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creditimprover

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  1. hi all - my friend is looking to get their first credit card and i was hoping you might be able to help with suggestions. i'm pretty familiar now after all the help you've given on credit cards to get / apply for based on my wants and needs after having some credit established but not sure about for a first credit card. for some background, they do have student loans and their FICO experian score is 697 - no negatives just newer to the game. she doesn't travel much and doesn't want to have a charge card, but is interested in things like cash back, decent across the board rewards programs, etc. i was thinking of suggesting the citi double cash card, especially since there's no interest at first and this will be her first dive into credit cards / learning about paying down balances, etc. is a card like this possible with a 697 and limited credit history. any other suggestions are much appreciated.
  2. such a new world to me that i need to get used to. bit the bullet and applied fo the chase sapphire preferred and was approved. will be the perfect card to cash in on that bonus offer with my trip over the next couple of months. two great bonus offers (amex gold and chase) happening together. going to be a good end of the year when i start to use those bonuses. will plan to hold off on opening anymore for six months and then explore switching out one of my secured cards for an unsecured card.
  3. hi all - looking for some thoughts on my next card that i'd be using / trying to get the most value back over the next couple of months. i'll be spending june and half of july in mexico and will likely be spending a lot on knick knacks, restaurants / dining, supermarkets, car rentals and hotels. current cards below: amex gold - signed up last year, already received bonus offer because im doing invaslign and put it on the card capital one platinum open sky secured i've also tried to pre-qualify for the chase sapphire preferred card but it said they dont have any offers for me at the moment. on my credit card match on experian the chase freedom comes up as a match but the preferred and reserve cards in the unmatched section. current experian fico is 755.
  4. thank you both - this is super helpful! i plan to pay the balances in full and use it as a charge card - i just wanted to make sure that the balances don't need to be paid before the statement is cut, etc. super helpful understand that balances don't affect your FICO. i will continue to push forward on paying in full by every due date. on to finding a non charge card to build out my portfolio ~
  5. hi all ! this might be a silly question and maybe i missed it somewhere else on the credit forums but i had a question about amex credit reporting / payments. i just recently received my first amex, the gold card, and i know that it acts as a charge card where you must pay it off at the end of the month. i'm totally okay with this and plan to take that approach rather than the "plan it" option with apr. my question is, when do you know it's time to pay that balance or do you just do it as you go? for other credit cards, whatever gets reported on your monthly statements goes towards your credit utilization and i wasn't sure how amex approaches that. since my card is so new i don't have a "first" due date yet but want to avoid any balances getting reported under my credit utilization before that statement period wraps up. is there a way to find out where the statement period is so and/or what my due date is for charges so i can pay them before my statement comes out? thanks!
  6. super helpful! i guess i'll continue researching those cards lol thank you for all your help!
  7. this is great advice and something i will work to incorporate into my mindset moving forward. it's all very exciting! my average age of accounts is 5 years and 8 months because of the student loans which were opened 10 years and 8 months ago. my credit card history is actually quite new, as i started accounts when i started my process of improving my credit last summer. my oldest account is from july 2020 and it's a secured open sky card, the second card is my capital one platinum secured in september 2020. capital one allegedly graduates but they're apparently very tricky to get them to approve this decision - especially under a year. i just applied and was approved for the amex gold - so i landed on that decision. based on the above, i think applying for another card in a few months that's more specific to travel or cash back might be a good next step. would waiting to close one of the secured cards until my next card after the amex make more sense? or should i apply for another one and leave all cards open, since it's technically feasible for me, based on your comment about 5 revolving cards or higher open. and does a few months for my next card make sense or could it even be sooner?
  8. phew, definitely very overwhelming and a lot to consider. it seems like the amex gold is going to give me the most benefit based on my current spending habits and i can brand out from there. while, i love the lounge / travel benefits of the platinum, i typically have access to the delta lounges because of my purchase / hate arriving to the airport early so the benefit may not be worth the high yearly fee. how often do you recommend applying for new cards / building out your credit file? also, any suggestions on closing my secured cards as i begin to open new cards? one for one?
  9. thank you so much! i'm so thrilled and can't wait to continue my credit journey! answering a few questions below: 1. i'm okay to bounce between cards to get different values! what would you recommend in terms of timeline of applying for my first prime credit credit card and then my second one? 2. i would say restaurants / dining are my biggest spend - probably 6/7 nights of the week - but in a non-pandemic world travel travel is very big on my list. traveling once or twice a month for work and pleasure. i will be spending a little more time cooking at home over the next couple of months, too 3. i was looking into the delta skymiles amex cards because i'm a big delta flyer, but it seems like you get fairly the same amount of perks with the amex platinum card - access to lounges, 1:1 points to miles, etc. i was also told by a friend that the delta miles are not as easy to rack up as they make it seem - plus for my big delta purchases, which makes up a large chunk of my travel, my company pays for the cost and uses my skymiles number. they don't allow for reimbursement. i was speaking with a few friends and pivoting between amex gold or platinum vs. chase sapphire preferred or reserve. i'd love to know anyones thoughts on these as my first "adult card" so to say. they all have really great introductory offers right now in terms of sign up bonuses / perks within the first few months. the gold amex card seems more ideal in terms of value of points on things im spending - ie, 4x points dining and groceries, 3x points a lot of other places. where as the platinum is solely 5x travel but has a lot of other benefits. outside of that, i know little about the chase cards other than they also come with a great range of perks. i do plan on paying balances in full each month still ! any and all help is so appreciated ! maybe i'm completely off base and the cards i'm considering are not the best ones on the market right now for my needs. thanks all !
  10. hi everyone! wanted to give a quick update 5 months later. i was able to fully rehab my student loans, keep my balances low on my secured cards and make sure my credit report stayed in good standing. with the loans moving to open and good status and falling off the closed account section, im proud to say my credit is now sitting at 755 on FICO! i just wanted to thank you all for your advice and help throughout the start of my credit journey. i wanted to also ask if you have any recommendations on a non-secured to apply for with my score !!
  11. There is one student loan remaining that was closed in 2016 and had 13 missed payments from 2010 to 2016. The balance is 0 but that's it, so I'm afraid it still might be affecting me. I definitely want to look into a citi card but they apparently don't do pre-approval's anymore and I'm nervous I'm not quite there to be approved yet.
  12. Any suggestions on creditors that use this? My score is only 645 still so not sure if it's even high enough?
  13. Yes, they'll let it be mailed to me ! I just wanted to check to see if I should be alarmed about anything, but like you mentioned I will take the significant score increase and continue rehabilitating my loans in the meantime. Once, that is all done and I pay my balance if the loans don't pop up as paid and good standing, I'll check in with Equifax.
  14. I'm using Experian which uses the FICO model! They have a three credit bureau option that updates every week, as well. Last week the accounts were still on the Equifax report but not the other reports. I looked at Annual Credit Report and it says online delivery for Equifax is unavailable.
  15. Something interesting happened today and wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this? As mentioned, I am in the process of rehabilitating my loans. For this to work, you must make 9 out of 10 payments on time and your student loans will be removed from default and put in good standing / have all charge offs removed. Today, my Experian updated all three credit reports and the Equifax report has all three closed / defaulted student loans completely removed - not even in the open account / good standing section of my report. Both Experian and Transunion still have them under my closed accounts. Any thoughts here? Should I expect it to show back up? The payments I have been making as part of the rehab process are being reported and taken from my balances.
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