...sorry if this has been posted somewhere else, but I haven't come across it on these boards so far.
I'm a newbie with poor credit and I got denied for a DCU secured card and BofA secured card last week
My credit union was promoting a free 'credit repair' consultation-type service on their website so I decided it couldn't hurt. I had to send my credit report to this person and she went over it with me on the phone and tried to sell me a $300 credit repair service where they create the letters and give to you to mail. Ummm....no thanks! Anyway she told me a few things in the course of the conversation that I didn't know before. Maybe you guys can help determine accuracy:
- I can have many hard pull inquiries (in the same industry) but they only count as one hit to your credit for every 30 days.
- To open a cc and start buiding credit, certain online stores are better for secured credit application rejects such as myself
(I am not a promoter/marketer for any of these products)
- Also these secured credit cards give easier approval:
First Premier
(I am not a promoter/marketer for any of these products)
I just opened 3 cards to start building my credit; Fingerhut, Applied Bank and a 1st Premier secured card with a $2000 limit
Just thought this might help someone like me who was depressed last wk about not being able to open a cc. Now I continue with my mailing campaign....
Before you start applying like a maniac, the "numerous hard pulls only count as one" thing does NOT apply to credit cards. Just auto loans, student loans and mortgages.
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Before you start applying like a maniac, the "numerous hard pulls only count as one" thing does NOT apply to credit cards. Just auto loans, student loans and mortgages.
+1. I've had AA and denials for too many inquiries. FICO may look at it as 1 for score purposes, but they still show as multiple and count increases for each.
I can't wait til Dec 2012 to have 8 or so drop from EX from a car dealership. Ugh.
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Before you start applying like a maniac, the "numerous hard pulls only count as one" thing does NOT apply to credit cards. Just auto loans, student loans and mortgages.
+1. I've had AA and denials for too many inquiries. FICO may look at it as 1 for score purposes, but they still show as multiple and count increases for each.
I can't wait til Dec 2012 to have 8 or so drop from EX from a car dealership. Ugh.
The inq's still show up on manual review but for score purposes they count as one, not just mortgage, auto, and student loans utility inq's too. TV, internet, etc.
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From FICO website: "Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto, mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score."
I've never heard of utilities coming under this category.
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From FICO website: "Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto, mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score."
I've never heard of utilities coming under this category.
Never seen it listed anywhere either but my 4 utility pulls counted as one on my fico score.
Most people probably don't acquire that many util pulls.
I can assure you that 2 telecom and 2 satelite pulls counted as one.
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From FICO website: "Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto, mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score."
I've never heard of utilities coming under this category.
Never seen it listed anywhere either but my 4 utility pulls counted as one on my fico score.
Most people probably don't acquire that many util pulls.
I can assure you that 2 telecom and 2 satelite pulls counted as one.
That's interesting. Never heard of that.
But it still does not apply to credit cards, which the OP was misled to believe, as are many others.
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All I wanted was 3 credit cards, I don't plan on applying for any more for years. This was just to start building my credit.
Thanks for your input guys
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While you wanted 3 cards, you will be paying for YEARS in monthly service fees w/ FP they don't go away after the first year.. month after month you will be paying fees. Your best bet would have just went for one secured card, waited a year or half a year then a store card here or there that you frequent.
Your first avaliable credit will only be 50 bucks by the time they add in all the "Fees" they charge right up front. If I were you I would be canceling FP immediately.. before you will be stuck paying these outragious fees.
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While you wanted 3 cards, you will be paying for YEARS in monthly service fees w/ FP they don't go away after the first year.. month after month you will be paying fees. Your best bet would have just went for one secured card, waited a year or half a year then a store card here or there that you frequent.
Your first avaliable credit will only be 50 bucks by the time they add in all the "Fees" they charge right up front. If I were you I would be canceling FP immediately.. before you will be stuck paying these outragious fees.
Yeah, the rest of the "advice" was horrifying too, but it was too late to warn the OP off following it.
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Thanks for the responses! The non-condescending ones anyway. I took beli's advice and canceled the First Premier card.
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2 years ...
Check around with local credit unions to find a secured card. Some will give a secured card without a pull. Most won't care how bad your history is as long as you didn't default on them. BofA can be a harder secured card to get.
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No one was being condescending. We were just trying to stop you before you did any more damage based on bad advice. You'd be shocked at just how little people employed in the credit industry actually know about credit. It saddens me that people trust this advice , and then end up worse off than they were.
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pump n. dump baby...pump n. dump.
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Or, instead of using another website's links, you could always use ours and help support CB.
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The problem with those store accounts is that you can only use your credit to buy their overpriced stuff. I'm glad I stayed away from those. I probably made a mistake opening an Orchard unsecured CC, but I know I made a good decision opening a secured CC with SDFCU (no credit check).
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+1,000
I wonder what CU was advocating the terrible advice on which new accounts to get posted by the OP?
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That's only if you buy stuff from them.. some of us just opened them up to help rebuild, and they were realitvely easy to get at the time. Or in some cases Free Fico score. I have to say I do use Amazon's store card quite a bit.
Others? Not so much. Just depends on what your goals are. I wouldn't go crazy opening up store cards to help rebuild tho, but if you frequent the stores it could have a benefit
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That's only if you buy stuff from them.. some of us just opened them up to help rebuild, and they were realitvely easy to get at the time. Or in some cases Free Fico score. I have to say I do use Amazon's store card quite a bit.
agreed. not all store cards are equal. Target and Lowes provide 5% discount and some WFFNB give 10% back on store purchases.
but these fingerslut accounts...not good.
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+1,000
I wonder what CU was advocating the terrible advice on which new accounts to get posted by the OP?
Sadly, CUs often give horrible advice. There's a "financial education" brochure put out by NAFCU that specifically states that having old, open, unused accounts on your reports hurts your scores and you should close them.
And I quote:
"Look for accounts you don't use and may have forgotten. You may be able to raise your credit score by closing unnecessary credit card accounts."
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That's only if you buy stuff from them.. some of us just opened them up to help rebuild, and they were realitvely easy to get at the time. Or in some cases Free Fico score. I have to say I do use Amazon's store card quite a bit.
Others? Not so much. Just depends on what your goals are. I wouldn't go crazy opening up store cards to help rebuild tho, but if you frequent the stores it could have a benefit
By store cards I was referring to Fingerhut and similar cards, not conventional store cards.
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You should research credit unions secured cards. There are several CU that do not pull credit. State Department Federal Credit Union is one of them. This is a great card with hardly any fees. I would have avoided First Premier.
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That's only if you buy stuff from them.. some of us just opened them up to help rebuild, and they were realitvely easy to get at the time. Or in some cases Free Fico score. I have to say I do use Amazon's store card quite a bit.
Others? Not so much. Just depends on what your goals are. I wouldn't go crazy opening up store cards to help rebuild tho, but if you frequent the stores it could have a benefit
By store cards I was referring to Fingerhut and similar cards, not conventional store cards.
Ahh gotcha.. then yes.. I completely agree on that front fingerhut is just as bad as FP in my opinion.
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Aw man, I didn't see that page, thanks. I'll close Fingerhut today too and start B* to get rid of all the inquiries.
What about the Applied Bank secured card. Worth it to keep?
I'll apply for the SDFCU secured card if there won't be a credit check. I don't see a credit card that says secured, which one is it?