Trying to clean up my credit.

[RMN]

Do you want to know the real secret  to awesome credit and credit worthiness with real banks, then you have to flip your thinking and play by the rules of the credit  institutions themselves.  Credit repair is secondary, unreliable, and doesnt give you any real credit building options that mean anything that can give you financial security. Sure, you can do credit repair and it is recommended, but the real key is credit optimization. I worked with United Credit Repair back in the day and we were very effective.  Fast forward decades later, now I know what really matters.  I am not selling anything, just telling you what I am doing now.

[Anonymous]

---

@RMN wrote:

Do you want to know the real secret  to awesome credit and credit worthiness with real banks, then you have to flip your thinking and play by the rules of the credit  institutions themselves.  Credit repair is secondary, unreliable, and doesnt give you any real credit building options that mean anything that can give you financial security. Sure, you can do credit repair and it is recommended, but the real key is credit optimization. I worked with United Credit Repair back in the day and we were very effective.  Fast forward decades later, now I know what really matters.  I am not selling anything, just telling you what I am doing now.

---

^^^^ +1

Preach it, Brotha! The key to rebuilding is rebuilding.... The rest (the cleanup/repair) will take care of itself in time even if you do nothing. Its all about knowing how to optimize your use of credit. If you don't learn that you will usually be right back where you began in a few years.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the advise guys.

i understand what you are saying.

i do not want to splurge and over spend and end up in  the same situation again.

what i do want to do is work on my credit in order to refi the auto loan i just got.

i am on a very high APR and very high monthly payments.

if it was not for this auto loan i jumped into in order to provide my wife and kids with transportation while i am working , i would do the process of "credit optimization" that you speak of nice and slow i know over time i would be in great shape.

but i kind of want to see if i can get good enough credit to refi the auto loan get lower montly payments and better APR

am i doing the right thing by getting a cap one card + a few SCT from online retailers?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

thanks for the advise guys.

i understand what you are saying.

i do not want to splurge and over spend and end up in  the same situation again.

what i do want to do is work on my credit in order to refi the auto loan i just got.

i am on a very high APR and very high monthly payments.

if it was not for this auto loan i jumped into in order to provide my wife and kids with transportation while i am working , i would do the process of "credit optimization" that you speak of nice and slow i know over time i would be in great shape.

but i kind of want to see if i can get good enough credit to refi the auto loan get lower montly payments and better APR

am i doing the right thing by getting a cap one card + a few SCT from online retailers?

---

Yes, but I would recomend no more than one retail card, and at leat two bank cards. Capital One will issue a second card.

[elim]

try cap1 and see if you get any offers. "bank cards"...

https://findmycard.capitalone.com/en/PageVersions/LandingPages/LP_ONE_V01.aspx

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

The key to rebuilding is rebuilding.... The rest (the cleanup/repair) will take care of itself in time even if you do nothing.

---

That's the current plan I'm on, and I love it. Got two cards, never making late payments, and just playing the waiting game for the bad stuff to fall off. Doing nothing is what I do best!

[RMN]

LOL!  I am taking a different approach by playing their game to win, so I can get to the point where if I want to do nothing,  I can.  Game on!

[Anonymous]

When I started, I was mostly at the tail end of 7.5 years on everything. The last major item falls off next month. I'll be trying a PFD on the second item. And the third item will remain for another 4 years, so there's nothing I can do but offset that with positive history.

[AutoBot]

Not meaning to get off topic here, but what is a good unsecured credit card to start with that has the potential for steady CLIs whe you have a FICO in the low 600s?

[Anonymous]

I get the gist of what RMN is saying. He makes some valid points and to be frank, his take on CAP1 is pretty relevant. If my lack of credit was enticing to the bigger, well established banks, they'd be all over me like a cheap suit. I've been banking with Chase for the last 25 years and couldn't get a card with them. Instead I went to CAP1. Yes, it's still valid credit and will still increase my scores if used correctly. The difference is if I had a Chase card, the pereption of my credit from other lenders would be in a better light and bear more weight than my credit from CAP1.In the end though, it still counts.

Everyones goal here is to improve upon what we have. We all need to start our journey's somewhere. For me it's CAP1. In the future, it will include other more established credit giving businesses.