I've been cleaning up and making progress. I've recently gotten a car loan from Chase for $9500 at 12% (4 yrs). I have an $8500 balance @18% on a $10k CL from DMB, a $3k balance @ 15% on a $4.5k CL from Aspire, a $4k balance @24% (!!) from NextCard - closed by them going out of business, and a $100 balance @14% from Cap1 on a $500 limit (first and only card obtained AFTER my BK). I filed for BK 2 yrs ago, discharged 18 months ago. I kept a few cards because of their CL and age and although I've had some rate jacks from DMB and was surprised to have NextCard go south after jacking the rate, I'm quite capable of handling all the outstanding debt I've got - job is stable, income is good and the kids are moving out. My goal is to get a home/condo when it makes sense - the market may tell me to stay out for a year or two, or my credit may tell me, but that's my goal. I will be paying down the balances on my cards substantially in the next few months, cutting them at least by half so I'll be at 40% utilization and have a $9.5k secured loan. I've been told by Cap1 that when I reach the 1 year mark in Sept, they'll bump my limit and they've already cut my annual fee in half. So things are looking good and I'm doing all the "right" things, as far as I'm aware. I wonder if it makes sense to get a dept store card or gas card at this point, or anything else along these lines. The goal is to boost the score (DUH!) and do the best appearing things. Getting my car loan helped my score go up pretty quickly, I was quite surprised. So I'm open to suggestions on the "right" dept/gas card, if any, or to avoid them altogether.
I can't tell you about dept/store cards, but from what I understand, utilization is probably what is holding you back now.
That's good news, it will be "worked on" very soon. Proving that most problems can be solved, given the proper application of "cash"...
