Unable to get approved

[Anonymous]

Lots of advice here.
I would verify and dispute if there are discrepancies of any kind WHILE building.
Here is a review of OpenSky and checking out Green Dot may make sense, too.
The other poster was correct that the are not the most ideal because they don't graduate into unsecured cards. But with your current scores it might help to start somewhere and secured cards report to all 3 bureaus as credit cards and, well, it's good practice to start new/better habits.

https://www.highya.com/opensky-secured-visa-reviews

[Medic981]

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@RehabbingANDBlabbing wrote:

My advice is to dispute the crap out of your negatives. If you only have those 3 collections, you could do a round of disputes with each credit bureau every 35 days until they are gone. Then you might qualify for a Discover secured, Cap1 card, or BofA secured. If you aren't in any rush, just dispute for 2-3 months and get the negatives removed because it will make your entire credit building/rebuilding journey go much faster.

For the collections, I recommend sending a debt validation letter to all 3 of them. About a week after that, you need to send disputes on all 3 collections to all the credit bureaus. This is known as the 1-2 punch method. Essentially, the collection agencies cannot verify with the credit bureaus that the account is valid during the window of debt validation. This quite often will get collections deleted pretty quickly. But you must mail out the debt validation letters to these collection agencies via certified mail with a return receipt and you must also send the credit bureau dispute by mail as well. Hopefully, this helps you! This is a super condensed version of this info, so feel free to google any questions you might have. I think many people aren't aware of just how strong the FDCPA and FCRA laws are in terms of getting stuff like this deleted. Creditors almost always have some sort of illegal inaccuracies posted on negative accounts.

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This is not the place to exchange “credit repair” advice that encourages consumers to provide untrue or misleading information to a credit bureau or lender for the purpose of raising FICO scores or otherwise improving credit ratings, credit histories or credit records. Such material may be edited or removed, and egregious or repeat offenders will be banned from future participation in FICO Forums.

Never ever dispute accurately reporting derogatory items on your credit report. Disputes are for removing inaccurate information from your credit report. By disputing accurate derogatory information, it will be updated and drop your FICO score.

Some people suggest throwing everything against the wall and see what sticks. What can happen is an original creditor (OC) or collection agency (CA) fails to verify the derogatory within the time limit and the derogatory is removed. FICO jumps and success!!!

What happens next is the OC or the CA gets around to verifying and updating the account and BOOM!!! The derogatory is back with a vengeance and your FICO is lower than before. Never ever dispute accurately reporting derogatory items on your credit report. (Unless you want to intentionally trash your FICO scores. YMMV)

[Brooklyn2018]

++++1@Medic981👍

@OP

This is why you pull a copy of all 3B reports. You’ll go over every single account and make sure they are reporting CORRECTLY before you initiate ANY dispute...and if errors are found(?) It’s more advisable to dispute DIRECTLY to CA/OC(through a letter CMRRR) to have the information corrected by either the CA or OC, if an error is found. This way you aren’t(as Medic981 state’s so clearly) trashing your scores. Plus, if the error is not corrected and they still continue to report it inaccurately(?) then you have a solid defense. You want THEM to make the MISTAKES, not you.
Though, it is true. You can app for the few that will help during this process. IMHO, I wouldn’t start inviting people to my party unless I did a little house cleaning first. Just food for thought. Ultimately, it will be your choice moving forward. Rebuilding is a strategic game with precise planning. You move certain pieces to open up better positions but, if you move all your pieces at once, you’ll end up stuck and confused and have wasted lots of time making poor choices.
Read all you can, OP. Take that time and read as many threads as you can. Type in the search box on topics that will not only interest you but, will better serve your rebuild. IMHO, before you do anything that you are completely unsure of(?) comeback here an ask. You’ll get the advice to better serve your rebuild and help enhance your credit journey now and far into the future.

Again, no offense to the other poster-Starting SOMEWHERE is great advice, definitely +1👍
Opensky, from what I’ve read can be a great start. I thought about app’g for it but, from what I’ve read on MyFICO Forums that it’s not a sprint but a marathon...and I figured 2-3 months of cleaning my reports correctly would put me in a better position to app for cards that not only would graduate but, also grow with me. Again, hats off on the advisement of other Secured cards without a HP. Very beneficial information.👍

As always OP-YMMV

Best of Luck👍

😊

[calyx]

+1 to everything Medic said.

When I started my credit repair journey, I was also denied secured cards from the major/non-predatory lenders.
I opened an Opensky credit card (I see people suggesting them, but I don't know if anyone has any personal experience with them, so I wanted to share), and I have found them *very* easy to work with.   
At the same time, order all three major CRA credit reports, and go through them - dispute any inaccurate information by writing, with the CRAs and appropriate documentation.   If there's any information that you are unsure of, I would then send debt validation requests.

If your collections are yours, I would pay them and then request they delete the information through goodwill (or negotiate pay for delete).  But paid collections will help your credit profile immensely.

Once you're done with the major credit bureaus, I would start working on the smaller ones - SageStream, Innovis, etc...

Good luck!

[pinkandgrey]

Look into Total Visa if you haven’t already