Crashem

What about converting a Household Bank card to a different C1 product? What is C1's line at this time ? And what is Venture, don't they still have a Cash Back one? Or Sony card... ? They have the Quicksilver card that Hegemony hates. It's a 1.5% cash back card. Unlike Hegemony, I don't think thats bad. Can only think of Fidelity Amex and JCB card that is obviously better. Other 2% cards are either limited or no longer available. I just heard from EO office. So they gave me a CLI that I didn't ask for. But I just got denied for conversion to Quicksilver even though I already have 1.5% cash back. Maybe Hegemony can convert to regular Cap One Plat. Mastercard that I have but have 1.5% rewards. Kind of funny that they gave me something that means something that I didn't specifically ask for (CLI) but denied on the thing that means nothing (PC to Quicksilver). the former HSBC cards are not quicksilver, it turns out. They are "quicksilver one" cards. supposedly means no annual fee. My spouse and I each have 20K limits on these cards and I am not going to bother playing games with the EO for something higher as crap1 will probably pull three CRAs. 1.5% is not great; NASA, FIA, and JCB have better general spending cards. Not worth it for offshore neutered customer service and kindergarten-design looking card. Shrug. My CLI came HP free and much more pleasant experience than dealing with anyone's call center as EO would call me with info. You are right that NASA/FIA/JCB have better cards but since I don't have them, not sure if worthwhile. Maybe it is that I haven't dealt with Cap One in years, but so far experience is fine for me. As for the card design, your comments as well as seeing Quicksilver card in person, convinced me to stay with the generic Cap One Plat MC card. While not the best looking card in the world, it looks fine.

Luckydriver, Was in same boat as you. Got converted to Cap One and 1.5. Still no AF at least. It seems that Cap One converted cards over but left terms the same. I think by law they need to inform you before changing terms so if you were no AF, then you should be still no AF. They gave me Cap One Plat MC. Called EO and asked for whatever they could do for me including Quicksilver PC even though basically same card I had. Funny thing is the Quicksilver PC got rejected. However they did give me no HP CLI of 5k without me even asking for CLI. Since then I have seen Quicksilver in person (no longer want it). Also, looked over my existing terms and quite happy with them. 14ish% interest and cash advance (hopefully never need it) limit of 15k on a 15k card. So I am quite happy with Cap One so far.

What the posters said above isn't really 100% true. There were a lot of changes made to "help protect" students. Basically if you kid is in college and has some income, he can go get all the student cards from people like Discover, Capital One, Bank of America, Citibank, and others. A lot of CUs have student cards as well. The important thing is try to get cards that will grow with them and no annual fee. Discover is good and I think Cap One student card is okay. Not sure of the others. As for getting normal cards, he/she might have a problem given limited income and no credit history. The best thing you can do is to look through your credit card lineup. Take 2-3 of the "best" credit cards and add him/her as AU. You don't need to actually give them the card, but add them as AU to give their credit profile a boost. What are the "best" cards? Only positive history, high limits, little/no balance, opened a long time ago. If you want to list out your cards that that info, I can suggest which ones specifically.

When I joined early last year, it was even more restrictive than those 3 counties. It was limited to those within a certain distance of offices.

thanks for explaining that..I may try and join another credit union that pulls exprian because thats my highest score right now 649 and see if i can get a regular personal loan. I probably wouldn't bother. Any personal loan at 649 is going to be at a pretty high interest rate. Assuming you are willing to put the car up, taking out an auto loan should be your lowest rate. However it might be a bit lower with a 649. What was your equifax?

OP, open disputes might result in rejection from a lot of card issuers whether or not you are apping for secured card

So DCU refinance rate is 8.5% on used car. That is pretty high. However it is much lower than 36%. Also, a car loan wouldn't have the FICO effect that putting on CC would have as it is an installment loan.

A paid collection is almost as bad as a unpaid collection account FICO score wise. So would behoove you to get it removed. However CRAs and creditors don't make it any easier to remove.

I am also unclear what you are trying to do. Use an auto loan to get cash out of your car? If so, why is the rate at 8.5% which seems extremely high. Or is the auto loan refinance a different issue? IE you think you should refinance your existing auto loan with DCU to see if you can get lower rate? In any case, look at the cash advance on the new CC. If the 2k won't destroy the util %, it might be worth it as I believe DCU's lowest credit card rate is 8.5%. Not sure what you got.

