Its best to fix whats broken first. Honestly you have enough for now until you get them all paid. Getting more credit is the last thing you need for now. Sorry its true.Cant put a bandaid on a bleeding wound. Got to fix the bleeding first.
@Anonymous wrote:I'm in the process of rebuilidng after a job loss and an ugly divorce. I'm looking at possible credit cards that I can add to my collection and let the limits grow and the accounts age. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I currently have FICO 08 scores of 670 TU / 690 EXP / 695 EQFX.
0 inquiries.
Current open cards (all generally at Zero or 1% utilization)
CapOne 15k
CapOne. 5k
CapOne. 7k
Barclays. 15k
Paypal. 2.5k
US Bank. 2k secured
AppliedBank. 1k secured
I have 2 closed AMEX cards that I'll finish repaying in 18 months under a payment arrangement (they will be made 100% whole)
I have 11 closed SYNCRHONY Cards (Ebates, Lowes, Amazon, CareCredit, etc.) that I'll finish repaying in 12 months under payment arrangment (they will be made 100% whole)
10 Paid in Full closed (never late) auto loans/ personal loans / installment loans (varying from 5k to 75k)
I have charge offs from (all from about 2-3 years ago)
CitiCard $20k
Penfed. $5k & $3k
Avant. $20k
Discover Bank Peronal Loan. $18k
Chase. $7k
Wells Fargo Student Loan $39k
Bank of America Credit Card $5k
Marcus by Goldman Sachs Personal Loan $14k
Speaking from experience with this exact situation, FireMedic is correct. Your scores are going to stay supressed down untill all enagtive items are take care of, or they fall of from age. Looking at your situation, you have plenty of open and active credit accounts that are helping your scores a lot. However, adding another credit card will likely not help you at all, and you may even lose some points because your average age of open accounts will go down. To be honest, I am very surprised Barclay's or Paypal has not closed your account, because Paypal is also Synchrony and Barclay's tends to close people down if they see negative stuff on their profiles.
To illustrate this point to you, let me explain my profile, which is similar to yours. I have many open and active credit cards, some old and some opened recently. I have also many older paid and closed accounts. However, I have charge-off accounts from 2017 showing on all 3 bureaus. On TransUnion, only 1 paid and settled charge-off is showing there and my score is 717.
On Experian, I have 6 charge-offs reporting, of which 4 are paid and 2 are unpaid. My score on there is 643 at the moment.
On Equifax, I have 5 charge-offs showing, with 2 being unpaid.
Are you noticing the trend here?
All of my open, always paid on time cards are showing on all 3 bureaus as are all of my closed/paid/never late accounts. The only variation between the 3 bureaus is how many charge-offs are showing and how they are reporting. Equifax is the lowest because they keep updating the accounts when I have disputed, whereas Experian verified stuff, but leaves it alone.
I could open a new AmEx black card tomorrow (not really LOL), and my scores would not go up. It is not until these negative items age off or are removed for inaccuracies that my score will improve. At this moment, my overall utilization on open accounts is 1%, so that's not a factor, but I think the charge-offs with balances are being figured into my utilization on the 2 bureaus where the unpaid ones are showing.
Lastly, I would say your scores are doing really well considering all of those charge-offs are reporting. I think you may even be ablke to get approved with negative items showing, which has definitely been possible for me. I doubt you'll be getting any cards from lenders with strict criterion for approval, but there are many out there who will accept a profile like yours. As for the charge-offs, I would say wait them out until the statute of limitations runs out if you cannot afford to pay them right now. Those are not small amounts of money, and a lot of positive activity on your credit profile could incentivize them to sue you. Debt collectors do monitor your credit report for things that look positive, and that can get you moved to the top of their pile for legal collection activity. My best advice to you is to just wait it out and sit tight until your state's statute of limitations on consumer debt is up. You should easily be able to locate that information with a google search.
Is there a reason you're looking for another card?
