What should be my next move? Cap1 CreditOne

[Anonymous]

Howdy

Started my credit journey later in life. Trying to stay on top of it, as buying a house in the next 3-5 years is a priority.

I only have two cards right now. Getting offers everyday from sub prime cc's but trying to step it up rather than stay in sub prime heck.

TU: 641 EQ:638

I have 4 hard pulls, 2 CC's and Verizon/Cox Cable.

Started with a Capital One Secured 1.5 years ago. Limit is at $500.

Opened a Credit One Unsecured 8 months ago with a $150 limit. It was raised to $500 after about 3 months. Has been stuck there ever since.

Got a prequal for Citi's Double Cash and Capital Ones Quicksilver. If I'm inevitably qualified by one or both of these cards, should I then kick Credit One or Capital One Secured to the curb?

Wondering which direction I should go. Cash back is nice, but my end goal like I'm sure everyone else, is to raise Credit Limit and Credit Score. Any opinions? Thanks. And have a good day!

[Anonymous]

Any baddies on your file?  Any auto loans?  To get your file ready for a mortgage, you'd want to have the right kind of credit "mixes" on your file.  Not just credit cards.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Howdy

Started my credit journey later in life. Trying to stay on top of it, as buying a house in the next 3-5 years is a priority.

I only have two cards right now. Getting offers everyday from sub prime cc's but trying to step it up rather than stay in sub prime heck.

TU: 641 EQ:638

I have 4 hard pulls, 2 CC's and Verizon/Cox Cable.

Started with a Capital One Secured 1.5 years ago. Limit is at $500.

Opened a Credit One Unsecured 8 months ago with a $150 limit. It was raised to $500 after about 3 months. Has been stuck there ever since.

Got a prequal for Citi's Double Cash and Capital Ones Quicksilver. If I'm inevitably qualified by one or both of these cards, should I then kick Credit One or Capital One Secured to the curb?

Wondering which direction I should go. Cash back is nice, but my end goal like I'm sure everyone else, is to raise Credit Limit and Credit Score. Any opinions? Thanks. And have a good day!

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Capital One and Citi have solid prequals. Are the APR's a precise total and not a range? 

[Anonymous]

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Got a prequal for Citi's Double Cash and Capital Ones Quicksilver. If I'm inevitably qualified by one or both of these cards, should I then kick Credit One or Capital One Secured to the curb?

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Don't wait....Run...Dont walk to the curb kicking Credit One the entire time.   After you kick them to the curb, kick them one or two more times for good measure!

[Dalmus]

If you have a solid prequal for both CapOne QS and Citi (meaning a solid APR, not a range of APRs in the prequal screen), you have two things to consider:

Citi DoubleCash is a better card, as you will effectively get 2% cashback, although you gotta spend a lot of money to make a major difference over QS's 1.5%.

CapOne is likely to give you a larger limit than Citi, but CapOne will also pull all three credit reports.

Personally, if your goal is a house if 3-5 years,  I don't see a problem with applying the the Citi first, then the CapOne.

@Yes-Its-Me has a good point, though.  Eventually (not now, necessarily) you will want a mix of credit, not just credit cards.  A car loan, a secured loan at a credit union, anything like that will maximize your credit score.   But don't go out and buy a car just for the credit score, of course!

[601flyguy]

I would go with citi if its a true pre-approval. Have you tried to get the cap1 card unsecured??

[Shooting-For-800]

Cap One and Credit One are not in the same class.

I would stay away from Credit One.