I discharged a Chap. 7 BK in Feb. 1999 under California law due to an injury. California is more liberal than many states and I kept all of my assets (mainly retirement funds). I returned to the work world immediately and began to aquire more credit with ease through friendly credit unions, good luck and the greed of Ford to sell me a nice truck at a favorable interest rate. So far so good. Two weeks ago, I decided to expand my open credit beyond: Ford auto loan $10,500 left out of 19,500. Macy's card $600 limit Robinsons-May card $1,000 Capital One Gold $3,000 limit / 20.5% apr abc credit union visa $2,000 limit / 13.9 apr xyz credit union visa $3,000 limit / 13.9 apr Yesterday, Providian gave me a $3,000 gold card at 23.9% apr, 25 day grace period and no annual fee. I took it because I was preaproved and many writers here on the board mentioned the apr is negotiable after 6 months. Now the bad news - I was rejected by both Juniper and Chevron. When I called back; each company rep. stated that the BK caused immediate denial. I had expected this from Juniper but what the heck one Equifax inquiry can't hurt me so I applied anyway. Chevron really surprised me. When I inquired about the "creditbuilder program", I was told that I am not eligible because of the BK. Next week, I am going to call Chevron back and ask to speak to a supervisor as there is always the chance the rep didn't have the authority to give me a creditbulider account. In my opinion, Juniper and Chevron are more difficult to obtain than is commonly believed here. If anyone has any advice for me, please let me know. I plan to expand my tradelines from 6 (last week), 7 (this week) to 10 (next month). I would be particularly interested in comments regarding Chevron. A $300 gas card should not have been big deal compared to some of the credit I have received after the BK. Thanks again to all of you guys who contribute to the board. I have learned a lot here.
RE: I got an education today. No a $300 credit card shouldn't of been a big deal? I got the Chevron CB card w/ $300 limit with a $1200 judgment on my report (Experian and TU). Unless they pulled Equifax???? In retrospect, they did pull Equifax....so there goes that philosophy. But still my Equifax report was damaging. Try calling Chevron back and state that you were denied the regular card but was told that you were approved for the credit builders card but haven't received the information yet??? See what they say? It's worth a shot? Then take it from there???? Just a thought...if they still say no ask to speak to someone in the application dept. and see if you can talk your way into a card???
RE: I got an education today. Juniper declined my app 12/00 because of Chap 7 in 1991. FICO 740. B/K no longer being reported all CRAs as of 01/01.
RE: I got an education today. I have a few thoughts about the Chevron card: (1) It could be that a recent BK disqualifies you, but maybe not for the whole 10 years. A rep on the phone, one who handles all kinds of calls, may not know all the details. (2) I could imagine that they possibly have a model that factors in the age of the BK along with other factors like recent credit history and income, but that for legal or marketing reasons their first response is simply to mention the bankruptcy. (3) I got a preapproved Chevron card in 7/00 based on an Equifax report. The offer stated as much. That report probably has a judgment on it from 12/96. Once that judgment was 3 years old, it seemed to make less difference as far as obtaining retail and gas cards. (The reason I say probably is that I've never actually seen my credit history according to Equifax. I've never gotten turned down yet based on that particular report. However, I concluded that if it were perfect, I'd be getting more preapproved offers. In order to know for sure, I ordered an Equifax report today.)
RE: I got an education today. I got denied for Chevron's credit builder card because my score was tooo low. I only had collections and chargeoffs but I got approved for 2 Citibank cards about a month later. Go figure. I'm still bitter can you tell