What are my next steps in my rebuild process?

[Anonymous]

So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

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I'm not a veteran here by any means however, our scores are similar and we have similar open tradelines. I honestly think gardening for atleast a year would be best for both of us. I personally plan on applying for an unsecured cc with navy federal after my 6th statement on my secured card with them and LOC. The only reason I plan on doing that is because I have seen so many people have success at that point with them. I too have a US Bank secured cc. I don't expect that to graduate till 18 months or longer. I wish I could get in with discover as you did. It's going to be interesting to see our scores a year from now. God luck on your rebuild :] 

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[Anonymous]

Hi HDF, Thanks for your response. Yeah I'm not looking for any new credit anytime soon. I figured about 18 months for the US Bank card to graduate also, so you and I are thinking the same way!

Why not apply for the Discover card? I applied back in July when I applied for C1 and US Bank and was denied, I waited until my scores rose a little and had my two cards report for a couple months then tried again and was accepted.

I have all the cards I need right now, I just know I'll have to start getting some unsecured credit and I'll have to swap out that capital one card to do it.

Keep me posted on your progress, I'd like to see how we progress and good luck on your rebuild as well!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

---

Hi DV.

You're doing good do far and there is nothing else you should do other than take care of your baddies.  Learn from my mistakes.  Stay away from the SCT.  I got a lot of cards in a short period of time and ended up closing half of them; I should have focused on just getting rid of negative information on my reports.  

As for when to apply.  Barclays likes a year of payment history and a TU score of 620-640 should be sufficient for one of their starter cards.  If you've burned Chase and Citi like I did it may be a long wait.  I burned Discover and I believe that is one of the reasons my card hasn't unsecured in 17 months, but that's okay.  It is soon to be on the chopping block in December.

Capital One really is a good option, but since you can only apply once every 6 months now, I would wait and get a prequel and apply for which ever product comes up, preferably a QS1or QS.  

When your scores hit the 650-660ish range, then you're in the range for other approvals.  I have over $130k in unsecured credit now, but I'm at a point of needing to consolidate some cards I have and hopefully replace Discover card with a card from NFCU and then just work on UTI, and start mortgage hunting next summer.

Keep up the good work you've done.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

---

Disabled-Vet:

I got my first $5k approval with USAA bank and at the time I believe my EQ score was about 630.  I'm satisfied with what I've gotten so far; my last apps were in April when I added 2 cards with PenFed and  Barclays Reward MC (this one was more cause I kept getting denied).  When you decided to apply for unsecured cards just apply for those that fit your need.  I have both the ED and BCE, but I don't make enough purchase with the ED card to take advantage of the points, so I'll wait till January and see if I can move the limit over the the BCE and close it.  I would love to have the Freedom Unlimited, but I'm way past the 5/24 Chase rule and 18 months from now, it may not be that important anymore cause who know what the next best card will be by then.  A lot of people are going after the CSR and it has a lot of good points, but $450 is kinda steep for me (my income would not support it).  I recently switched jobs, so my last card(s) will probably be something with NFCU in about 6 months; then I'm done cause what I have I believe I can get more available credit over $100k.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

---

Hi DV.

You're doing good do far and there is nothing else you should do other than take care of your baddies.  Learn from my mistakes.  Stay away from the SCT.  I got a lot of cards in a short period of time and ended up closing half of them; I should have focused on just getting rid of negative information on my reports.  

As for when to apply.  Barclays likes a year of payment history and a TU score of 620-640 should be sufficient for one of their starter cards.  If you've burned Chase and Citi like I did it may be a long wait.  I burned Discover and I believe that is one of the reasons my card hasn't unsecured in 17 months, but that's okay.  It is soon to be on the chopping block in December.

Capital One really is a good option, but since you can only apply once every 6 months now, I would wait and get a prequel and apply for which ever product comes up, preferably a QS1or QS.  

When your scores hit the 650-660ish range, then you're in the range for other approvals.  I have over $130k in unsecured credit now, but I'm at a point of needing to consolidate some cards I have and hopefully replace Discover card with a card from NFCU and then just work on UTI, and start mortgage hunting next summer.

Keep up the good work you've done.

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Hi Kaykay, thanks for the repsonseand for saying that I am doing good so far, it is good to hear that I am on the right track!

The next 12 months are going to be devoted to paying off my derogatory accounts and negotiating removal of payed off collections and co's etc.

I have no desire for any store cards so the SCT holds no interest for me. The only credit card company I have ever burned was Boa and that was ten years ago and I never paid them off, I am sure that they would never let me have another card again, and I don't have a history with chase or citi..

When should I close out this secured Capital One card, 12 or 18 months?

Have you called and talked with Discover about unsecuring your card? I am sure that you have, I am just double checking. You have had it for 17 months so far, I would ride it out for at most another 7 to try to get it unsecured, it would be a shame to wait this long and close it, what is another 7 months really? I would be calling them weekly until they gave in and unsecured it lol.

130k is impressive! I have read some great things about NFCU, I have been kicking around the idea of applying when my scores reach the mid 600's and then using that for my one unsecured card to apply fo.r I just don't know, there are so many options out there. I think that for me, 4 to 6 credit cards is all that I will ever need to have at one time.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

---

Disabled-Vet:

I got my first $5k approval with USAA bank and at the time I believe my EQ score was about 630.  I'm satisfied with what I've gotten so far; my last apps were in April when I added 2 cards with PenFed and  Barclays Reward MC (this one was more cause I kept getting denied).  When you decided to apply for unsecured cards just apply for those that fit your need.  I have both the ED and BCE, but I don't make enough purchase with the ED card to take advantage of the points, so I'll wait till January and see if I can move the limit over the the BCE and close it.  I would love to have the Freedom Unlimited, but I'm way past the 5/24 Chase rule and 18 months from now, it may not be that important anymore cause who know what the next best card will be by then.  A lot of people are going after the CSR and it has a lot of good points, but $450 is kinda steep for me (my income would not support it).  I recently switched jobs, so my last card(s) will probably be something with NFCU in about 6 months; then I'm done cause what I have I believe I can get more available credit over $100k.

