Credit Spree #2

[blkNgld]

Well,

I'm at it again!!

For those that don't remember me, I went on a crazy credit card spree last March and I started to feel the urge again a few days ago. I didn't think I was going to do this again but I received something in the mail from Discover and liked the advertised 5% gas rebate (my National City card "only" offers 4% for gas). Well... they denied me. I called for a reconsider and was still denied. I was pissed. My credit self-esteem took a slight dip and I needed an approval to make everything right again..

I went after cards that seemed interesting to me. I discovered with all the recent mergers that there really aren't that many "big" names to go after anymore...

I applied at Advanta - received 10-15 day, eventually denied.

I applied at Capital One - I tried to get their premium card but was instantly denied and when I received my letter in the mail was told that they didn't even pull my credit. Apparently I used to have a Capital One card and burned them. I am black-balled!

I was desperate at this point but realized that this isn't the best time to be asking for more credit..

Since I have money with Etrade I decided to try for their credit card - Still waiting for a decision.

I then threw up a Hail Mary and went for Bank of America.. I had butterflies when I hit the submit button... ... ... ... ... APPROVED! WTF! 10,800. Not only did I snag a premium card but I broke into the 10k club at the same time. Who said BOA is in financial trouble? lolololol

So if Etrade opens their financial arms I will be 2 for 5. Not bad considering I was only going for premium, excellent credit required cards. I still have an old judgment showing on TU and a couple judgments on the other reports.

All's well that ends well..

I didn't have the balls to go for AMEX again since they turned me down hard last time. Also, I didn't really see any cards they offered that intrigued me. I certainly wasn't going to choose a card with an annual fee. My bro has a blue so I though I would have him add me as an authorized user before I try again. Perhaps that will give me a slight edge when they pull the report.. :/

A quick update on the rest of my cards:

I've had a few credit limit increases over the last 10 mos. or so. Citibank gave me a grand, CreditOne a hundred bucks, Kay's 400.00, and National City 500.00.

I haven't had a single credit limit decrease. My credit activity is VERY limited on the majority of my cards except two. I have made two charges on the "inactive" cards over the last 10 mos. and paid the balance at the end of the month. While I take full advantage of the 30 day grace period, I do not carry a balance on any credit card.

A word on b*:

I closed my Truecredit account because they dropped the daily pull. Before I did though, I was daily pulling with that as well as CreditKarma and I bumped all my TU inquiries off except for one. It still works folks. :D

Okay, that should catch everybody up on how my credit world has been doing..

-B&G

[wrenchdevil]

blkngold...about how many daily pulls did it take to get the inq's to fall off on TU?

I applied for an auto loan recently, and the dealership threw me under the bus, I went from 1 to 7 inq's in on my TU report in 1 day!

[blkNgld]

blkngold...about how many daily pulls did it take to get the inq's to fall off on TU?

I applied for an auto loan recently, and the dealership threw me under the bus, I went from 1 to 7 inq's in on my TU report in 1 day!

I can't remember how many pulls, but I do know that the inq's seemed to drop off fast when I started pulling with CreditKarma as well. Perhaps it was a coincidence... But for me, TrueCredit and CreditKarma did the trick. Now that TC dropped the daily pulls things might be different.

-B&G

[blkNgld]

Well... I got my letter from Etrade today. It appears they declined me. Kinda weird because I have enough money in my account with them to pay off all my credit cards if I maxed them all out at once...

BUT! I got an email today from a bank whose card I forgot I applied for! U.S. Bank said I was approved! They didn't state the credit limit so I will have to wait for the card to find out. Regardless, this makes two approvals on six attempts. I guess I'm happy.

[Aerovette]

Congrats I guess. Seems kind of counter productive to what most are trying to accomplish here, but whatever floats your boat.

I learnmed my lessons about debt and ended up in BK in '95. Never again.

[scorch]

Well... I got my letter from Etrade today. It appears they declined me. Kinda weird because I have enough money in my account with them to pay off all my credit cards if I maxed them all out at once...

Even if you max out your credit cards and pay in full on each of them, having high utilization on them has a negative affect on your credit rating.

[blkNgld]

Congrats I guess. Seems kind of counter productive to what most are trying to accomplish here, but whatever floats your boat.

I learnmed my lessons about debt and ended up in BK in '95. Never again.

On the contrary my dear Aerovette, obtaining credit is exactly what most are trying to accomplish here.

