wamu

[wayne-o]

discharged in november of 07 started cleaning up my reports a little bit before. I opened an orchard bank secured and a walmart store card in December. I have been receiving several offers for aspire etc. with super high fees. Received pre-approved wamu offer today with 0% for 6 months and 12.99 after. Thought I would give it a shot and was approved for $2000.

I cant stress enough the importance of cleaning up your reports before applying for new credit.

[rrockinggramma]

do you know what your scores are/were?

[wayne-o]

mid february fico's were transunion 616, experian 668 and equifax 662. My scores on truecredit were in the high 500's. Because of the high differences in truecredit and actual fico's, Ive just about decided to quit using the truecredit and triple advantage and just pull a fico from one credit bureau each month.

[AMISLANDER]

I received an offer from WaMu for 0% for a year and 9.99% after that....I replied online & was approved for $3K! Wow....and I don't even have any freaking idea of what my credit scores are....I figure if I'm getting good rates like that (for someone 1 year after discharge, they can't be that bad....


AND, about to cancel that 29% Hooters on the 15th of March...YEAH!!!!!

[CindyLou]

I received an offer from WaMu for 0% for a year and 9.99% after that....I replied online & was approved for $3K! Wow....and I don't even have any freaking idea of what my credit scores are....I figure if I'm getting good rates like that (for someone 1 year after discharge, they can't be that bad....


AND, about to cancel that 29% Hooters on the 15th of March...YEAH!!!!!

Unless you have an annual fee on that Hooters you should keep it. It will hurt your credit to cancel an older trade line...just a thought.

[AMISLANDER]

Unless you have an annual fee on that Hooters you should keep it. It will hurt your credit to cancel an older trade line...just a thought.

I do have a $72 annual fee with Hooters! When I pay the balance off, I'm thinking it would be worth my while to see if they will drop the annual fee? I've had the card since November 2006. I've never been late, carried a bit of a balance, now & then and have always made large monthly payments. I would think I have more bargaining power once I pay off the (whopping) $250.00 that I currently owe...but what if they won't?

[PaKettle]

For $72 annual fee I'd close it - the heck with it if you have another card. It might hurt your score a little but is it worth $72/year to keep it open? It woudln't be to me. I'd call them and tell them either they give it to you free or you're closing it.

[wayne-o]

i agree with pakettle. I think at this point the card has served its purpose to help you rebuild your credit. $72 is pretty steep to use their $250.

[CindyLou]

keep it until the yearly fee comes around again. That way you get the boost from having an older acct hanging around on your credit card..

Keep in mind....Hooters will NOT close your account if you have a balance and if you have a balance the months your fee comes around, you are on the hook unless you can pay the acct in full that month in order to close the acct.....they have weird rules.

[bkdone]

I was approved!!! WAMU!!

So I got a pre-screened offer in the mail. Nowhere on the envelope did it say 'preapproved' so I was skeptical and almost threw it away. I came to the forum and saw where a few other folks had been approved. So I entered my offer # and filled out the short application.

As soon as I hit send, a message came up that said, 'Our system is down right now...but dont worry, we got your application and you'll hear back from us within 2-3 weeks.' I was fully expecting the 'sorry dude...you are denied letter', but instead, today I got a big white envelope that says, "Welcome to WAMU!"

I opened the envelope to find my approval letter, limit of $2500, $0% interest on balance transfers thru May 2009, no annual fee, no monthly card fees, and the interest rate is 17% on purchases. The interest is kinda high, but I wont be purchasing anything. I will use the balance transfer and get rid of my Hooters balance.

The really weird thing is that there was no credit pull for the approval. I have 2 separate monitoring companies and neither one has shown an alert. Funny thing is, I applied for my husband too, and he was instantly denied! His credit scores are better than mine, and we basically have the same accounts. His credit monitoring company sent us an alert 2 days later...they had pulled his credit thru Experian (not TransUnion as my research on Wamu had shown.)

So...go figure! Some magic formula that I cant crack! I'm pretty happy though. I will add my husband as an authorized user as soon as I get the card, that way it will add a new tradeline to his credit report too.

[AMISLANDER]

keep it until the yearly fee comes around again. That way you get the boost from having an older acct hanging around on your credit card..

Keep in mind....Hooters will NOT close your account if you have a balance and if you have a balance the months your fee comes around, you are on the hook unless you can pay the acct in full that month in order to close the acct.....they have weird rules.

I paid it in full & closed it...

[tiredofdebt1]

bk done..what are your scores?

[bkdone]

bk done..what are your scores?

They are not stable right now because i am disputing alot of small things. They change daily it seems... I'd say...620 to 640 on each bureau. It's weird though...my husband has the same accounts and his scores are much higher, and he got denied by WaMu. The real kicker is: WaMu still has not pulled my credit report!

But also remember, I did a Ch. 13 and I was discharged in 2006. If I had disputed all of my errors in 2006 and early 2007, my scores would likely be much better now. I regret waiting so long to try to dispute. I got discouraged early on and kinda let the credit reports fall by the wayside for a long time! So my advice is to dispute your errors sooner than later.

[Cali]

If your trade line is old it is best to keep it for credit history. If it has an annual fee, you can try to negotiate with the company to drop the fee. If they say no, then you can close it, your score will drop some but you can make that up over the next few months with paying on time, utilization, etc.

[bkdone]

bk done..what are your scores?

Just an update. I got my Experian FICO score today. Its 663 which is much higher than the FAKO scores that TrueCredit and Identity Guard are reporting. Now that I get my FICOs free thru WaMu, I will likely drop my other monitoring companies. I'm just about done disputing my reports now.

And, the icing on the cake is that I will be zero-ing out my balance with Hooters due to my 0% interest on my new WaMu account. I am not going to close Hooters since they dont charge me an annual fee, and it will be good for my scores to have that tradeline open.