Just did an App-O-Rama!

[JackBondLove]

I still want to know how you plan on getting a mortgage if you don't have a job?

Well, I had about $38K in income in 2010 from doing a Roth conversion (and the guy from CapitalOne said that was good enough.) And I plan on getting a mortgage simply by showing my IRA account. Certainly, retirees with fat IRA's can get a mortgage with just the IRA. A lot of my income is abroad and untaxable (i.e., the deductions are so big, and there is no paper trail for it in any case, that the IRS tells me to not even list it) - although I may start getting an income stream that does report 1099 to the IRS. I am only looking for a HELOC that would have a top monthly note of about $200!

[df04527]

JBL, don't put too much stock in those denial reasons. They have to give a reason but they are pretty much meaningless. Also on the fraud alerts and your accounts frozen - that's not a bad thing - we should all lock down our reports unless we specifically authorize them to be viewed, for purposes of credit.

[JackBondLove]

JBL, don't put too much stock in those denial reasons. They have to give a reason but they are pretty much meaningless. Also on the fraud alerts and your accounts frozen - that's not a bad thing - we should all lock down our reports unless we specifically authorize them to be viewed, for purposes of credit.

Wouldn't a BK by itself be the mother of all reasons?

About being on fraud alert. Would *I* be alerted that I'm on alert? By telephone or mail? (I am away a lot, so sometimes, I don't receive my mail for quite some time.)

[df04527]

Not necessarily, some people find out by applying for credit. Best thing is to call each of them and find out. i believe they have to notify you within x days but dont quote me on that. Not alot of background in that area.

[Amy26]

No you won't get notice of a fraud alert... and I'm not talking about the kind of fraud alert that goes away after 30-90 days... I'm talking about the kind that is based on identity theft. That one is not such a good thing to have on your account. You would have to go through rigorous security screenings and identity validation to get it removed. Doing 25 applications in one day is not a sign of normal activity and it could get flagged that someone has stolen your identity.

And you said you want lots of little limits? Why? As I said they do not look good on review. I know you said you weren't going for any more credit for a while but to get a HELOC down the road they are still going to wonder why you have so many little cards. It also is much harder to manage little limits... if you charge up even 20 bucks on a 100 limit card that is going to hurt your report. Yes, you're getting positive payment history but your utilization will be yucky. If you are able to pay them off before they even hit the report, then that's ok but I know personally I would not want more than 1 little limit showing up on my report. And as soon as I could get a better card it would be closed.

And yes some of the denial reasons are going to be bumpkas but the ones for too many inquiries, limit to balance ratio etc are all valid reasons. Also the BK of course (public record).

And to this comment you made:
"I guess I'll see. I'll call up explaining my reasoning. BTW, I defaulted on an existing Barclays Bank CC for my Chapter 7. One thing you all forget is that I can't default on them for another 6 years. It seems that folks w/o a BK do app-o-ramas all the time, and they don't get the cards revoked. Even if I were to lose the CC, it still would have been worth it to try and achieve my goals."

1. They usually do not recon if they close your account for opening too many accounts and 2. if you frequent any of the credit boards (as I do) you would know that the saviest people NEVER recommend app sprees. Maybe 2 or 3 at the most but they all recommend opening 1 account and then waiting at least 6 months for another. There is another metric on your report called "Average age of Accounts" which also counts as a lot toward your credit worthiness. And I personally do not think its worth the inquiry, the hit to the average age of accounts and the "new account" on your report if they close it within a few months of you opening it.

I'm not trying to deliberately rain on your parade but I just want to stress that the consequences and ramifications of doing this are not as rosey of a picture as you are painting it. What is done is done of course and its interesting to see what you get and what you don't get... but its not all sunshine and rainbows. I imagine that between the inquries and the new accounts your score could take a huge nose dive and who knows... 2 years may not be enough time to bring it back up where you want it.

Also, even if you are not anticipating any new credit for 2 years, you never know what is going to happen in the future... you may need your credit for a background check, insurance, apartment rental... just because you're not going to seek credit doesn't mean you may not need someone to check it in the future.

