Rebuilding Recommendation

[CS11]

Hi all,

I recently started taking my credit serious after a few years (defaulted student loans, 3 CO cc). My credit score is abysmal only 2 cc both charge offs and student loans on there. 

Prior to nov I haven't applied for any new credit or had any open credit cards since 2014. I didn't want to apply for any subprime cards so after lurking here for a while I applied for the secured discover it card I was approved and opened it with 500. Weeks later I was reading how lenient NFCU was and decided to give them a shot. Applied for the cash rewards card and to my surprise I was approved for 3,500. 

My my initial plan of action was to wait until April (or when my loans were not reporting defaulted status) and try my hand with AMEX, but today I ran across a post saying NFCU has lowered their secured card minimum to 200 from the 500. It seems too good to pass up with such a small investment in comparison to the FICO benefits that it would provide.

I hadn't planned on going for another card so soon but do you guys think it would be beneficial to go ahead and get my third cc with Navy now or play the waiting game for AMEX. I would love for all my new accts to be opened around the same time but I'm also not in any kind of rush. 

[pizza1]

Hi and welcome to the forums!!

Personally, I would work with the two cards you just got, and wait Amex a bit. I don't think you need a secured NFCU cc, you just got a nice unsecured one for $3.5k with them.

Wait until April or July ..its not that far off, and you'll have at least 6 months of good positive payment history reporting.

You got this!!

[RonM21]

I think Pizza has given good advice here. Grow what you have for a bit and then eventually you'll be better positioned for Amex. What were your scores by the way, and are they Fico scores?

[CS11]

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@RonM21 wrote:
I think Pizza has given good advice here. Grow what you have for a bit and then eventually you'll be better positioned for Amex. What were your scores by the way, and are they Fico scores?

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Hi thanks for the replies, I will be setting up all of my autopays with these 2 cards and PIF when the statement posts . I don'thave access to the exact numbers right now as I left the reports at work, but all three FICO scores are hovering in the 520 area