I carry no balances on my credit cards and they provide no temptation for me. Whatever I buy is bought on the rewards card and paid off at the end of the month. I'm very responsible with credit, money, etc. The only time I wasn't was when I was a very young man.

-B&G

[blkNgld]

Even if you max out your credit cards and pay in full on each of them, having high utilization on them has a negative affect on your credit rating.

If I'm not mistaken, credit utilization is the amount of debt you carry on a card. I don't have any credit card debt. All purchases are paid off each month.

However, if you are referring to what my credit report shows in regards to statement balance you could be correct. I only use two credit cards and while I made sure to have them zeroed out on my last credit spree, I didn't pay attention this time. My credit report probably showed a small balance on both cards. Still, my overall utilization (as shown on my credit report) would be less than 5% of my available credit.

I make a small charge on my other cards every three months just to keep them "active".

-B&G

[Aerovette]

On the contrary my dear Aerovette, obtaining credit is exactly what most are trying to accomplish here.

I carry no balances on my credit cards and they provide no temptation for me. Whatever I buy is bought on the rewards card and paid off at the end of the month. I'm very responsible with credit, money, etc. The only time I wasn't was when I was a very young man.

-B&G

Sorry, I don't see the connection between racking up inquiries and "emotionally" going after any line of credit you can fill an application for. That irresponsible behavior is why there are more posts about people being sued, and needing lawyers, than there are about how wonderful CAs can be.

[blkNgld]

Sorry, I don't see the connection between racking up inquiries and "emotionally" going after any line of credit you can fill an application for. That irresponsible behavior is why there are more posts about people being sued, and needing lawyers, than there are about how wonderful CAs can be.

???

No. There are posts about people being sued because they don't repay their credit cards after they charge up balances. LOL!

Building up a huge store of accessible credit is certainly not irresponsible. In fact, it can be quite an advantage when making large purchases. Using a creditors no interest offer to "finance" a purchase allows me to keep my own invested cash hard at work.

I do not buy things that I cannot pay cash for immediately.

"racking up inquiries"

You make that sound like it's a bad thing... I rack 'em up and I knock 'em right back down... b*

-B&G

[Chester P. Dexter]

I have to agree with blkNgold. Building up a huge store of available credit is my goal.

It's a very good financial tool to be able to borrow money at various times and for various purposes. On the other side of the equation, keeping money invested is important, too.

I could sell investments to pay debts but I generally avoid doing that for a few reasons; for one, money you own is your own money and money you owe really doesn't exist (except as you have put it to use); the party that lent it to you has nothing but a promise that you will pay them back, giving you freedom to use your cash flow as it benefits yourself. (As long as you pay back responsibly and as agreed, of course.) The goal would be to have lots of *available* credit, but not necessarily to owe much at any one time unless there is a specific, worthwhile purpose for that.

We all know the old saw about OPM. Being able to tap into someone else's money can be a very good resource for a shrewd money manager. I enjoy building up credit with various credit card issuers and with banks, also (so that loans from them would be available, should the need or desire for one arise.) Getting better and better rates and terms is the important thing to strive for in order to benefit from the use of OPM all that much more.

[scorch]

Sorry, I don't see the connection between racking up inquiries and "emotionally" going after any line of credit you can fill an application for. That irresponsible behavior is why there are more posts about people being sued, and needing lawyers, than there are about how wonderful CAs can be.

I recently went on a mild credit spree myself. Shortly after clearing off any baddies off my CR, Chase decided to close my credit card account on the basis that it was secured. I am trying to build credit and use it to my advantage financially so I figured that I'd rather have the credit than not have any inquiries.

However, if you are referring to what my credit report shows in regards to statement balance you could be correct. I only use two credit cards and while I made sure to have them zeroed out on my last credit spree, I didn't pay attention this time. My credit report probably showed a small balance on both cards. Still, my overall utilization (as shown on my credit report) would be less than 5% of my available credit.

Yes. that is exactly what I was referring to.

[Aerovette]

???

No. There are posts about people being sued because they don't repay their credit cards after they charge up balances. LOL!

Building up a huge store of accessible credit is certainly not irresponsible. In fact, it can be quite an advantage when making large purchases. Using a creditors no interest offer to "finance" a purchase allows me to keep my own invested cash hard at work.

I do not buy things that I cannot pay cash for immediately.