[Freddy03]

Just got declined by Kohl's, with a score of 735 (12/19/2011, Experian) WHAT? 735? Interestingly, one of the reasons stated is:



I also got declined by Partner's First ("partner" to National Ski Patrol). It says I have a credit score of 670 (12/20/2011, Equifax) Again, interestingly, one of the reasons stated is:



Perhaps the inquiries hit immeditately, which is why these creditors told me that I needed "further processing" for them to see if I did an app-o-rama? Or perhaps it was all those damn hard credit pulls that Wells Fargo & AT&T put on for opening up a checking account and internet service.

Also got denied for US Bank because I am outside the trade area.

Also got declined by Sears (which seems to be Citibank, a creditor that I defaulted a small amount), with the sole reason being BK.

Also got declined by macy*s (which seems to be Department Stores National Bank), with a score of 527 (12/20/2011, Experian) - it says "we calculated your score from Experian ..." - with one of the reasons being



At the time, I only had a CapitalOne account that was showing a $510 balance on a $750 limit! Not sure what too many public records means. There are other reason, which all use "delinquent" or "delinquency". I thought that after the BK, the records of delinquency are expunged, with only the BK filing, and the note from the creditors that the account was included in the BK. Is such including of an account in BK considered a delinquency? What if I had been up to date before the filing?

The score noted one of the reasons as



So - unless macy*s produced its own score - it appears that it one day, the credit score from Experian dropped from 735 to 527!

And finally, in the approval letter from Discover, it says I have a FICO of 637 (12/19/2011, Equifax) So the score from Equifax went up?

That's all from the mailbag today!

Ouch!!

[Logan]

No you won't get notice of a fraud alert... and I'm not talking about the kind of fraud alert that goes away after 30-90 days... I'm talking about the kind that is based on identity theft. That one is not such a good thing to have on your account. You would have to go through rigorous security screenings and identity validation to get it removed. Doing 25 applications in one day is not a sign of normal activity and it could get flagged that someone has stolen your identity.

And you said you want lots of little limits? Why? As I said they do not look good on review. I know you said you weren't going for any more credit for a while but to get a HELOC down the road they are still going to wonder why you have so many little cards. It also is much harder to manage little limits... if you charge up even 20 bucks on a 100 limit card that is going to hurt your report. Yes, you're getting positive payment history but your utilization will be yucky. If you are able to pay them off before they even hit the report, then that's ok but I know personally I would not want more than 1 little limit showing up on my report. And as soon as I could get a better card it would be closed.

And yes some of the denial reasons are going to be bumpkas but the ones for too many inquiries, limit to balance ratio etc are all valid reasons. Also the BK of course (public record).

And to this comment you made:
"I guess I'll see. I'll call up explaining my reasoning. BTW, I defaulted on an existing Barclays Bank CC for my Chapter 7. One thing you all forget is that I can't default on them for another 6 years. It seems that folks w/o a BK do app-o-ramas all the time, and they don't get the cards revoked. Even if I were to lose the CC, it still would have been worth it to try and achieve my goals."

1. They usually do not recon if they close your account for opening too many accounts and 2. if you frequent any of the credit boards (as I do) you would know that the saviest people NEVER recommend app sprees. Maybe 2 or 3 at the most but they all recommend opening 1 account and then waiting at least 6 months for another. There is another metric on your report called "Average age of Accounts" which also counts as a lot toward your credit worthiness. And I personally do not think its worth the inquiry, the hit to the average age of accounts and the "new account" on your report if they close it within a few months of you opening it.

I'm not trying to deliberately rain on your parade but I just want to stress that the consequences and ramifications of doing this are not as rosey of a picture as you are painting it. What is done is done of course and its interesting to see what you get and what you don't get... but its not all sunshine and rainbows. I imagine that between the inquries and the new accounts your score could take a huge nose dive and who knows... 2 years may not be enough time to bring it back up where you want it.

Also, even if you are not anticipating any new credit for 2 years, you never know what is going to happen in the future... you may need your credit for a background check, insurance, apartment rental... just because you're not going to seek credit doesn't mean you may not need someone to check it in the future.

