Once I got the commitment letter for my loan, I decided to take Household up on their offer. I don't get many offers and this is literally the best one I've seen - no annual fee, 14% interest (yeah, I know) and a max $5k CL for a gold card. I figured I'd get a $300 CL, since the last card I was approved for was the Target Guest (turned down for the Visa) for $300. I was quite surprised to (a) get approved instantly and (b) get a $5k CL. Looks like they pulled EQ, which is my lowest score, probably around 680 or so. The good news is I'll be able to get the inquiry off in no time!
Congrats on the HH. I applied for a HH cc during my bk-13 days. If memory serves me right it was in the 6th year of my bk, FICO at that time was around the 680 mark. I was denied due to the bk on file. Best regards, Mirage
I don't know how a ch13 is treated, but I can tell you my ch7 has been a scarlet letter despite my good scores. Household sent me an orchard card a few months ago, I passed on the offer. I see they pulled a promo back in Sep, so I figured they must know about my Ch7. I decided to take the chance *after* I was on my way to my mortgage closing. I did NOT expect to get such a high CL, especially since that's their specified highest CL on the offer.
But with those scores and limit on the DMB card you were a good candidate to get the 5K limit. This is almost the same limit (5500) MBNA gave me, but at the time, my highest limit was 3K and my scores were lower than yours...think I was averaging 692 or so. Fairly decent APR you got too, I'm paying 12.9 on most of my cards. Anyways, Congratulations!!
DanS, I got the same thing last week. APR 14.74%, annual fee $0, 6 months 0%. They only pulled EQ also. Were your terms simular? I did the same thing you did by ignoring the Orchard attempt a few months ago. CL $300-$5000 and HH approved me $5000 CL also. I don't know what Household was smoking last week but they should share it with the CRA's.
I did not see 0%, so I passed on the BT offer online. I've got 3.9% for six months w/DMB, so I'm piling everything there for a while. I suspect there might be a better offer if we didn't pick up on this round, but I figured with my change of address and possible HELOC for a 2nd (to avoid PMI), I might not qualify in the near future. This will really be it for quite a while, since I've hit my goal of getting a mortgage w/good terms and I've got 22k of CL to bounce things around for a while. Given the scarlet letters of BK, I'll just work on getting my (released) liens and BK off my public records for the next year or two. The other possible move - if it is possible - is getting a card w/the bank underwriting my mortgage after a year or so.
I am also done with applying for more credit cards. It took me a week to talk myself into the Household offer. Being the FICO nut that I am, here were the negatives on doing this. #1 The hard pull #2 Average age of revolving accounts #3 Time since most recent account was opened #4 The amount of open tradelines with a BK Positives #1 It will be my highest open credit line #2 It will also put pressure on the other creditors #3 It will open another positive TL on the reports #4 It will be easier to stay around 1-2% on balances If I would have received a low credit line it would not have been worth it at all. It was actually a tough decision but I think it was the right one receiving the max offered. DanS, after the HELOC hits your reports can you post the FICO score changes? It would help me decide which route to go when I get to that point. CONGRATS on your credit life after Bankruptcy!
Thanks, been a long strange trip indeed. I actually started planning this before I filed my BK and I think keeping (or trying to keep) a half dozen cards through the BK helped me get higher scores. I don't think I'll actually get a HELOC, at least not for a while. I wanted a blend and a HELOC was one of the options on the blend. But I did not qualify - five times - for a blended mortgage so I finally took the hint, bit the bullet and decided that even w/PMI, I'm way ahead of renting.