"racking up inquiries"

You make that sound like it's a bad thing... I rack 'em up and I knock 'em right back down... b*

-B&G

Interesting. Perhaps I am just ill informed. I was told by a loan officer that open lines of credit, regardless of balance due, are consider "potential" debt and can weigh heavily against you because of the ABILITY to get in over your head even if you are managing it well. $100,000 in available credit with a ZERO balance is looked at as $100,000 of debt. Again, I may have been fed a line by a loan officer. It was during mortgage shopping that I was told this.

How do you knockem back down? 2 years is 2 years.

[scorch]

Interesting. Perhaps I am just ill informed. I was told by a loan officer that open lines of credit, regardless of balance due, are consider "potential" debt and can weigh heavily against you because of the ABILITY to get in over your head even if you are managing it well. $100,000 in available credit with a ZERO balance is looked at as $100,000 of debt. Again, I may have been fed a line by a loan officer. It was during mortgage shopping that I was told this.

Either that loan officer does not know what he or she is talking about, does not speak English or both. As far as I know, $0 in available credit with a $100,000 balance is looked at as $100,000 of debt. Now if someone told me what you said that loan officer told you, I would not know what the hell they were talking about and walk out the front door confused.

I don't mean to offend anyone, but I've found that a lot of folks in the mortgage business don't really seem to know much about repairing credit. I used to work with someone who worked in the mortgage business who advised that, "having items removed from your credit report is more trouble than what it's worth and you'd be better off just paying the CA."

S - L - A - P I say.

[blkNgld]

Both Aerovette and Scorch have 338 posts! One of those posters has been doing too much posting and not enough reading...

Mortgage loan officers love to see multiple established lines of credit with no balance, and then love to promptly tell you to close them before approving your loan. It's simply a case of wanting to control their risk. If telling them to go climb a weed doesn't work, a person can usually call their creditors and ask them to close their accounts with the understanding that they can reopen them in 30 days if they want to.

There are many ways to remove inquiries on your credit reports. It's hard for me to believe that a person can read these forums for any length of time without seeing something about removing inquiries.

-B&G

[blkNgld]

**Credit Spree Update**

Got the Bank of America card the other day. It is a very nice-looking card.

Limit: $10,800

I decided to call on the U.S. Bank card since it hasn't arrived yet and it was only approved for 3k.

It's funny how I am dissappointed in a 3k card now. It was only 3 1/2 years ago that I would have been happy to get 500.00. Thanks Credit Infocenter!!!

-B&G

[Aerovette]

Both Aerovette and Scorch have 338 posts! One of those posters has been doing too much posting and not enough reading...

Mortgage loan officers love to see multiple established lines of credit with no balance, and then love to promptly tell you to close them before approving your loan. It's simply a case of wanting to control their risk. If telling them to go climb a weed doesn't work, a person can usually call their creditors and ask them to close their accounts with the understanding that they can reopen them in 30 days if they want to.

There are many ways to remove inquiries on your credit reports. It's hard for me to believe that a person can read these forums for any length of time without seeing something about removing inquiries.

-B&G

There's really no nice way to say "bite me" is there? The MAJORITY of what I read on here is in direct conflict with other threads of the same subject. This is a place to learn, but it is also a place to become VERY confused. Examples? Ask about what constitutes "validation" and see how many different answers you get. Ask about when SOL starts? Ask about how long something stays on your report? You will get MANY answers and then a stream of posters telling you why the other poster was wrong. The information I read ON THIS FORUM concerning inquiries states that even if they are in ERROR they MUST stay for two years. It will take me a while to find it, but when I do, rest assured I will post it since it references exact articles in the post. I also was posting OPINION and since OPINION cannot be wrong, I'll leave you with this... In MY opinion, the last thing someone in, or having survived BK, repos, bad mortgage, late payments, negative TLs or any other ills needs to be doing is applying for any card they can get all willy nilly. It is reckless and irresponsible IN MY OPINION. Research what the BEST cards to acquire are and seek those cards out. Fill out an application, see what happens. To go out and hit every store, bank, and booth offering a card is FOOLISH in my opinion and I think it sends a BAD message to those that read it. As for what a loan officer tells me, I can't verify if it is true, but I can't prove it's NOT true either. You say it's not, offer me proof, or STFU. Any idiot can have 10,000 posts and still be an idiot. Some people feel compelled to post for no reason at all. Some people want to see their post count rise like it is a status symbol. Number of posts is irrelevant.

Here is the post

http://www.debt-consolidation-credit-repair-service.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292647