Good luck.

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Thanks Bigdaddy for your response. I bank with USAA as well. I primarily just use them for insurance. Maybe I will look into their cards when my scores are better. One day when my scores are better and I have a lot of the negatives off of my reports I would like to apply for the BCE. That is a card I can see myself using along with my discover it card. Congrats on all your success, and thank you again for your post.

[Creditwiser]

You're doing good thus far. As others mentioned, try to refrain on any new credit for a while and focus on managing what you have and working on your CR's and any baddies.  The rest will fall in to place for you as your scores climb. Try not to harp on the secured cards.  They still report positively on your CR's and as you know, many of them will unsecure in time.  Just stay the course and you'll be in a much better place in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response creditwiser.

I've stated pretty well that I don't want any new credit. I was just asking for a time line for when I should apply for unsecured credit and when I should close out the secured cap 1 card whether it be at 12 or 18 months and still haven't had a clear answer on that.

I am staying the course, I know this is a long term plan of action. I'm just trying to map out my game plan

Like I said the next 12 months is being devoted to working on clearing the collections and 2 charge offs I have and finishing rehabbing my student loan. I am in no hurry here at all. I am not planning on applying for anything unless it will benefit my rebuild and long term goals. I don't want a credit card just for the sake of having one.

I do not any more credit right now. I will be needing a home loan in 22 months, my credit should be clear by then and I hope to be fully repaired and to be fully graduated and have some prime credit by then.

Thank you very much for your response

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
So here is my status as of last week.

1. Share secured loan $500 variable rate opened July paid down down $400
2. Capital one secured 1k credit limit opened in July
3. US Bank Secured card 1k credit limit opened in July
4. Discover It Secured card 2.5k credit limit opened in October
5. Began rehabbing my defaulted student loan I have made 2 payments so far.

I've never carried a balance on my cards only let one card report on a statement of 1% then paid off immediately.

Fico scores have jumped from 485 to EX 589, TU 591, EQ 603

While I work on my negatives, what should I do credit wise? I do not believe I need any new credit cards. But I know I will need to trade my secured Capital One card for an unsecured product in the future.

I'm unsure if I want another Capital One card considering they pull all 3 for the app, but I would like the advice of the experts here. I'm planning on keeping the Discover it and US Bank cards until they graduate.

When is the appropriate time to apply for an unsecured card? When is the appropriate time to close my Cap One secured card? What score range should I be at when I apply? Should I just get another secured card that will graduate? I'd rather not do this considering I have enough money tied up in secured credit and don't want to tie up any more.

I am in no rush, I have to spend a lot of time paying off and negotiating the negatives on my reports. I am just needing to fine-tune my game plan a little.

Thanks for any advice.

---

Hi DV.

You're doing good do far and there is nothing else you should do other than take care of your baddies.  Learn from my mistakes.  Stay away from the SCT.  I got a lot of cards in a short period of time and ended up closing half of them; I should have focused on just getting rid of negative information on my reports.  

As for when to apply.  Barclays likes a year of payment history and a TU score of 620-640 should be sufficient for one of their starter cards.  If you've burned Chase and Citi like I did it may be a long wait.  I burned Discover and I believe that is one of the reasons my card hasn't unsecured in 17 months, but that's okay.  It is soon to be on the chopping block in December.

Capital One really is a good option, but since you can only apply once every 6 months now, I would wait and get a prequel and apply for which ever product comes up, preferably a QS1or QS.  

When your scores hit the 650-660ish range, then you're in the range for other approvals.  I have over $130k in unsecured credit now, but I'm at a point of needing to consolidate some cards I have and hopefully replace Discover card with a card from NFCU and then just work on UTI, and start mortgage hunting next summer.

Keep up the good work you've done.

---

Hi Kaykay, thanks for the repsonseand for saying that I am doing good so far, it is good to hear that I am on the right track!

The next 12 months are going to be devoted to paying off my derogatory accounts and negotiating removal of payed off collections and co's etc.

I have no desire for any store cards so the SCT holds no interest for me. The only credit card company I have ever burned was Boa and that was ten years ago and I never paid them off, I am sure that they would never let me have another card again, and I don't have a history with chase or citi..

When should I close out this secured Capital One card, 12 or 18 months?

Have you called and talked with Discover about unsecuring your card? I am sure that you have, I am just double checking. You have had it for 17 months so far, I would ride it out for at most another 7 to try to get it unsecured, it would be a shame to wait this long and close it, what is another 7 months really? I would be calling them weekly until they gave in and unsecured it lol.

130k is impressive! I have read some great things about NFCU, I have been kicking around the idea of applying when my scores reach the mid 600's and then using that for my one unsecured card to apply fo.r I just don't know, there are so many options out there. I think that for me, 4 to 6 credit cards is all that I will ever need to have at one time.

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I've called Discover card a few times and each time, I've been told that my account is reviewed when my statement cuts.  I don't see any point in continuing to tie up money with them when I have other options available now.  BCP meets my needs and has become my go to card.  When I started rebuilding, I said that I would only get a few cards and it didn't end up that way, but I only have the cards that I actually use;  that's why I'm at the point of replacing cards with better cards and at some point in time, I'll revisit the issue of store cards,  but since Walmart offers statement credit and Sam's Club cash back, they are definitely keepers; so is Amazon and Lowe's.  The others I decide about later on in time.

Have a great week.