Should I talk to a credit analyst before apping for a card?

[annielorie]

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! Is it any wonder that Capital One spelled out in abbreviated form is CAPONE..!  Thank You For that I laughed so hard I couldnt breathe.Personally I dont want anything CAPONE because they pull all bureaus thats a hard pull for each! Not wotrth the penalty

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[Anonymous]

Great example of not just relying on credit score. While score is great, it is really just saying great score for someone who is starting off in credit. Many prime lenders don't want those customers. Luckily for op, card issuers can't tell if he is some person who came to credit later in life as opposed to someone who just had their baddies knocked off. My recommendation is to get a couple more easy to get cards and garden for a little while. Easy cards are store cards. Local credit union likely to give card with no af and rewards (walk into branch before apping). Give those new cards 6 months to 1 year and op will find lots of doors will open. Op did mention something about old Amex. Might be worth looking at zync for backdating and getting back in with Amex. If zync gets backdated, the depth of credit file might be solved right away but not thinness. However thin files are more acceptable to lenders.

[Anonymous]

Forget my Amex advice, just re read thread. Op only got Amex recently.

[Anonymous]

If you're really set on a Citi card, I might try the Forward. I believe it's one of the easier ones to get besides the regular Citi Platinum (or possibly Dividend Platinum?). My wife gets offers for that all the time (which for Citi doesn't necessarily mean a ton, though). You're obviously smart about paying things off and managing things, so please forgive me if this sounds insulting or obvious....just providing some suggestions : ).

I would look at where you shop the most (duh, I know). Maybe consider a GE Card {like Gap, Lowes, Walmart/Walmart Discover, Amazon Store Card (or try your luck with Amazon Credit Card by Chase), Kohl's...or even maybe Discover More}. Your scores are obviously very good. Bank of America is actually pretty good about thin credit files if your accounts are clean. That was my wife's first card and she had very little history, but clean file, and they started her off at $5,000 CL (this was almost 5 years ago). So, might start with one of the BoA rewards type cards. If you get approved say in the $4,000 - 8,000 range, sit on it for 6 months - 1 year, then should pretty much be able to write your own ticket on a lot of cards after that. Just my $0.02, FWIW.

[annielorie]

Unfortunately for all of us they gave credit out like candy 5 years ago. I feel its much harder now.