My previous revolving credit cards were closed years ago. Although I have a truckload of term debts (student loans, car), I have been told one of the quickest roads to better credit is to open a revolving charge account, use it, and pay it off entirely every month. My FAKOs are in the high 500s, so I'm probably destined for a subprime card. My questions: Has anyone here had success building their credit this way? What's the best choice of subprime cards from among the ones on the Creditnet home page? Any pitfalls to avoid?
Yeah, I've had a bit of luck - see my scores in my sig. I wouldn't call it luck, it was being very careful. I've got about $22k CL in crap cards - Aspire, Direct Merchants, Cap1 and Household. Automated systems don't notice the brand of credit card/bank you have - unless it's their own. Try getting an unsecured Cap1 card and if that doesn't work, get a secured one. They're a pain in the ass but I got my CL from $500 to $1900 in 18 months, post BK.
Check out Digital Credit Union. Anyone in the US can join. The trick is, DCU is affiliated with the charity organization "American Association of People with Disabilities". If you can find it in your heart to become a member of this charity, $8 per yr or $20 for 3 years, you can become a member of DCU too. You don't need to have a disability to become a member of this charity either. You can join both at the same time by downloading the application form from here, filling it out and sending 2 cashier's checks for DCU and AAPD. http://www.dcu.org/DCU_aapd_application.pdf While applying, also apply for their Visa card. Their tiered rates are 9.9%, 11.9% and 13.9%. If you have no negatives on your card, and the only reason is lack of a charge card, you can easily get their Visa. Only cases like RECENT bankruptcies (2 years from BK seem acceptable to them) will be cause for denial. Their visa has NO fees, unlike crap-one, first-premier, etc. And notice that their sub-prime rates also are much much better than standard rates from Crap-one!! If you want to go secured card route, even that's possible through DCU, it's only 8.9% APR on secured cards, almost guaranteed approval, and ZERO fees. Only late fees, and that too if you fall more than 15 days behind from the due date. Best of luck, and let DCU know that lakpr sent you
