How many accounts enough to build credit?

[MarkyB]

@SuperFlyEDSguy yea apple is good with that. I had them refund a purchase my baby nephew made accidentally while playing on my ipad last year. It was hassle free. 

I'm not too worried about using my debit card. Bank of America is really good with disputed charges. Both times I had to dispute a charge they put the funds back in my account that very same moment.

I'm not interested in any more cards at the moment. I'm gardening my file in preparation for a auto loan. I will get some more cards whenever my loan gets approved. I'm eyeing Amex next and possibly BoA, including a couple store cards like Apple and Amazon.

And I would like to add something towards my last post regarding my fico score jump today. I hit 6 months on my newest account and I hear that's a milestone for the fico algorithm. So possibly that 24 point jump had to do with that along with my loan balance update?

[SuperFlyEDSguy]

@MarkyB Sweet! 24 points is an awesome jump! 👍👍 

I would say to just keep your HPs manageable and you'll be fine for an auto loan. The biggest thing they have looked for in my history is a down payment, since you'll take the note far more seriously when your personal funds are at stake. Makes sense. I noticed a trend the last couple times that I auto shopped. The salesperson would come back with a "grid" after speaking with the "manager," but it wouldn't have the APR! Apparently this is a trend in auto financing! They'll want to know what you "could work with" and for how long and then backtrack the highest possible terms in. So, the easiest solution is to have financing worked out before you go to the dealership. It beats Plan B, which is haggle the hell out of them and demand to know and agree to everything!

Just a side point, while going all out rebuilding my credit, mortgage shopping, and the like, my TU was up to right about 22 HPs in 2-years. My EX & EQ were showing like 7 or 8. I still easily qualified for an $8K personal loan with no collateral. Interest was a bit higher than NFCU was offering similar credit profiles, about 2% higher, but they denied me on the 20+ HPs. I can't say I blame them, but I knew I was going to run up many HPs rebuilding quickly as I went from a single secured card to an AMEX Gold Card in about 20-months. My point is not to worry with an auto loan, especially when you're putting down a decent down payment, as they're far easier to qualify for than a personal loan with no collateral.

Just keep up the great work! I was with BoA for a very long time and aside from the fees they were a great bank! They had my money back the very same day when someone stolen $500 or $600 to have a spending spree on Nike!

Now, regarding those cards:

BoA credit cards are notoriously difficult to get! I would wait that one out for a while!

AMEX is great! I would wait until over 700 for any credit cards, but I got approved for my Gold Card around 680. I keep hearing that the underwriting is the same on all the charge cards, so if you get approved for one, basically it's an approval for the Green, Gold, or Platinum Card. It more-or-less comes down to what kind of AF you're comfortable with. Gold is the best for me since it rewards nicely on grocery and restaurants. Platinum is only the best if you travel a lot, otherwise the $695 AF is not worth it!

Apple was not hard to get at all, I think you're a good candidate for one!

Amazon (Prime) Storecard is by Synchrony and not too difficult to get either! They also do PayPal Credit and maybe 80 to 100 other private labels! You should be fine with their products, but the Amazon Rewards Visa is a Chase product and a bit harder to qualify for. Both cards have prequals, but I could never get the Visa one to work for me (it's a common problem on here), so I went with the Synchrony one since the prequal offered me $2,500, which seemed fair.

Just stay away from any additional Cap 1 products to avoid the buckets, and you should be well beyond having to pay an AF for anything branded subprime. Like I said, when ready, Credit Karma was pretty good about matching me with offers as I only was rejected twice and once was due to having a rural address they couldn't find.

Ultimately, keep on gardening so you don't run into having 20-something HPs like me, but that wasn't the end of the world either as I still got my $8K loan and second Discover Card. I only have a single baddie in 7-years and I think that says more than the HPs do. There's multiple factors that go into one's credit profile and that's often overlooked. I admittedly still should have used them a bit wiser, but I also would say don't deprive yourself of credit that you deserve either.