What about converting a Household Bank card to a different C1 product? What is C1's line at this time ? And what is Venture, don't they still have a Cash Back one? Or Sony card... ? They have the Quicksilver card that Hegemony hates. It's a 1.5% cash back card. Unlike Hegemony, I don't think thats bad. Can only think of Fidelity Amex and JCB card that is obviously better. Other 2% cards are either limited or no longer available. I just heard from EO office. So they gave me a CLI that I didn't ask for. But I just got denied for conversion to Quicksilver even though I already have 1.5% cash back. Maybe Hegemony can convert to regular Cap One Plat. Mastercard that I have but have 1.5% rewards. Kind of funny that they gave me something that means something that I didn't specifically ask for (CLI) but denied on the thing that means nothing (PC to Quicksilver).

When I joined last year, it was people within a certain distance of branches which pretty meant only people in SF at best. With their relative policy, shouldn't be hard to find someone to join to allow you to join too. 7.25% APR on credit card is probably the best rate I have seen that isn't introductory. Especially since they seem to give that rate to 680's FICO

SF Fire which made it rounds here has expanded their allowed membership base. Instead of just allowing firefighters and people living within a limited distance of one of their branches, they now anyone living/working/worshipping in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin County can join. Also, if you have semi close relative in one of those counties, they can join and then you can join. Just to remind people why SF Fire is so good (a post I did on myfico): Good credit unions "return" their "profits" to their members in various fashion. Some do low rates, others do other things. SF Fire seems to return their "profits" to their members by offering low/no fee products. Also, SF Fire is relatively generous. Don't think low 600's getting a ton of credit, you can get it. They gave someone I know 5k with 630ish credit rating with no serious recent deliquencies (wasn't at best APR but they gave him best APR later when he hit 680ish). They pull Experian as FYI. So as to specific things that make them special: 1) VISA: 7.25% APR for 680-700 FICO. Basically the one of the lowest APRs on a credit card, let alone someone with okay but not great credit. Basically no fees. No BT fee. No AF. No Cash Advance fee. Rewards is strictly average with 1 pt per dollar with decent redemption options including cash to your account. Limits up to 50k (this seems to be higher than we I originally applied) which is nice although 15k through online system (call them after app is in, but before it is processed to request more). They will want to see pay stubs for income verification 2) No fee banking: Basically checking/savings have no fees with no minimum balance. They used to have unlimited foreign ATM fee redemption but now it is limited to some fairly high amount. 3) Quarterly Experian FICO Credit Grade: They used to give you FICO score, but Experian made them stop. Now you get a quarterly credit grade which gives you Experian FICO score within 20 points. 4) Modern banking via mobile phone/online for deposits etc. Part of that CU Branches thing as well.

Used the Facebook/EO route to see if I could get back my 2%. No go, but EO rep was very good. Asked for general review on account to see what else I could get but nothing that would trigger a HP. Nothing was available via the automated system on my account. Couple days later: 1) CL was raised from 15k to 20k with no HP and without specifically requesting a CL. Nice. 2) Quicksilver PC is pending even though I have a Quicksilver like reward structure currently but not the Quicksilver designation.

Yankeepapa, Let's take a step back. Can you answer some questions? 1) Ever have AMEX account? Can you find your old cards/statements/etc.? 2) Did you retire from military (get pension)? As for your understanding about FICO regarding balances, remember FICO score is a snapshot of your credit at a particular time. I make this point as it is generally unnecessary to actively manage those ephemeral aspects of your FICO score unless you are planning to app for credit. Balances are generally one of those ephermeral aspects of FICO. Every lender reports balances at different times. Most credit cards report your balance as of the statement date (the day your bill is generated) although some report at end or beginning of month. So even if you PIF (pay in full) every month, you can be harming your credit score as it will be showing high usage. In any case, it basically doesn't matter how much you use your card, but as long as you manage the balance on the day it reports, you will be fine. For example, if you had 10k card, you could run it up to 10k. If the statement date was the 10th, you could bring your balance down to 500 dollars and then wait a couple of days and run it back to 10k, you would be fine. As for ideal balance to maximize FICO, you basically want all your revolving credit to show 0 balance aside from one account. This account you want to report a balance of between 1%-10% of both the total availble credit on that card and your total available revolving credit. Somewhere between 1-10% is your max FICO score. BTW, there are VISA cards with less than 10% increase that would meet your needs. For example, my SF FIRE Visa is a 7.25% APR with no fee for cash advances.

Just realized my Household Rewards card was downgraded to 1.5% as well. Must have missed the notification. Oh well. I was hardly using the card, but expect more use now that my CASH+ card got NERFed. Now I am in market for a new credit card to fill in holes in my reward scheme.