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Hello Everyone, I have been lurking on this website for a little while now, searching for suggestions on how people can build onto their credit with a decent foundation already established. I finally decided to sign up and give all of my details so that I can get a more personalized response from the incredibly helpful people of this forum. My Slim Credit History Was able to open a college checking account through Wells Fargo at the age of 16 As soon as I turned 18 I went to WF and applied for a Wells Fargo CashBack College Credit Card. I was approved with a CL of $750 Age 21: CL is now $2800 No late payments & Utilization ranges from 0-10% Took out a student loan for $3000 about 5 months ago, but if everything goes as planned, I will be a full time student for the next 4 years, so I don't have to worry about paying that any time soon. Unless my financial situation changes (by that, I mean win the lottery) I will continue to take out student loans to help pay for my next four years of school. Since I don't have my FICO scores, I took the quiz at myfico to estimate a range for my credit score. it was 695-735. CK has my TU at 722. (And, I know, I know, these are not accurate but it's all I have.) The only negative that is on my score is my AAOA. My debit card says Member since '08/ Credit Card says Member since '11 Credit Card gets PIF every month. I try to wait until a day or two before the due date so that it can report a small balance. Never had a late payment. No "Baddies" as you guys would say. Directv account in my name for over a year. Never had a late payment. Pretty much a blank canvass that needs a Picasso More Information My parents let me use my credit card to pay all of their bills (Mortgage, Car Note, uitl., etc.) so that I can cash in on my rewards. I also plan on paying my tuition in full on my credit cards in the future, so all together, it should be about $30-40000 going through my card per year. I am unemployed I had to cancel both my debit and credit cards last year because wallet was stolen. I got new ones though, and my debit card says Member since '08/ Credit Card says Member since '11, so I don't know if this cancellation hurt my AAOA. I don't travel much. I haven't been on a plane since I was 4 years old. Drive out of town a lot with my family though. Whew! Now that I have all of that out of the way, I really need some insight on how to build on this. I don't really have an interest in opening any new bank accounts as WF has been good to me and it is the most convenient bank here in Iowa. But I would like to add some credit cards within the next few months and then "garden" my account (I believe that's the appropriate term ). I would like to hold onto these new cards and not apply for new ones until I graduate from college in 4 years, if not longer. Since I plan on holding onto them for what I feel like would be a long time, I would like a nice variety that I can rotate when I get bored after the first few years. What I Would Like in a Card I know this is silly but, for one of the cards, I would like it to have a little prestige. I got mail from AMEX inviting me to apply for the Premier Rewards Gold and the Cap1 Platinum, but I think that the Chase Sapphire Preferred would be a better fit, because like I said above, I will be running $30-40000 through this card a year, and I don't want to be subject to AMEX Financial Reviews, as I would most likely fail because I am unemployed and the money that is going through the card will come from my parents and financial aid. I'm not really picky about the other cards, my only requirement is that they be rewards cards, with atleast 1% cashback on every purchase or 1 point for every dollar spent, and have no annual fee, as I am only willing to pay the AF on my prestige card (only because the rewards I earn throughout the year should cover it! LOL) Welp! That is all the information I have. I can't wait to see your suggestions on what would help build my credit, as well as the cards I should add to my pocketbook, prestige or otherwise. Thank you all in advance for reading my long post! -LadiiSota

