To increase or not to increase?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

So i have a $200 secured cap one card. I have tried to apply for many other secured cards but no one else will approve me. Will their be any benefit in just increasing the credit limit on the one card i do have and making sure its paid in full every month?

[jamesdwi]

Higher CL beget higher CL's. You may want to try for a shopping cart trick card or two, to add addional tradelines if you have only 1 credit card. Also various Ge/Syncrony may be useful if you shop at the stores they service cards for,  Walmart, Amazon store, TJMax/Marshalls.  

[Anonymous]

shopping cart trick card or two? 

[Anonymous]

What are your scores, inqs, and income? Any derogs on your file? These are important pieces of information that we need before we can give advice. 

[Kirmie2010]

If you have the money to raise it, I would.  I dont get many cards that give me new credit and beat my other limits, they usually match or slightly lower.  

(except discover and Barclay for some reason, they gave me 3x all my other limits)

Same as above posted, id suggest some comenity cards.  Easier to get and CLIs are pretty easy after a certain time frame.

Victorias Secret and Express seem to the be 2 easiest!

Most of these stores are still open

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/NEW-UPDATED-LIST-for-Comenity-Bank-Store-Cards...

You just go to the site, add an item to the cart, click to check out and fill in your shipping information and click next/continue.  The pop up happens on the pages that ask for your billing information.  If you dont get a pop up on the page that is asking for your CC info, you didnt get the popup.

Make sure pop up blockers are turned off in your browser.  If you get to the entering credit card info page and you didnt see a pop up, check the top right corner for a notification that a pop up was blocked.  Like I wrote above, Express and Victorias Secret seem to be the easiest cards to get.

You dont buy anything, once you get a pop up just fill it out and your done.  (you dont have to order)

[jamesdwi]

Some stores will offer you a pre-approved credit card after signing up and putting a couple items in your cart, and going to checkout, a pop-up will occur telling you that you are pre-approved, then you click yes, and fill out a short form, and they will tell you your credit limit. No INQ/HP just a new tradeline shows up on your credit report keep it to one or two cards this way, every few months to build your credit report.

List of Shopping Card Trick stores can be found here. 

Shopping cart trick stores

[Anonymous]

Depending on where i get the score from, I am at 496 with experian, 553 equifax and 518 transunion. Needless to say my credit report still needs plenty of help. 

[Anonymous]

Never heard of this, great information. Thanks! I will look into more and give a try.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Depending on where i get the score from, I am at 496 with experian, 553 equifax and 518 transunion. Needless to say my credit report still needs plenty of help. 

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With those scores, I'm guessing that you have a fair few derogs on your report. In this situation, if you can put more money onto the secured card (and you use the card), then I would do so. I would also head over to the rebuilding credit forum, they may be able to help you raise your score so you can get better cards. 

[Anonymous]

Yes i do, I have a good amount of them falling off within the next year or two. I applied for the swagbucks secured card and they called me to verify some information but havent heard anything since. I am treating the secured card like gold for now.