Road to American Express or Discover........or both from not so great credit.

[BT90138016]

Ok so I'm back on this credit trail. I've had my feel of crappy cards and I am paying them off and planning to close them. I have six cards and planning to ditch three. I have three signature loans open and current, one will be paid off in about 5 months unless I pay more on it and get rid of it, which I may do. I have two car loans between my wife and I and only been late twice on one which is going to hurt me I know. I'm wonndeing if anyone else out there have had any experience with AmEx or Discover after cleaning up and improving their not so great credit and how long did it take before you could get approved. I guess you could say this is a part of my credit goal. I want to eleminate anything that I wouldn't benefit from and eventually gain some more cards that would benefit me as well as improve and maintain my credit.

[Anonymous]

I started, in earnest, cleaning my credit up a mere 2 months ago. Joined here 1/15, sent out GW letters afterward, and paid off the remaining negative items on my report. In 2 months, I've gained (an average) 55 points across the board from the low 600's to the high-mid 600's. Once I hit 670, I applied for Amex Everyday and got approved instantly for $5k @ 17.99%.

AmEx was a goal card for me, too, and I thought it was unattainable due to having charged off on an AmEx card in 2009. Somehow, I fell through the cracks of their blacklist.

My AAoA is 6 years and my oldest open TL is 12.5 years old.

Every file is different, but I will say I applied for AmEx two weeks ago (same card, EveryDay) and got a denial letter that said the only reason my application was declined was my EX score was too low (it was 606. I only applied to test the blacklist). Once the score went up, I reapplied and voila.

Current open cards are in signature, and my oldest open revolving line was opened 9/2013. 

[BT90138016]

I'm hoping that this time "gardening" my credit will allow those inquiries that I have to drop off my file and help to increase my scores as well. I think that is my main blockage I've had a lot of inquiries as well as the almost maxed out cards. Before I didn't have ANY cards and it was hard for me to get loans or anything and I discovered two collections which one was paid and should have been paid and removed a while back so I'm waiting to hear back from TU on that one and then Monday I'm going in half on the one that I have and the week after that I'm knocking it out.

[Anonymous]

I would assume the "almost maxed out cards" played more of a part than the inquiries.

When I was approved for my AmEx, I had upwards 12-15 inquiries on my Experian file. I keep my statement cut balances under 20% at all times, and they are usually under 5% (if a balance reports at all).

There are conflicting answers, but generally a card is considered maxed out by FICO at between 70-90%+ of usage. And that gives you a much, much larger ding than any number of inquiries could, I would imagine. But, the good thing about that is that FICO doesn't remember past utilization, so once you pay those cards down, your score should completely recover.

[BT90138016]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I would assume the "almost maxed out cards" played more of a part than the inquiries.

When I was approved for my AmEx, I had upwards 12-15 inquiries on my Experian file.

There are conflicting answers, but generally a card is considered maxed out by FICO at between 70-90%+ of usage. And that gives you a much, much larger ding than any number of inquiries could, I would imagine. But, the good thing about that is that FICO doesn't remember past utilization, so once you pay those cards down, your score should completely recover.

---

I would have to agree with you there. I'm working hard to get those all to zero. My biggest CL is 1500 through capital one and I was sitting at $1497.00. So I went in the closet and found some items that were collecting dust sold and got a liitle over 500 for and paid that down pretty good. Still not where I'd like but much better than where I was. Besided interest had just started to kick in and was kicking my butt.

[Anonymous]

Good for you!

Just keep paying it down and don't use it again until it's paid off. The last thing you wanna do is pay ONE CENT of (I assume) 22.99% interest.

[BT90138016]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Good for you!

Just keep paying it down and don't use it again until it's paid off. The last thing you wanna do is pay ONE CENT of (I assume) 22.99% interest.

---

Right you are.