Hello,
I am fairly new to this forum (and if I would have known it earlier I probably wouldn't made some mistakes). I would like to get some advice from "the experts" on how to further improve my score. Here is my story:
My employer moved me to the US 4 months ago (so I started fresh with no history). I tried to get an auto loan (Ford denied, Toyota gave me a startup auto loan for whooping 24%APR... At least something). As I have been doing business in the US with Citi for I while I went into the branch here and they told me it would be best to go for a secured card. Done.(and learned quickly on the web, to PIF everything but 3-9% before the statement closes!). My company told me I need their corporate Amex, so I went through that (however that doesn't report anything except a hard pull)...INQ number 4..... Wow... I though, OK, let's wait six month until you get your score..And signed up for citi identity monitor (which gives you CreditXpert scores BTW...)
I had to call Amex in my home country, due to a statement, that wasn't quite clear to me. They asked me why I closed the card, and I said .. I was moving to the states and I thought I don't need it anymore (I kept two Mastercards, though). She said what I should do is apply for an US card and told me that at least they can cross-check foreign cards and therefore the US should be able to do so, too. I called Amex here, and yep they said they transfer my account. INQ Nr. 5
Great... I thought.. Cool.. Another card.... And I didn't even need a score for that.
I was waiting for the Amex to appear on my CR... No notification ... Nothing. When I was able to pull my report, it was there.. (this is how good Citi Identity alerts you...) Including a Credit Score (they reported my full (!) history to the 3 CRA's. I am like WOW 9 years credit history and only 4 months here..)
So I went off and wanted to buy a second car from a private seller and applied for a personal loan at Citi.... Denied... I received the letter today... Excessive INQ's... The only reason (BTW all on EQ)! Before I got the letter, I figured out that myFico offers the real FICO score and got ScoreWatch. I read through the forum and found that Barclay is offering good cards. I thought, I used to be a good customer of them back home, so let's go and try. Denied (TU Score 715). Called Backdoor for Recon. Denied. INQ Nr. 4 on TU. I scrapped that idea (she told me I should go ahead and wait for another 6-12 months to mature what I have right now). So I read and read through these forums and got to the point that I wanted to try Orchards for an unsecured card. I went to their site and the soft pull got me to the Mastercard Gold. I didn't go further, I cancelled before the hard pull.
Here is my question. Should I get the Orchard to have two Rev accounts and another Hardpull, or just wait for one year until the excessive INQ's just drop and then apply for a card that is more useful to me ( I want to have the Marriott Rewards from Chase)? My current AAoA is 3 years oldest is 9 years..Next year the AAoA would be four years...
Thanks for your help,
A true newbie here 
LEXiiON
