I AM STUNNED! I have been trying for a year to re-istablish credit of any kind. I have been reading this board for a little over a month, and in the past week I have been approved for--- Cap One $200 secured- $200 limit Cap One $49 secured - $500 limit Target Guest Card - $200 limit Best Buy - $1500 limit! Now I know that to many of you this may not sound very exciting, but to me it's like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders! I just hope I don't get carried away. I vow not to apply for anything else, although I would like a higher limit Visa, but I think I'll just let the Cap One build up for a while and see how it goes. Thank you all so much for guiding me towards where my best bets would be to apply and also for the help on the credit reports. (Maybe I SHOULD try for a higher limit Visa - for emergencies) What do you think? Citi will only give me the $800 secured. Can I try to get Cap One to increase even though I haven't even used the card yet? PARTY AT ANNA'S BUD LIGHT AND BIG MACS FOR ALL!!!
Anna: You will have to let CapOne age out for about 6 months to a year then ask for the cards to be changed from secured to unsecured. You can also get their credit limits raised a bit after 6 months to a year with no problem. Never pay them off in full. Always keep some kind of balance going. You will get limit increase considerations much faster if you keep a balance instead of paying them off in full
No way Capital One will give you an increase before six months. But when that six month mark hits, planetfeedback them instead of calling the regular number and you should get at least $300. You might also ask to get at least the $49 card unsecured, but don't hold your breath on that point until a year has passed. Also, Bill gives good advice. Keep a small balance on the cards to get better increases. I've done some playing with my Household and Orchard cards (same issuer) and discovered that I get automatic increases every three months if there has been both a balance and activity on the accounts. If there is either no balance or no activity for even a month, I do not get the increase. I don't know that you are going to be able to get a card with a higher limit unless you can get a card from Providian. Even then, with the times they are going through they might not be so generous with credit limits and increases as they used to be. If you did want to try for one last card, you should probably be able to get an Orchard account unless you've had problems with them or Household in the past.
Those inquiries are not all that difficult to work with although you may not have 100% success in getting them removed even if you wanted to do so, which you would not want to do anyway. What usually is among the most damaging are the promo inquiries and those from 3rd party collectors. Credit bureaus often have special codes which are listed beside each inquiry and you should learn those codes and what they mean. That way you can approach your problem in a much more intelligent way. Promo inquiries are usually the easiest to get off. I advise that you should dispute all inquiries of a certain type at the same time. But I tend to think that you should not attempt to remove inquiries that are associated with your current good tradelines.
Bill, It has been my understanding that the Promo Inquiries do not "count". Do I have something confused? Please explain how they affect CR's. Thanks.
I tend to think that you may have something confused. Maybe so, maybe not. The reason is that I have always felt that if you have a ton of inquiries on your credit reports regardless of type they do hurt. And if they do not count as you suggest then why is it that several people who have posted here have plainly stated that once they informed the credit bureaus that they wanted their names removed from any and all lists sold to other companies for promo purposes they saw an immediate increase in their scores by as much as 40 to 50 points? It seems that experience of others should teach us why we should work to get rid of as many inquiries as possible. The obvious lesson is that shutting off the promos improves FICO scores dramatically. Then getting rid of all that do not apply to current good tradelines would be the next best step. But regardless of whether or not they hurt, what possible good could they do? If they do nothing positive for one's scores, then they should be viewed as something undesireable. That's my thinking
That almost goes without saying. But the problem is that then you cure one problem only to create another. So what do you do to cure that?