Be well! ✌️ 

[MarkyB]

@SuperFlyEDSguy yeah I was surprised to see such a big score bump. I had used the experian score simulator and it didn't predict this bump at all.

I take HP's seriously for sure. I'm still upset at myself for taking 2 pulls from BoA and TD. Even Cap1 with their triple pull, that's the only reason I have 1 pull on each my TU and EQ reports.

I'm looking at a 12+ point bump on EX once I hit 12 months on the 4 pulls along with another 20+ point bump for hitting 12 months on my youngest account at the same time so I'm very motivated to keep gardening. I won't be opening any new accounts until after I get my auto loan.

Speaking of EX, they still haven't updated my Self loan balance. Meanwhile my 7th discover statement cut last night at midnight and EX already updated it this morning at 5am. It's pretty strange but I'm still expecting to get a score bump once the loan balance updates eventually.

Thank you for your input! Much appreciated! 

[MarkyB]

My 7th discover statement cut last night after midnight. I was surprised only because today is a holiday (Columbus Day) and figured it would get pushed one extra day. I remember my 2nd statement landed on a Saturday and the statement didn't cut until Sunday after midnight but it still had Saturdays date on it. 

From the research I've gathered, Discover normally graduates cards 2-3 days after the 7th statement cuts so I'll be paying attention to my account. Most people noticed a balance increase well before they received notification of their graduation so I'll keep checking my account after midnight nightly. Wish me luck lol.

[RobynJ]

Awesome Mark,

I had some issues with my car and it wasn't worth putting anymore money into it. We decided to buy a new one. Was approved at Navy FCU for 40k and since my father retired from GM I got the employee discount. I then decided since I fell off my tractor in the garden I would go for my goal card and was approved for the Amex BCP. Funny thing is I lost no points for the inquiries but I'm sure the new accounts I will lose a few. I did the simulator also and it looks like my lowest score of TU will go from 770 down to 755 it says I will lose 20 points on EQ down to 765 and the same with EX down to 76

[SuperFlyEDSguy]

@MarkyB  No problem. The pleasures all mine! 

[SuperFlyEDSguy]

@MarkyB Quite literally every card issuer graduates like this with everything going live shortly after the statement is cut. This would include logging in and seeing that the secured card has become unsecured, seeing the new limits have posted, etc. Generally, you won't see any notification usually for 24 to 48-hours on average. If you keep retuning to the website you'll certainly see some changes behind the scenes letting you know it's done.

• When my NFCU nRewards Card finally graduated, I knew right away because I saw a green card instead of the blue one when logging in. Upon closer inspection, this green card was the cashRewards Card and it also showed a new 2x limit!
  
  
• When my line doubled at Merrick Bank, I saw it a day early!
  
  
• Cap 1 has done the same as far back as I can remember! 
  
  
• Many, many more!

It's actually a business best practice that makes sense as their systems need to load the changes before sending out the notices. It's to prevent any issues, so they have time to fix the problem(s) if there's a glitch. So, I'd say to always check on the start of the business or banking day if expecting to graduate!

[MarkyB]

@RobynJ Buick envision, nice! The interior looks clean in that car. Congrats! Did you need a co-signer or they gave it to you directly? What docs did they ask you to provide?

[RobynJ]

@MarkyB  No completely in my own name. The only thing they required was for me to make sure the title was mailed to them. 72 months @ 6.29% not bad considering the dealership told me the best rate they can offer for 72 months right now is 5.09%. I went with Navy simply because I want to build the relationship. They gave me a 40k loan with only 8 month credit file. Thanks by the way and yes the interior is amazing. 

[FireMedic1]

@RobynJNeed to add the width measurement to the disco card. Its missing:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/qhGQGBh.jpg&quot;" title="title" width="width">

Make the width 75 like the rest of your cards.

The wording in the "title" is the name of the card like you did the rest.

The one that shows the imc wording in the siggy. Delete that. Use:

<img src="imgur direct link" title="name of card" width="75">

You can open a separate page and make changes in settings and refesh this page to see when it changes. Hope that helps.