All thing being equal, if you were to apply for a credit card or personal loan from the same FI, would you have a better shot at the credit card than the personal loan?
I tried the prequal for Penfed's personal loan (because they don't have a CC prequal) and was declined.
EQ is 650 and the reason given was "occurrence of a severe derogatory event". I had a CO from over 4 years ago but was just recently updated last month so it appears that the CO actually took place on Mar 3rd of this year. My report is pretty clean other than that (on 30 day late over a year ago).
I don't really want the personal loan but would like a credit card with them. So, will the CC fairy look at that and view it as a fresh CO and decline automatically just like the personal loan fairy? Is it something that could be reconsidered and overturned on manual review?
Thanks in advance.
@Remedios wrote:CC fairy won't see it as recent CO. You feel scoring impact because it makes deliquency appear more recent, but from lenders perspective, they see month and date when account became charged off.
Also, 30 day late from a year ago is a pretty big deal when there is an existing derog. Even those who are clean otherwise can expect one to two years of credit jail.
Personal loans are harder to qualify for.
Main reasons are debt load and payment structure, usually lower apr than cards.
With cards you have a choice between paying minimum payment, statement balance, or anything in between.
With loans, you are committed to paying a certain amount and that carries more risk because you cannot adjust it down to how much money you have at that time.
With that said, you've had a lot of activity lately, and CC fairy typically stops sprinkling fairy dust when that happens.
+100 ^^ PenFed isn't known for being to forgiving with negatives present. At 650 I'd hold off until you're able to bring it up a bit more. They're a great CU, but can be pretty particular when it's not a clean file.
