next step to take, need lotta helps and suggestions

[Anonymous]

First of all, I want to thanks all the members here for being helpful in my credit journey. After 9 months of gardening, I need to take my important next step, which I hope it can be an efficient step.

So, here I need your helps again. As usual, let me go thru my details :

Im a grown adult ( non student ), have good annual income. Been spending cash with debit card all these years and started to build my credit at the very early of 2013, hopefully can get a mortgage in 2015/2016.

Boa secured card : 4000 limit - opened jan 2013
Us bank secured card : 4000 limit - opened jan 2013
Utilities : will only keep around 500 when the statement cut.

Negative : none.

Inquiries : 1 during my apartment hunting in summer 2013. It was hard pull since the landlord is a mortgage lender, she used her mortgage system to run my credit.

That's everything in my profile.

Before I pull the trigger in this coming september, I need to get these questions solved :

1. Should I apply a round of credit cards first or auto loan first?

2. I plan to open accounts with dcu, penfed and alliant then apply theirr credit card products and auto loan at the same time, is it a good idea?

3. Any other good credit union to consider beside those 3? Im in chicago area and not related to military.

4. Beside credit unions card, what else credit cards to apply, which is good card and can grow with me. If possible, not interested in toy limit card (less than 1000).

5. With my situation, can I get my foot in amex, discovery, citi or any good recommendations? So I can get higher limit cards. I so want to try the amex 3x cli.

6. I currently bank with chase, my banker told me he could help me to get sapphire preferred with my current balance in the saving account and he told me 9 months credit profile was not an issue as long as no negetive there, can someone verify it?

Anyway, this coming september I need to get few more credit cards (hopefully good cards) and an auto loan for about 30k to add in my credit report. Any suggestions or steps to take are welcome, please tell me so that I can do it with high efficiency.

Thanks for reading and thanks again for taking your time to help me, thanks.

[09Lexie]

You should have a credit score by now. When is the last time you pulled your CR's?

[Anonymous]

Didn't see this in your description:

1) What are your FICO scores coming in at?  Don't bother with the TU Fico.

2) What is your AAoA and oldest account?  Are the only things on your credit file the ones you mentioned?  No other closed accounts still on credit file?

I'll have some more advice for you once I understand this.  Obviously the only issue with your file is your lack of history.

[myjourney]

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@Anonymous wrote:
First of all, I want to thanks all the members here for being helpful in my credit journey. After 9 months of gardening, I need to take my important next step, which I hope it can be an efficient step.

So, here I need your helps again. As usual, let me go thru my details :

Im a grown adult ( non student ), have good annual income. Been spending cash with debit card all these years and started to build my credit at the very early of 2013, hopefully can get a mortgage in 2015/2016.

Boa secured card : 4000 limit - opened jan 2013
Us bank secured card : 4000 limit - opened jan 2013
Utilities : will only keep around 500 when the statement cut.

Negative : none.

Inquiries : 1 during my apartment hunting in summer 2013. It was hard pull since the landlord is a mortgage lender, she used her mortgage system to run my credit.

That's everything in my profile.

Before I pull the trigger in this coming september, I need to get these questions solved :

1. Should I apply a round of credit cards first or auto loan first? no car first for best rates

2. I plan to open accounts with dcu, penfed and alliant then apply theirr credit card products and auto loan at the same time, is it a good idea? great idea

3. Any other good credit union to consider beside those 3? Im in chicago area and not related to military. First northern downtown Chicago

4. Beside credit unions card, what else credit cards to apply, which is good card and can grow with me. If possible, not interested in toy limit card (less than 1000).After 8 months of history I really think your ready to app Chase freedom and Discover tho limits YMMV

5. With my situation, can I get my foot in amex, discovery, citi or any good recommendations? So I can get higher limit cards. I so want to try the amex 3x cli. Amex charge

6. I currently bank with chase, my banker told me he could help me to get sapphire preferred with my current balance in the saving account and he told me 9 months credit profile was not an issue as long as no negetive there, can someone verify it? Do not believe Banker 50/50

Anyway, this coming september I need to get few more credit cards (hopefully good cards) and an auto loan for about 30k to add in my credit report. Any suggestions or steps to take are welcome, please tell me so that I can do it with high efficiency.

