Sorry, .... another which card thread.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am looking to get  a new credit card.  I am looking for suggestions on most likely to be approved.

My situation /  info.

Scores           Equifax  700   Experian  714  Transunion  689    ---   all FAKO scores from truecredit ( as an aside , is there a better place for monitoring, i don' t mind paying)

Utilization is unfortunately very high, ( geez i can't wait unitl i start making improvements, that was actually a little painful to type.)

Bankruptcy around 7 years ago.

Oldest card is around 3 years I believe and I have had 1 late payment about a year ago.

Current Cards 

Cap1  $1500

Cap 1 $1500

Credit One Bank  $1075

Orchard Bank  $500

Dell Preferred  $8000 

Chase ( they closed it)  was $3500.

Any suggestions for what I should try for would be greatly appreciated.  I was thinking discover or something but I have no clue.  Also, what would my chances be of balance transferring the orchard and credit one cards to the new one.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi nigel,

Welcome to the forums.  Hope you like it here!

Now, first off, Why another card?

And dang it, as you know, the FAKO scores from truecredit aren't used by the card issuers - so it's hard to - no, I think it's impossible to say which card holders will approve you with those scores 'cuz issuers don't see them - they almost always see FICO's.  You'll really need to pull at least one FICO if you want to use scores as a qualifier.

Congrats on your desires to get utilization down.  If it's really "very high", you have a BK reporting, and have a late payment in the last year, your FICO's are probably not where you're thinking.  (But you can get them up there - stick around and you'll get lots of great and helpful info from some very supportive folks).

I'm going to guess that the best step is to pull your reports here along with a FICO.  Google discount codes for myfico.  That will enable you to see your FICO score, see the four things "Helping Your Score" and the four things "Hurting Your Score."  You'll also have access to the FICO simulator which will tell you how to improve your score moving forward and what impact different actions (like opening a new card) will have on your score.

Hope that's somewhat helpful!

[smc733]

First of all, welcome to the forums!

FAKO scores give you an "idea" of where you are at, but some of them use radically different score models that can give some people a very false impression.  ScoreWatch here at myFico is the only way to get true FICO monitoring ($12.95 a month I believe).

I would heavily consider the Citi Forward card for you, they give generous limits.

[laz98]

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@smc733 wrote:

First of all, welcome to the forums!

FAKO scores give you an "idea" of where you are at, but some of them use radically different score models that can give some people a very false impression.  ScoreWatch here at myFico is the only way to get true FICO monitoring ($12.95 a month I believe).

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THAT'S FOR SURE!!!!  TrueCredit has my TU score at 757.......don't I wish!!!

[Anonymous]

Yeah, pretty much what I expected to find.  I used myfico to pull my score and equifax score at something like 660.  

So now knowing that, what would be the best card to try for in my situation?

Thanks for helping me along with this.  I really do appreciate it.  

[MarineVietVet]

I will ask the same thing as beamMEup. Why do you feel the need for another card at this time? I would suggest you work on lowering your utilization and letting the cards you have now age for a year or two.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

[Anonymous]

I will ask the same thing as beamMEup. Why do you feel the need for another card at this time? I would suggest you work on lowering your utilization and letting the cards you have now age for a year or two.

Well it is embarrassing to say but I need to repair my car and have no other way to pay for it.  I have just started to get serious about lowering my utilization so I don't have enough room on anything but the Dell Preferred card and I don't think that will work.   Wouldn't you know it, i finally start to get serious about paying down my credit cards and something like this happens.

At the same time if I have a shot, I would like to get a card with a high enough CL that I could maybe transfer my Orchard and Credit One Bank balances but I am sure that is really pressing my luck.  

Thanks for all of the responses.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I will ask the same thing as beamMEup. Why do you feel the need for another card at this time? I would suggest you work on lowering your utilization and letting the cards you have now age for a year or two.

Well it is embarrassing to say but I need to repair my car and have no other way to pay for it.  I have just started to get serious about lowering my utilization so I don't have enough room on anything but the Dell Preferred card and I don't think that will work.   Wouldn't you know it, i finally start to get serious about paying down my credit cards and something like this happens.

At the same time if I have a shot, I would like to get a card with a high enough CL that I could maybe transfer my Orchard and Credit One Bank balances but I am sure that is really pressing my luck.  

Thanks for all of the responses.

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Don't be embarrassed. Real life has a way of upsetting all of our plans from time to time. 

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

[Anonymous]

So anybody have any suggestions on what the best card to try?  From reading through a lot of the posts it seems to come down to Barclays or Citi Forward as far as I can tell.  

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So anybody have any suggestions on what the best card to try?  From reading through a lot of the posts it seems to come down to Barclays or Citi Forward as far as I can tell.  

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If you have high util, you might not have a lot of luck, especially with Citi.

Do you have local credit unions? Many CU's pull Equifax, and your 660 isn't bad. The FICO EQ score is called the Beacon 5.0, which is what they generally use. Since you've just pulled your scores, try printing out your score reports, especially the EQ, and visiting a few local CU's. Show your EQ report to the loan officer, tell him/her that it's a Beacon 5.0, and ask if they think that they would be able to work with you, either with a card or a loan. They will have to pull a separate report (= hard inq) themselves if you do apply, of course, but this might give you an idea if you'd qualify.

Credit unions are great for those who are working hard on their finances, but who might not get a lot of help from the big boy banks. Worth a try, anyhow. Good luck!

edit to add: the point of visiting around with your score report in hand is that you don't want to authorize a pull until you're happy with a particular CU, and the loan officer has indicated that you'd probably qualify.

And the same thing goes for local banks, as opposed to local branches of big banks. Local banks are also often more willing to work with people in their home communities.