Long time Lurker

[christinam77]

Hi all! I'm along time lurker and finally coming out of the woodwork.  You all don't know it but this site has been a wealth of knowledge.  My husband & I have been working on rebuilding our credit since late 2011 so we can get ourselves into a home.

I was advised by our lender that we both needed to apply for a Credit Card  (the Fingerhut and Care Credit were Meh... okay but we needed something revolving) so here's where my questions come in.

I applied for a Capital One card on Monday - got the message online I would hear something in 7-10 days. Of course I couldn't wait so I called the backdoor # last night. The only info I was provided was that I was Approved however the account hadn't been established or something of the sort. He couldn't give me my CL but said I would receive my card in the mail once everything was set up.

Now yesterday when I got home, I recieved a pre-approved from First Premier Bank. CL of 750.00 but of course once they take out their yearly fee, monthly fee and some other fee it would be a 650.00 in available credit. Should I get this? Or wait to see what happens with Capital One?

Last, while noseying around last night I came across the "Shopping Card Trick" son of a gun it worked for VS with a 250CL. I didn't take the offer because I wanted to get y'alls thoughts.

Which card/cards are going to be in my best interest? Any recommendations for my husband? He can't apply for CO because that was one of his charge-offs.

Thank you all so much!

[Shogun]

My personal recommendation would be to get that Cap1 and accept the VS card.  This would give you two positive revolving TLs to help your CR grow.

[MegaMom]

Hi!

The boards have helped me in more ways than I could ever explain. 

I had a mess of credit from my ex, & ultimately had to file for bk7.  So I have to live with that for 8 more years. 

I did have excellent credit prior, so I really don’t know if that helped me in any way.

One year after my bk discharge,I was in the high 500's,  I applied for a Cap1, Secured, 50 dep & got a 200cl. & a car loan for 17k a month later.  I am paying 10% interest, which hurts.

I charged only $20. a month. I got a auto $100. cli at 3 months. At the 6 month mark I applied for a non-secured Cap1.  I got $1k limit.  I do not go over 10% .  I think that has been KEY for my scores. 

Around the same time I too found the shopping cart trick with VS & got 500cl.

Then the next step I found on this site is Barclays Visa.  I applied online, got the “call” msg, & got a 1700.00 cl. 

Now that I have 3 non secured cards, I am gardening for 2 yrs.  That’s when some of the baddies will fall off.  Not that I need to apply for anything else, but I would like to be able to if need be.

My recommendation would be get the VS card & Cap one.  Then try for another.  Never charge more than 30%, keep it lower if possible.  PIF every month.  I would say in 6mo-1yr, you will see a huge difference in your scores.

Good Luck!!

[pedsaktix]

OP -  Since I'm a new member and still trying to learn the do's and don't.. I don't think an advise from me would be helpful at all..  so sorry if I'm not a bit of help..  but I'm intrigue .. what is the "shopping cart trick"..  Not that I need another revolving credit.. maybe I do... to maybe lower my utilization but I that's another topic.. 

[MegaMom]

Copied form another thread in BK...

These websites (and they are others) are all a part of the same network: WFNNB, World Financial Network Bank. They usually pull Experian reports, but some may pull others. They are all retail cards, some are Visa branded, most are not. Mostly clothes, some furniture and other things. I have seen most in the mall or catalogs I get in the mail:

Abercrombie & Fitch Ann Taylor Ashley Stewart Avenue Bealls Brylane Home The Buckle Catherines Chadwicks of Boston Crate and Barrel Domestications Dress Barn Eddie Bauer Express Fashion Bug Friedman’s Jewelers Goody's Family Clothing J.Crew Jessica London KingSize La Redoute Lane Bryant Lerner New York Limited Too MetroStyle New York & Company Newport News Peebles Pottery Barn Roamans Silhouettes Spiegel Structure The Company Store The Limited Victoria's Secret

SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER:

SOFT INQUIRIES Since these are preapprovals by soft inquiries, your credit report does not get hit with a hard inquiry, therefore your credit score is not affected and other creditors do not see soft inquiries, only hard inquiries.

AGE OF ACCOUNTS If you are rebuilding, you may want to add positive accounts now so that 6 months, a year or two down the road these accounts have aged and helped improve your scores.

CREDIT MIX AND UTILIZATION These lines would help your credit mix and add to your total credit line. They may be small at first, so to help your score you could either pay in full each bill or only use a small amount. Yes, keep in mind I have heard 35% of your credit line used is ok, but 10% utilization is golden to your FICO scores. Let’s say you have a $500 credit limit. If you use 35% of that, it is $175 the most you can use. 10% of $500 would be $50, the most you could use.

DO NOT APPLY IF NOT PREAPPROVED If you are rebuilding and do not see a preapproval offer, I would not apply for the credit b/c then you will have a hard inquiry and we all know hard inquiries do hurt your score, especially after 5 in the last 6 months.

CREDIT LINE INCREASES: These companies normally give out credit line increases in 9 months provided you have a good credit limit, etc. at the time. I haven’t had mine that long to say if it is true.

AS ALWAYS PLEASE BE RESPONSIBLE!!!! You want to build credit so that lenders can see an excellent credit history. Getting cards and charging them up to the max can hurt your score really bad!!!

Please note, everyone’s situation is not the same so you may have different outcomes.

HOW TO SEE IF YOU ARE PREAPPROVED

Go to the website: http://www.victoriasecret.com orhttp://www.express.com for example.

Add a few things to your cart, an item or two and go to check out as if you would order normally and register when it asks. I don’t think you have to input any credit card info. After you register with items in your cart, the preapproval should just pop up. At that point you can accept the offer and it will let you know your limit. You don’t have to buy anything to accept the offer.

There are tons of WFNNB stores, but I’m not sure if this works for all. Somehow, their system softs your credit report and all it needs is your address and date of birth, maybe phone number. They may need your ssn to confirm the offer, but that is it.

[pedsaktix]

Thanks.. Megamom.

[RobertEG]

I would be a bit cautious in their assertions that response to pre-approval offers wont result in a hard pull.

That is not really the case.

It is true that when a creditor extends a promotional offer for credit that was not initiated by the consumer, the FCRA specifically precludes their inquiry from appearing in the consumer's credit report.  A so-called "soft" inquiry.  The only soft inquiry mandated by statute.  The creditor only gets the consumer's name and address under the promotional offer type of inquiry, so they will evaluate the consumer's credit after they bite on the offer.

If the consumer responds by initiating a request based on that promotional offer, the creditor then receives permissible purpose under FCRA 604  to pull  the consumer's full CR.

They did not have a full CR when making the promotional offer, thus the next step of getting the consumer to initiate their own app so they can peek at their full CR.

[pedsaktix]

So regardless.. Store credits will in the end still result in a hard full of your CR?.. 

[Shogun]

By using the "shopping cart trick" it doesn't result in a HP.

[MegaMom]

It did not for me with VS. on any of the 3.  When it reported about 2 weeks later, my score went up about 10 pts.