4 and 5 holes in wallet and i will let that cook until the new year. I read here when applying for 2 cards with chase it is only one HP is this the case or should i hold at one ? i will let you guys be my guide sorry for the long essay and  thanks for all the good advice as a Lurker and now as a member,,,,

[Anonymous]

Welcome! And congrats on your journey to become credit worthy! We all make the decision soon enough. For most of us, it’s when we actually need credit. It’s a long road as referenced by your post!

To your questions. Do you have any prequalified offers from Chase? Letting your Discover go to 6 months will be a good idea because it shows you aren’t searching for recent credit which Chase likes. I would also browse around looking at increasing your credit limit on your Discover. They are kinda random but people tend to have luck after 90 days of card issue. If you can increase your limit with Discover and let it report before a hard pull from Chase, they will be more likely as Chase wants to not be your first or highest lender.

Have any of your secured cards graduated yet? Those will help with making your available credit higher too.

I hope some of my points helped. There are a lot of other people here with the knowledge to help you further.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Welcome! And congrats on your journey to become credit worthy! We all make the decision soon enough. For most of us, it’s when we actually need credit. It’s a long road as referenced by your post!

To your questions. Do you have any prequalified offers from Chase? Letting your Discover go to 6 months will be a good idea because it shows you aren’t searching for recent credit which Chase likes. I would also browse around looking at increasing your credit limit on your Discover. They are kinda random but people tend to have luck after 90 days of card issue. If you can increase your limit with Discover and let it report before a hard pull from Chase, they will be more likely as Chase wants to not be your first or highest lender.

Have any of your secured cards graduated yet? Those will help with making your available credit higher too.

I hope some of my points helped. There are a lot of other people here with the knowledge to help you further.

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i only have one secured card and it will be a year old in july of this year and still is covered with a deposit,, it is a citi card and there is not much info on them here,,, it surly has done its job,, if citi wants to wait another six months im ok with that, i will run a few grand through the Disco and take full advantage of all the intro perks, car loan will be down another $3200 by next ap as well,, so far so good everything is coming together as planed i just want to get Chase out of the way before i round out my base,, tnx .....

[Anonymous]

Chase is a good goal but, they like to see more experience.  Lack of experience will either get a denial or a small CL which means you'll be spending HP's trying to get them up to something respectable.  

Now that you have FICO's established again and horrid 9.2% ont he truck.... thinking more longer term I would suggest a refi to something lower around 3-5% instead and dragging it out a little longer just to keep an installment loan active to gain the most points for the time being.  6% less would save some cash as well.

Maybe point your sights on BOA until things look great for gunning at Chase?  

[KLEXH25]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Chase is a good goal but, they like to see more experience.  Lack of experience will either get a denial or a small CL which means you'll be spending HP's trying to get them up to something respectable.  

Now that you have FICO's established again and horrid 9.2% ont he truck.... thinking more longer term I would suggest a refi to something lower around 3-5% instead and dragging it out a little longer just to keep an installment loan active to gain the most points for the time being.  6% less would save some cash as well.

Maybe point your sights on BOA until things look great for gunning at Chase?  

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+ 10

Check out some credit unions for refinancing. You could always apply for a credit card using the same hard pull, and then garden, garden, garden! Try to space out applications every 6 months until you have decent age and better limits. You should be able to keep it under 5/24 this way and Chase will always remain within reach.

[jaxstraw]

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@KLEXH25 wrote:

Check out some credit unions for refinancing. You could always apply for a credit card using the same hard pull, and then garden, garden, garden! Try to space out applications every 6 months until you have decent age and better limits. You should be able to keep it under 5/24 this way and Chase will always remain within reach.

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Couldn't agree with this strategy more.

Find a CU and refi the truck and apply for a CC with the same pull.

Establish a good relationship with a solid CU is never a bad thing.