I have spent the past month reading hundreds of posts here and learned things i wish i knew in 2018. That said, I am just 1 month into my rebuilding journey and I sit at a 530 FICO score right now. I do not have a BK - my debt is 3k on a total of 4 baddies. Although they are small they still messed my score up back in 2018 so i have been hanging out in the trenches. My question is to start off: Which credit union should I apply to for a secured? I have just opened a Cap 1 secured card. I know I need 2 more revolving accts. Discover won't approve me, I tried the prequalified to avoid a HP. I have thin credit absolutely no open accounts that post yet...I just opened a Credit Strong installment loan 3 weeks ago and the Cap 1 Platinum secured last week neither of which are are any of my reports yet. I only have 1 HP on all 3 CR as I have not applied for credit since 2016 until I just did so for Cap 1. My Chexsystem report is clean. Which Credit Union might be the best for rebuilding? I have been fortunate enough to have a husband with good credit so I didn't worry about mine for the longest time but ever since covid it's been weighing on my mind that I should clean mine up because you really never know!
what/who are your baddies and how old are they (all go bad in 2018?) and how much do you owe on each?
Do you not have $1000-$2000 extra cash around to settle these debts to $0? is that a realistic amount for you to get/have? If it's not, that's understandable, but it's definitely where to start.
Your options will be much better if you can settle all of your baddies down to $0 as opposed to owing, what, in the grand scheme of things is a trivial amount of money.
My baddies are all from 2018. They are Kohl's, Victoria Secret and 2 medical bills. I was laid off and didn't want to ask my husband to pay them it was embarrassing and he already had to take on my car loan and everything else so there's that.
I have called all of them and asked for a settlement amount in writing and paid one off so far. The other 3 letters have not arrived yet but I will pay them off too when they arrive.
@butterpecan wrote:My question is to start off: Which credit union should I apply to for a secured?
I would suggest NFCU as their path to graduation is sort of set in stone... meaning whether you secure with $200, $500, $1,000 the card will graduate to a $2,000 unsecured cashRewards. The timing of graduation could be anywhere from 6 months or more depending on your file. It took me personally 20-21 months but my credit was in the bottom of the barrel (collections, BK, etc.) at the time of starting my rebuild. However, NFCU has finally cracked the door open to me in regards to unsecured credit giving me my highest SL's to date.
I can't speak on the other FI's mentioned as I have no experience dealing with them.
Definitely agree with going with NFCU for your next secured card. Once I was able to join up with them, they sent me an invitation to apply for a card and I wasn't even planning on applying for one with them yet and they approved me for a SL that was more than double my next highest limit which was PenFed.
One good thing about the Affinity FCU secured card is the security deposit is held in a savings account that draws interest. Right now it's paying 4% for the first $10,000. So you can put as much in the savings account as you wish, and have as much or little of it designated as your security deposit. If you want to increase your CL all you have to do is give them a call.
Card won't graduate, but you can apply for an unsecured card and then transfer the secured card's history over to the new card.
@crrredit @Thank you for the info, I was not sure if Affinity graduated or not I found answers going both ways on that credit union.
Good to know! It seems NFCU takes the vote most of the time. USAA seems to come in last.
I'd definitely +1 on NFCU. They have been great to me and, in general, receive glowing reviews. They have a good reputation, and with good reason. They are very friendly to those building or rebuilding credit, just do not burn them.
