@Inquisitiveone wrote:
Hello everyone! I need some advice here: I recently paid off/down all of my cards-6 total. My Scores are between 599 and 629 right now in the fair range. I have a few questions I need some advice on. To start I am about 2 years out of chapter 7 discharged. I want to refinance my SUV, graduate to some better cards and close some old ones that dont offer perks, points, travel etc... 1. First Premier card- CL$800- High interest, no issues with the card other than they report to the CB about a week later that what is on the statement. - looking to close 2. First progress- CL $600- Secured card, high interest- looking to close. 3. Revvi- CL $300- I might close... I have this revolving with my Apple apps/subscriptions. nothing more. no its not 300 monthly.. that is what they gave me. 4. Capital one- $300-Secured- waiting for the 6 month mark to see if they increase my limit. 5. Venus/Sephora- they recently lowered my limit to $100. I am going to wait till my score jumps to see if they increase it, if not I want to close it. 6 Aspire- CL $1000 I want to keep and not use. 7. Fortiva- CL-$1000 I want to keep and not use 8. Mission Lane CL $600- from what I read this is the highest they will go. I am thinking about closing 9. Cerulean- CL $750 Keep and not use. Total credit is about $3700 My questions: 1. approximately how much of a credit point jump should I expect. Given 97% of these cards are paid down to 0 2. Will it be a big jump since my debt to income ratio is about go down from 83% to less than 20%
Your debt to income ratio does not affect your FICO score. If you're referring to your aggregate revolving utilization. and saying that that is dropping from 83% to less than 20%, you should see a sizable gain.
3. How long should I wait to refinance my vehicle (currently with a 12% interest payments are %1014)
Whenever you can get a significantly better loan.
4. I have been researching on which cards to apply for (and which to apply for with my business) here is what I have: Personal: BofA, Citi, Discover, Target, Navy Fed, Care credit, William Sonoma- I am not going to apply all at once.. I am thinking just 3 cards. but Care credit will be one and refinancing my SUV will be another. 5. How long should I waiting before applying to top tier cc's? Like another year solid or 2? I dont mind gardening.
It's too early to tell. You need to see where your scores settle, and you need to decide on what kind of card you want to get for your next card. Think "card", not "cards". You've got to approach this gradually.
Slow down first thing. Remember building good credit should be thought of as a Marathon and not a Sprint. It takes time and a lot of work. IMO if I counted right that you have 9 cards, then you already have WAY Too Many cards at this point given your very low scores and all with toy CL's and all Subprime cards. Add in if they were at 83% UTL you're also using them improperly to build credit. If it were me I'd definitely pick the worst of those low limit cards and PIF and close some of those. Ideally you only need a mix 3 cards (maybe 2 Visa/MC/Disco type credit cards and 1 store card) to start building your credit to get it where you can later get just about any card you want down the road. Not to mention your INQ's have to be high at this point as well. Again, JMO but as to which cards are next, you need to forget about adding more cards right now and garden and treat the ones you have with usage and PIF every month. Give it at least a year and see where your scores are then and then go after better cards.
As to refinancing your vehicle personally I'd find a CU as they normally have the best rates and personal service. Most will want to see your scores at least at 620 to get their better rates, although your results and some CU's may vary.
"BofA, Citi, Discover, Target, Navy Fed, Care credit, William Sonoma"
Since you already have alot of cards... I second what was said about closing the store cards, and gardening. (Maybe getting a loan instead of another card too). Good idea on closing the store cards and the sub-prime cards.
In a year... I would advise going for Discover. Citi and BofA are very tough! Discover is not as tough (but still a solid card). That's the next card in line, best option and best chances to get it in my opinion.
