Hi there! I'm in the middle of a divorce and have had limited income this year but my soon to be ex has plenty. I am trying to get approved for a card before the divorce is final because he has excellent credit. I've run my report and have 3 lates, 1 past 90 and 2 public records - 1 of which is in error, but with the government shut down, can't get to the IRS. I am in the process of having the NYS removed. They are both showing paid.
I recently applied for an Amex Blue Cash and was denied, I'm assuming because of the public records. I called to find out if there was any factor that weighed more heavily and they told me that based on my FICO score alone, I would've been approved, but with all factors considered, was not. My FICO here is listed at 677 (experien?) and Amex used equifax and said it was 650 (it's possible I have those two swapped).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated on which card to apply for next. I've already been to my bank (TDBank) and they told me that unsecured loans are a minimum score of 700 and that having an account with them does NOT help you in any way in getting a cc. I'm considering going to a local credit union to see if I can open up a bunch of accounts all at once - checking, credit, loan to help buff up my score.
Ok, that's it and HELP! Thanks 
Welcome to the forum. I'm trying to understand why you need a card quick before the divorce is final. Is your ex signing the app?
Folks,
Could we please stick with the topic at hand rather than the insinuations and allegations of alleged potential misdeeds?
If I were trying to make a last ditch effort to get a useful tradeline to speed the repair process, I'd do it, and so would virtually anyone who found this forum in the first place. That said, if there is an issue here, it would be so trivial to prove that I suspect it's not being done for this reason. Technically on a HHI app it could be claimed, and this might be enough to get in: however, any joint application where's he's directly liable is a non-starter without a signature (without court / creditor approval at least), and even a hack divorce lawyer would have a field day with this one if charges were racked up on it.
That all said, there's been some good advice here offered and there's a lot to be said if you can clean up your report geemister to go do that and then look at building new positive tradelines once the divorce is finalized.
I've never been through it but divorces are financially messy, and doing something like this in this stage is possibly a bad idea regardless of why it's being done.
@geemister wrote:Hi there! I'm in the middle of a divorce and have had limited income this year but my soon to be ex has plenty. I am trying to get approved for a card before the divorce is final because he has excellent credit. I've run my report and have 3 lates, 1 past 90 and 2 public records - 1 of which is in error, but with the government shut down, can't get to the IRS. I am in the process of having the NYS removed. They are both showing paid.
I recently applied for an Amex Blue Cash and was denied, I'm assuming because of the public records. I called to find out if there was any factor that weighed more heavily and they told me that based on my FICO score alone, I would've been approved, but with all factors considered, was not. My FICO here is listed at 677 (experien?) and Amex used equifax and said it was 650 (it's possible I have those two swapped).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated on which card to apply for next. I've already been to my bank (TDBank) and they told me that unsecured loans are a minimum score of 700 and that having an account with them does NOT help you in any way in getting a cc. I'm considering going to a local credit union to see if I can open up a bunch of accounts all at once - checking, credit, loan to help buff up my score.
Ok, that's it and HELP! Thanks
They will not consider his income unless he jointly applies for the card. Considering the situation, in which there is really no way he is going to agree to do that, you putting him on the application without his consent amounts to perpetrating a fraud. Don't do it.
Discover IT let me in the door with a $1000 limit with a 636 EQ (from myFICO), 2 paid PR's and 8 derogs.
I thank them every day and have cleaned up a lot of that crap.
They also gave my 18 yo son a Discover IT with a $750 limit with zilch on his CR.
Starting Score: 640 TU / 593 EQ / 596 EX (3/1/13)