Okay. My Equifax fico is up from 493 to 649. I just refinanced my car, so I have an iquiry from that, and I also have an inquiry from Target yesterday... have to wait to find out on that one.. Question #1- Has anyone been approved for target visa or guest saying that they'd get a letter in the mail and then they actually got the card? Question #2- With 2 charge offs (newest being 4 years ago) and 4 collections (newest being 5 years ago) ALL of it paid- where is the best place to look for a card to rebuild my credit? The accounts I do have: Car loan (pays as agreed- no lates) 4 student loans (pays as agreed- no lates) In a few days, the car loan should be paid in full and the new car loan should show up.. I'm hoping for a window there to raise my score, albeit falsely. Any ideas?
Oh, and I also have a CC that was paid in full and as agreed that I closed a few years ago, which in retrospect, I should have kept, but I didn't.
First, may I comment congrats on getting your score boosted so well. OK the way I see it, you have 2 choices. 1: Get an almost guarenteed "subprime" and build to high end prime cards. Or 2: Go for the gusto! Your scores are borderline between prime and subprime, so apply to BOA or Discover or even AMEX. Choose ONLY one, and cross your fingers. If you get refused, you'll have to wait 2-3 months before applying with Sub Prime. Now for "Sub Prime" . . . best thing to have a good mix, try and get one of those gas cards. Do you have any Chevron stations around you? I got a Chevron card with $300 limit, no fees, and if you don't qualify for their prime card you automatically get offered their "Credit Rebuilder" card (which mine is) All that means, is that if you miss a payment they suspend the account the day it was due, and after a year of good payments it can be reviewed for upgrade. Now once you've gotten accepted for a gas card, wait a month then go for a Visa / MC. I know some may call me crazy for saying this, but Providian. They're not as generous as they were back when I got my first Providian card (scores were in the 400's with 5 unpaid charge offs that were under 2 years old) but with the scores you have you should easily qualify for a good limit card. It still might be "Sub Prime" but it will give you something to build on while you get rid of the rest of your report (fall off within 3 years) Expect an annual fee over $50, and a percentage up through the roof (18-28%) so then if you qualify for one of their premium packages with lower fees and interest you will be plesantly suprised. If you want to avoid Providian, try Capital One. If you go sub prime, you want 1 Gas card, 1 Sub Prime Visa / MC, and nothing else for a while. In the sub prime market, you get hit with so much fee and interest that you really don't want more than one card. Besides, once you've had an account with them for a while, and once the bad stuff has fallen off, you can often get them to agree to remove annual fees, up the limit, and reduce interest rate. At any rate, you can apply for a prime card when it's all fallen off and use that as leverage to get better terms on your older tradeline. Hope I was of some help. ChrisB
