@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi JBX. I feel your frustration, I just had a melt down over the unfair scoring practices as well....credit scoring seems to look anywhere it can to ding people. It truly is not a fair system to the general population. But we are stuck with it unfortunately.
You haven't said what your current scores are ......that would help this awesome group in the forum give you a bit more insight.
Without knowing what your numbers are, here is some place to start:
Capital One, Chase and Citi all have links to check with a soft pull and see if you qualify for a credit card. Discover does too but you need to know what you are looking at as their "find my card offer' will give you an answer but you need to look at whether or not it shows you a specific interest rate as it 'finds' recommendations for everyone but is not a guarantee. Go to those sites and plug in your info they will be soft pulls. Capital One is generally the most lenient to get started with:
Capital One: https://findmycard.capitalone.com/en/PageVersions/LandingPages/LP_UNS_QUICK_RWD_V01.aspx
CITI: https://www.citicards.com/cards/credit/application/flow.action?isInvitation=
Chase: https://creditcards.chase.com/prequalified-offers
Discover: https://www.discovercard.com/application/fmo?execution=e1s1
My recommendation to you as a new member is to read what you can on here and take full advantage of the knowledge the members of this forum share. It's priceless!
Once you get a credit card, you control what is reported by using the card for daily purchases - like you would your debit card or cash - and then paying it off in full - you can even pay off in full multiple times per month to maximize usage as it will help with credit line increases (CLI) with that card as your history grows. To control reporting, pay in full before the statement date or choose to leave a balance for the statement that is 10% or less of your available credit.
As you show responsible usage and payments month to month, your scores will start to go up. (Not that FICO won't ding you for unbelievable reasons sometimes but having the positive lines will pay off)
Like I said, read read read on here!
Good luck!!!!!
I just applied for and was approved for the Chase Freedom card (from the provided link) and received a credit line of $2,200.
Should I do another as previously suggested? I just don't want it to end up hurt my scores/credit !
Thanks again.
Congrats!!! And that CL is pretty good as a starter from Chase with a limited history! Using that well will really help your internal score wth Chase from what I have learned on here and that will help you out a great bit with time.
I am in the rebuilding / learning stage too......but I have read on here multiple multiple times that 3 credit cards are optimal for building your score. Perhaps some of the trusty and more experienced will chime in but I have read alot of the posts and recommendations on here and they always have sad 3 is optimal for building.
If it were me, I would do the Cap One prequal since it is a soft pull for that and wouldn't be surprised if it didn't say that they will give you a Venture or Venture One. Approved Venture applicants have been on a roll the last 60 days with pretty good starting limits! And if CapOne doesn't give you solid qualify on he soft pull pre-qual, if it just says "We couldn't match your records with a card offer. But based on your answers, we think you might like this card"......then it isn't an approval but the soft inquiry won't help you you can just x out and not apply. It doesn't hit your CR as a HP inquiry. No harm no foul if you don't complete a full app.
Or, try Discover's pre qual. From what I understand, (I can't get back in with them yet), if that link shows you exactly what your APR would be, it is a pretty solid approval to go through with the application and get approved. If it shows the we recommend or something along that line with a range in possible APR it is not solid. So hit or miss if you go thru the full app. But again, checking the pre quals only you can do 20 times a day and no inquiry as its not a full app.
The other alternative is to work with the 2 you have a couple months and then see what your scores do........3-6 months out try a new one and you should have a better score and even better starting CL. I just said 3 as that is the most common recommendation I see in the forum is to have 3 cc lines while building for optimal results.
As for when to pay, I am still playing with mine month to month to find a good spot! Recommendations most often are to let ONE card report a balance of 10% of the full CL or less (in other words let one card have charges show when the statement is cut) and then PIF.
Now, to let internal history build with the creditor, you can use more than that each month and pay off in full or even pay it multiple times within the month BUT have it at a ZERO balance when the statement cuts.
The good thing is that if you get busy and let a balance report that changes your UTIL to above 10% one month, UTIL has no memory so when you PIF the next month your UTIL score rebounds.
The absolute ost important thing is to never miss a payment. Therefore, I set all mine up on auto pay on the due date.......just in case life happens and I don't do the PIF before hand.
Good luck!! Keep us posted!!
