First of many questions

[Anonymous]

Hello again,

    As I stated in my introduction post. I have a capital one secured credit card opened in July with $1000.00, a US Bank Harley Davidson secured card opened in July also with $1000.00, and a $500.00 secured loan with my credit union opened in July. My Fico 08 Scores are EQ 569, EX 550, TU 539.

     I would like a third secured credit card that will eventually graduate, I know that capital one will not and that my US Bank potentially will. I applied for Discover it in July and was denied. I do not like BOA and will not bank with them in any way shape or form. I have $49,000 left from my settlement so I am willing to put up to the max amount for the last card. I would also like to add that I would really like to eventually get the discover it card and would like any and all advice on the steps to achieve that particular goal. So please give me any suggestions for a third secured card that will potentially graduate within 12 to 24 months.

My monthly income is 1335 from va disability and I am in the process of applyig for ssdi which should add another 700 to 800.

Credit profile which is terrible.

Central Credit Services                                           $1407, $51 from 2013 ER visit turned to hospital stay should have been covered by insurance at 100%

Merchants Association Collection                         $164 from 2013 same as above

Conrad Credit Corp                                                  $83,$84 from 2013 same as above

Defaulted US DEpt of Education Student Loan   $3500.00 now $4900.00 (Will call to try to rehab tomorrow) Never made a payment on

ERC                                                                              $895 ATT&T dofd1/2012 will not pay matter of principle this is when they began throttling people with unlimited data

Santander                                                                     $0 Repo 2012 sold

Debt Recovery Solutioins                                          $2185 says original creditor is cascade capital who purchased the debt from santander can they be listed as the original creditor? sol is up on this debt but they reported this on my report on april of this year.

Credit Protectio Associtation                                      $333.95,$1126 the large one is one where I was not able to turn in the equipment due to medical issues which I will be                                                                                          doing soon.

Suncoast credit union charge off for $49.00 paid off they will not remove just shows paid

The medical collections should have been taken care of by my insurance and I have requested an itemized bill from the hospital yesterday and I will be following up on this so hopefully this will be taken care of soon,

[Anonymous]

The Discover secured card basically says it "may" graduate ... it also may not. Most of us who jumped on the bandwagon when they made apping for the secured card a known process, rather than a fall back from a regular card denial, haven't reached the one year mark when Discover says it will begin to review for potential graduation. 

You have 2 secured cards, and a secured loan. Those are your three tradelines, so in all honesty, you don't NEED another card, though I do understand the desire for an unsecured card. 

Rather than tie up money in another secured card, which won't serve much of a purpose beyond increasing your available credit, I would make a plan to start cleaning up the collections with the money you have in hand. Try for Pay For Deletes or pay them off and then seek Goodwill deletions. While doing that I would also make sure you make EVERY payment on time for your other two cards and your loan. If it were me, I'd sock drawer one of those cards so you're not tempted to use it. Make sure the one card you use reports no more than 10% uti (in total) each month. After a few more months of on time payments, and cleaning up of collections, you should see a nice score bump into the 600s

You opened your Cap 1 card in July. Use it, pay it off. After six months (December-January), you may get a small CLI, or you may not. At that time, I would app for an unsecured Cap 1 Platinum or Quicksilver One card. You'll likely be approved with a small limit, which after three months you can probably request an increase. 

Those would be my suggestions ... though I'm far from an expert. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The Discover secured card basically says it "may" graduate ... it also may not. Most of us who jumped on the bandwagon when they made apping for the secured card a known process, rather than a fall back from a regular card denial, haven't reached the one year mark when Discover says it will begin to review for potential graduation. 

You have 2 secured cards, and a secured loan. Those are your three tradelines, so in all honesty, you don't NEED another card, though I do understand the desire for an unsecured card. 

Rather than tie up money in another secured card, which won't serve much of a purpose beyond increasing your available credit, I would make a plan to start cleaning up the collections with the money you have in hand. Try for Pay For Deletes or pay them off and then seek Goodwill deletions. While doing that I would also make sure you make EVERY payment on time for your other two cards and your loan. If it were me, I'd sock drawer one of those cards so you're not tempted to use it. Make sure the one card you use reports no more than 10% uti (in total) each month. After a few more months of on time payments, and cleaning up of collections, you should see a nice score bump into the 600s

You opened your Cap 1 card in July. Use it, pay it off. After six months (December-January), you may get a small CLI, or you may not. At that time, I would app for an unsecured Cap 1 Platinum or Quicksilver One card. You'll likely be approved with a small limit, which after three months you can probably request an increase. 

Those would be my suggestions ... though I'm far from an expert. 

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Actually for OPTIMAL scoring, you need to have THREE revolving accounts and one installment. The reason for three revolvers is so you can show a small balance on one card but stay under the "less than half of CC show a balance" rule.

However, it is not really critical that three revolving accounts be established right at the beginning of your rebuild process, which is where OP is at. I would advise adding a third card in the next 3-6 months.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Norman ... I appreciate the correction  Apologies for the error

Also glad to know I'm on the right track with my three revolvers  

[Anonymous]

Jjking54 thanks for the advice. One step at a time. I have a plan of attack that I will discuss on other posts regarding cleaning up and correcting my reports. My intent on this post was to post my profile to give background information with the scores along with my desire for another secured card. I don't have a problem tying up 2 or 3 thousand more dollars on another secured card that may or may not graduate as long as it has the potential to graduate. I only have $11.00 that has reported so far on my US Bank card and that is the only charge that will be on that card monthly, I only use the capital one card for gas to get to my va appointments and the va reimburses me for that so I pay that off immediately. I am not a big spender. After I get advice on which card to get for the third card and the time frame in which to get it. I will begin posting on the credit rebuild plan. Thank you again for your post, it is greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Normanfh thanks... Three to six months sounds great to me. Now to figure out which secured card would be best for me to apply for. Hopefully by then the medical collections should be off my reports by then or at the very least well on their way! Thanks for the advice. Now anymore advice on which card to get in a few months you guys?

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I would set aside the $1K you've talked about for another secured card, but then when the time is right (Dec/Jan) I would first apply for an unsecured Capital One card like I mentioned above. With the tradelines you've recently started, and working on PFDs etc, your credit score might support one of those cards. 

If that doesn't work, then I'd take that $1K and app for a Discover Secured card. 

[Anonymous]

Okay then that is what I shall do, thank you that sounds like a solid plan. Thank you very much!