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As many of you would know, I'm working towards achieving my goal of getting $200,000 of available credit in 2 years. I know it might be a silly or ridiculous goal but it would provide me a personal satisfaction & self-confidence lol. Further, my income is around $100k with little expenses so I think it justifies the goal a bit.
Its been 13 months for me since I started my credit journey & have achieved the following since then:
1) Walmart Discover = $10,000
2) Chase SW = $8,500
3) Chase Freedom = $7,000
4) Amex Delta = $3,000
5) Amex BCP = $2,000
6) A local bank = $1,500
Total = $32,000
Since I don't qualify for NFCU, I know it would be extremely difficult to reach $200k from this in 11 months, but my goal is to maximize the available credit as much as possible. Following are the prime/major lenders that I can apply at:
1) Citibank 2) BOA 3) U.S. Bank 4) Barclays 5) Discover (not Walmart Discover) 6) Am I missing anyone?
Here's how my credit profile look like:
TU FICO (Walmart) = 729, EQ FICO = 689, AAoA = 6 months, Enquiries = 11 for TU, 10 for EQ & EX
What do you think should be my optimal strategy at this stage? Since I already have a lot of enquiries, do you guys suggest me gardening for the next 8-10 months & then doing an app spree of 5-6 cards or should I keep applying slowly during this time? Don't forget that I'll be eligible for 3X CLI for Amex 2 times during the next year. Also, I might be eligible for a CLI for Walmart Discover.
First, congrats on what you have accomplished thus far. Nicely done!
You might consider adding PenFed to your list. But you should definitely plant yourself in the garden for at least the next 6 months, preferably a year, since you have a pretty short AAoA and double-digit INQs across the 3 CBs.
From what I have seen only a credit union of some sort will give you what you need in the amount of time needed. I mean like 2-3 of them. The only reason I think you wont get it from others is the age. Other then that it is great and wish I was there. Maybe you will have to take som hp from some to get cli maybe the will match or go higher them the highest you have.
Remember I suggested that you plan your app sprees 6 months apart? Stick to that in order to maximize the number of approvals and amounts of credit limit increase. In the mean time, also request 3X's for your Amex cards since they cost nothing.
You're getting there. What you need is a little bit of patience.
My credit union, Muna Federal, only did 1 HP for me (3 years ago) and the only requirement was that I open a checking account and keep at least $25 dollars in it as a "membership fee" which I can get back if I ever decide to close the account. I won't use an actual "bank" account because of my previous experiences with Regions bank and ddp my paychecks to a prepaid card with low fees instead, so I can't attest to the actual banking practices of Muna Federal, though.