Thanks for reading and thanks again for taking your time to help me, thanks.

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+1 to lexie question

[jamie123]

I agree with you that it is time to take the next step but...

Most of the prime banks like to see not only a good score but also a history of managing multiple (At least two.) credit cards for at least a year before giving you their prime cards.

The prime banks are:

AMEX

Bank of America

Citi Bank

Chase

Discover

Wells Fargo

My suggestion would be to apply for an AMEX Green or Gold Charge card to get your foot in the door with them. Their lending standards are a bit more relaxed for the charge cards. You do however have to pay the balance in full each month. Once you have a charge card for a year, maybe even 6 months, you should be able to move up to their revolvers.

Bank of America's 1-2-3 Rewards card might also be a possibility at this point but I wouldn't hold my breath for a large credit line to start with. BoA is however a bank that will grow with you and this card could have a 25K CL sometime down the road.

Your credit line doesn't have anything to do with your credit score. It is the fact that you have credit cards that boosts your score.

If you shop at Walmart that is the first place you should be applying.

[mikey78]

what kind of CL will i get with BOfa Cash reward?? i just opened mine back in june

and initial limit was 1,000 but due to not being able to convert my history from previous card with 500 CL to the new one
the supervisor gave me increase to 5k to make up for the lost of history

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@jamie123 wrote:

I agree with you that it is time to take the next step but...

Most of the prime banks like to see not only a good score but also a history of managing multiple (At least two.) credit cards for at least a year before giving you their prime cards.

The prime banks are:

AMEX

Bank of America

Citi Bank

Chase

Discover

Wells Fargo

My suggestion would be to apply for an AMEX Green or Gold Charge card to get your foot in the door with them. Their lending standards are a bit more relaxed for the charge cards. You do however have to pay the balance in full each month. Once you have a charge card for a year, maybe even 6 months, you should be able to move up to their revolvers.

Bank of America's 1-2-3 Rewards card might also be a possibility at this point but I wouldn't hold my breath for a large credit line to start with. BoA is however a bank that will grow with you and this card could have a 25K CL sometime down the road.

Your credit line doesn't have anything to do with your credit score. It is the fact that you have credit cards that boosts your score.

If you shop at Walmart that is the first place you should be applying.

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[Anonymous]

BTW, I disagree with Item 2.  Most CU cards including several you mentioned will not "grow" with you.  It would be a mistake to join that many CUs and app for those particular cards and taking all the credit hits.

You want two types of cards:

1) Personally, growing with you means lots of auto-CLIs or soft based CLI system.  Basically means your cards will grow in limit without taking a credit hit.

2) Cards with best rewards or you get cards for their one time bonuses.

[Anonymous]

Not sure about the aaoa but those 2 secured cards are the only things in my report, both of them are 9 months old.

About the score, I plan to pull myfico in september for the latest information before I start all the credit applications. But, according to citi credit monitoring, credit karma and quizzle, my score is 742. I know it's not fico, but this is what I know so far.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

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@jamie123 wrote:

The prime banks are:

AMEX

Bank of America

Citi Bank

Chase

Discover

Wells Fargo

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And you chose that list based on?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Not sure about the aaoa but those 2 secured cards are the only things in my report, both of them are 9 months old.

About the score, I plan to pull myfico in september for the latest information before I start all the credit applications. But, according to citi credit monitoring, credit karma and quizzle, my score is 742. I know it's not fico, but this is what I know so far.

Thanks.

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So your AAoA is basically 9 months and your oldest card is 9 months.  Your big problem is that your credit file isn't deep or long.  As a result, even though your FICO score is likely to be decent, you need to discount your score in your own mind and in some cases, you might get outright denials because your length of credit is below 1 year.  However remember recon is your friend.  You will have success doing so.  Some lenders might assume you blew out your credit earlier in your life and have waited out until they all negatives dropped off.  If you wait till both cards hit 1 year, you will be MUCH more likely to successful.

Going to review your initial post for some specific advice...  Need a few