I'm working on my husband's credit. A lot of medical stuff has fallen off, thanks to Why Chat, but he still has few negative things going on that I'm working on right now, so they are dwindling down in number. Right now we are waiting for a response from the CRAs about some debt from AFNI (not sure what it is or where it's from) that is beyond the SOL. Would it be better to wait to try to get a secure credit card after all the bad stuff comes off first, or do we try for one earlier? I guess my questions right now is more about order in which I tackle the rest of the stuff on his report. We have bankruptcy, scheduled to fall off in 2017. He has a paid judgement. He has a few shady things from Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast. T-mobile and comcast are particularly tricky and underhanded. At one point, he called t-mobile, who said he had a credit with them (like he paid them too much on something and they owed him money) while at the same time sending him to a CA for him owing them money on something? Comcast is all around dirty and we just switched to Dish Network because of their foolishness. (there is convoluted history behind that as well...) He has some really good history building up on his credit with Aaron's rent-to-own furniture. I was vehemently against him going to Aaron's for many many reasons, but I must say that he has been doing extremely well with keeping up the payments (I know, i know, we are paying waaaaay more than if we were to buy stuff outright, but it's good when you are in a bind and don't have enough cash to fork out to buy something outright, your credit is in the toilet, but you do have a little and can make regular payments and plan to keep the item forever, regardless of what happens to it...we only get things we absolutely need when we are in a total bind with no other choice, never EVER anything frivolous and we've paid off and still have a few things from them from the past couple years.) But anyway, he has been paying them regularly and I'm still learning about scores and stuff, but it is one thing on his credit that is "green" instead of red, and has been consistently green for the past couple of years. After I am done tackling this thing from AFNI that is beyond SOL, (the rest are more recent) what is next? Do I continue to keep going to the CRA initially before going to the CA? Will the CRAs start to get suspicions if every couple of months they are receiving another dispute letter from us about something else? Which, by the way, is there are certain amount of time that it's best to wait before sending in a dispute letter to the CRA for the next item? Do I go to the CA first for any of this stuff? Can I "double up" on anything, as in, request/wait for validation from the CRAs on the AFNI that is beyond SOL while at the same time sending a letter of directly to one of the other CAs over, say, the T-Mobile stuff? When, in all of this, does the secured credit card and working on rebuilding start to fit in? Also, I probably need to maybe see about the judgement lastly, right? I think we could probably wait out the bankruptcy. We have nothing pressing right now that we NEEEEED to get our credit right for, but it's time for us to grow up. Trying to get my list of priorities in order. Thanks in advance! Sorry for the book of a post.

I'm helping a friend of mine who has one $95 dollar baddie, a $1000 in student loan in good standing, and 12 hard pulls. He's sent a DV for the baddie. I've told him to get a credit card, but one that he will actually get. What is the next step? Should he go get real FICOs at myFICO so I can run them past the CB folks here? Should he just apply for a secured card? No problem to get myFICO FICOs if you'd like to know his FICO, but I don't know that he really has enough history to get a FICO. I know they are useless but his EQ FAKO is 622 (Fair).

My credit took a turn for the worse in 2012 when my medical bills were turned over to collection despite me making monthly payments every month. I have went the whychat way to delete some with no luck. I do not have the funds to pay off the collections. I was told and sent a letter by the hospital billing that once I pay off the balance they would have collections delete the TL...that bill is my highest at $3600. I am saving every dime I have to get them paid off and hope by this summer I will. I do not have any CC Collections or charge offs. All of my collections are medical. I joined a credit union a year ago and finally received a CC through them and after good payments received an auto loan with a good interest (9.99%) for my credit score. My question is I need more credit. I have been researching on this creditboard credit pulls forum on what score is needed. My FICO Equifax is 580, FAKO Transunion is 605 and FAKO Experian is 592. I do have three accounts, Medical, in collections, no bankruptcy. I do have 11 hard pulls with Transunion, 3 with experian and 4 with Equifax. Upon starting my Credit Repair Journey in July My FICO with Exquifax was 556, FAKO TransUnion was 501 and FAKO Experian was 562 so I am very proud of the progress I made. My new CC has 6 months good payment in February with 20% utilization. I pay off the card every month but try to keep a low balance so CR will show I use the card. I will have my auto loan for 4 months in February with good payment. Should I wait for 6 months after my car to apply for new credit? Which cards would be the best for me to apply too? Any help would be appreciated.

Trying to see if anyone here has used spam removed to manage their credit cards? I came across the site while browsing a travel site. Please let me know!