Welcome to the forums! I've moved your thread over to the rebuilding forum as you will likely encounter more members of the community knowledgeable about the best products for you to go for.
@Butchhtown wrote:Hello all, this is my first post here! Ive been lurking for a while now and wanted to thank everyone who uses this board. It's Been tremendous in helping me rebuild my credit. with help from you guys I managed to get up from a 480 to a 610-630 across the bureaus in 6 months.
I had over 16 baddies, but now currently have 4 baddies reporting to all 3 that I'm working on they're all more than 1 years old and mostly medical, one cell phone bill, also one car repossession showing a 0 balance (sold for more at auction then was owed).
I have 2 open accounts as of right now,
A 36m car loan with a 3rd of it payed off
A $500 secured cap1 ive been nearly maxing and paying off. I've had it for 6 months now.
Also a CLOSED wellsfargo secured in good standing closed 3 years ago.
i was reading that at least 3 credit cards are suggested for boosting credit.
So I'm looking for some cards to just help with rebuilding. I've tried every prequalify link in that thread and I have 4 offers that I would like your opinion on.
Capital one wants to give me a second card. Either QS1 or just the platinum card.
The Lexus card through commenity pre approved me for $750.
Credit one pre approved me.mission lane also pre approved me.
also, I tried the shopping cart trick and had 3-4 stores give me a pre approval.
Please, I need advice on what card(s) to get. Or if I should even get a card right now. I'm also open to cold applying if you think another card is suited better.
Thanks for the help!
I've seen the suggested cards you're talking about before. One looks pre-baller (Cap 1), but the others baffle me because they look to be presented to sub-prime borrowers that want to confirm that they will remain sub-prime borrowers. If I were to go back to my post-2011 BK, I would go to 3 major CC banks (Discover Bank, Citibank, & Bank of America) and ask them if I would be eligible for a $200 secured CC. Six months later, do it again with US Bank, Capital One, & Well Fargo. 6 CC's in a year plus a car loan exceeds the thin account # of 5. BANKS GRADUATE YOU TO UNSECURED CARDS WHEN YOU PERFORM WELL (hopefully), plus CLI's. Then I'd garden for a year and then bust out the Amex UNsecured cards. Or wait 18 months to start a Chase Bankcard relationship (keeping their 5/24 rule in mind). All in all, I'd like to see big names in my wallet from jump, not jewelry store names. Would you rather have a 5-year-old Citi in your wallet or a 5-year-old shopping cart card? JMHO
@Butchhtown wrote:Thanks for the reply.
I seen you said I should ask them if I'm eligible. Is there a better way than pre qualifying online?
also would you suggest the capital 1 platinum as a second card? I'm not sure about having 2 cards from the same bank but I really don't know what I'm doing and I'll take all the advice I can get
I'm no expert but I do like the sharing of ideas and strategies. To be honest, I see no problem having a number of cards from the same bank (I have 4 Amex cards) especially if subsequent cards are soft pulls. You may find a lot of threads on here regarding the Chase Trifecta or Amex Card Strategies which involve acquiring multiple cards from the same source.
As for your eligibility question, pre-qual is what I was referring to but in person...like in the olden days. Not sure if it would be different from on-line pre-qual. That's harsh that BoA balked; they were my first secured card after my BK. I was going to suggest building relationships with the banks first, but BoA shut that theory down. I WOULD REALLY PRESS THEM FOR THE ANSWER WHY. It may be a simple fix, or It could just be them. I here US Bank is very friendly to their constituents. I opened a bank account with them for that reason. I'm just gardening with them at the moment.
If you are averse to inquiries, you may want to stick to the last 4 SS# pre-qual type of cards for now 'til you get your 5 in. When I suggested 3 new accounts now and 3 new ones in 6 months, that was with the hope to have your inquiries possibly land on different bureaus. Also, to know who looks where you may call the bank's CC dept. and say that to apply for their card you have to unfreeze your credit report. Hopefully, they'll tell you which bureau to unfreeze, which is the bureau they use. You may be able to spread your inquiries out this way.
Back to the present, my strategy after my two secured cards was the unsecured Discover it (accepted), Chase (rejected - BK), Amex (accepted). Then I kept stacking Amex because they soft pull after your 1st hard pull. I'm just gardening now until my Early Exclusion date for my BK hits in May '21.