Rebuilding 1 week post Chapter 7

[LJGoose]

Ok few questions folks. First abit of background. My Chapter 7 was dischared on 7/11/18 and to much relief. Since it has been discharged I would like to get feedback on what I am doing.

3 days post discharge I went to the Capital One prequalify site for the heck of it. To my complete shock I was approved for the Platinum with a $300 credit line. They were burned in the Chapter 7 for about $4k. Now for the questions.

 - What I am doing right now is charging regular expenses that I already expected on the card. As of now I have $90 charged to it. Groceries and gas. As soon as the charges post I plan on paying $70 or so toward it before the statement date and allowing the $20 to be due but paying it off right after I get the bill. My thinking is to keep the usage below 10% by only allowing $29 to be billed out. In the meantime while doing this I am hoping that Capital One will see that I am using the card constantly and offer a big CLI to improve my score and other cards in the future! Am I going about this the right way?

I also have another card with Chase that I have never used and continues to report $0/$500 now for 12+ years. It was a Military card issued by chase when I was in the Army. What other options should I try to get more accounts on my profile? I do not have a car loan now either and have no plan for one for atleast 1-2 years. When the time comes I plan on getting a car loan under my name for my wife being that her car is abit older. Both cars right now are under my wifes name. We got another car after deciding to not reaffirm my car loan under her. Long story short I was paying $530 a month for a 2015 Corolla. My new car is about $270 a month for a 2016 Focus.

 - I was thinking of a credit builder loan. Which ones does everyone recommend? 

 - What other card should I am for? I am only looking to get 1 other card and plan on only keeping 2 cards at a time. That is how I got in trouble the last time. 

So folks what do you recommend? 

[Anonymous]

It looks like you might be in credit steps with your cap one platinum card.  They may issue a CLI increase 90-120 days after you account opening.  You can get the CLI then and another one automatically after completing the credit steps.  This account is probably bucketed and you might not experience much growth on this cc.  Use it wisely keeping low balances or PIF before due date. And then in about 9-12 months you should be able to qualify for better credit cards.  Once your score is higher and you have some history you can open another cap one card that is not bucketed and will have a higher SL and better CLI.

Having one installment loan will help your fico.  I am using a shared secured loan from my local credit union.  Alliant, Penfed, NFCU, SDFCU all offer these types of loans. 

I would try for a third credit card, even a secured one.  Discover IT is a good one and they have a prequal website like cap one.  

The ideal amount of credit cards to have to maximize your score would be 3.  Have 2 of them reporting 0 balances and the third showing under 8% every month.  Research the "AZEO method." There is also a helpful thread about going from BK discharge to 700+ fico score in 24 months around here.   Good luck on the rebuild!