I think Jackbondlove had good reasoning for his app-o-rama I just don't think he has a good knowledge of how everything actually works. He did get a Discover Card which is very surprising and it'll be interesting to see if they let him keep it.
Early in my credit building I had 2 Barclaycards (called Juniper then). I had 2 because I applied for a 2nd one to try to get 0% interest at Apple but my credit limit was too low for it to work. Barclaycard eventually cancelled that card due to inactivity and at some point they also lowered my credit limit on the other card since I had obtained other credit. They were the only ones that acted and they will be watching you.
Logan

[Amy26]

Yup, I agree... I wasn't trying to scold him but more make him and everyone aware of the bigger picture and that it isn't all fun and games. But it will be interesting as you said to see how it plays out.

[JackBondLove]

Just talked to someone @ macy*s. The score that was uses was generated by macy*s itself, not the score from Experian. Also was told that any delinquency on the report will pretty much disqualify an applicant.

[JackBondLove]

More rejections in the mail - all referenced BK. It seems that all of these are aligned with Citibank, whom I had defaulted with.

Home Depot
Shell
Radio
Staples
US Bank
Goodyear
Exxon

I also applied @ Target, and was not given automatic approval.

It seems that if a creditor does not give automatic approval, that means that the applicant has been rejected.

[soccerguy]

waste of inquiries

[Amy26]

No, not getting an automatic approval does not mean you have been rejected. Plenty of people get a 3-5 day message or something and still get the credit. It would have been more worth your while to do some research as to what cards are owned by who etc... Citibank will never grant credit to a BK person especially if they defaulted with them. Most of the major banks are like that. The only ones I have seen that will grant a second chance are Capital One and Barclays.

There is also a way to get credit through WFNNB (store cards) without a hard inquiry at all. If you go to a WFNNB sponsored website and do some shopping, put some stuff in your cart and go to check out you can get a "you're preapproved for credit" message and if you accept it you just get the card no credit check. You have to bee opt'd in for this though. If anybody wants a list of these please let me know.

There is another forum that keeps a list of all bankruptcy friendly creditors and a credit pulls database that everyone puts in their approvals and denials so people can look up trending and such either by credit bureau or by creditor. If anyone would like the link to this, please let me know.

I have seen some Target approvals post BK but you may not get it now with this app spree.

Good luck!

[DesdemonaB]

APPLIED, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED DECISION YET
Amazon - Declined
Shell - Declined
Exxon - Declined
Chevron & Texaco - Declined
Home Depot - Declined
Lowes - Declined
US Bank - Declined
Goodyear - Declined
Kohl's - Declined
Macy*s - Declined
National Ski Patrol - Declined
RadioShack - Declined
Staples - Declined
US Bank - Declined

CREDIT CARDS REJECTED:
Paypal - REJECTED
Best Buy - HAD BEEN OFFERED A CARD WITH ANNUAL FEE, BUT TURNED IT DOWN

AWAITING ANSWERS:
LL Bean
Eddie Bauer
J Crew
OfficeMax – very large stock loser in 2011 – US Bank – Already received a declined above
Conoco – Citibank – Already received multiply declines above
PNC
Sears – closing stores in 2012 - Citibank – Already received multiply declines above
Target

STILL NEED TO APPLY VIA THE PHONE B/C OF TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES ON WEBSITE:
JC Penney
Superfleet

CREDIT CARDS APPROVED:
Discover
Firestone

DID NOT APPLY FOR B/C OF BK: (I.E., THERE WAS SOMETHING ON THE APPLICATION THAT ASKED IF I HAD FILED FOR BK, WHICH I PRESUMED MEANT A BIG NO!)
BP
Chase Freedom
Banana Republic
PNC




So JBL – was it worth it? Did you get the results you wanted?

26 applications – 4 approvals (I assuming you were approved for PayPal but rejected it due to the annual fee) – 15 declines – 8 awaiting decisions – to date your success rate is 32%. Seeing that OfficeMax, Conoco and Sears are financed by companies that already declined other apps your success rate could drop to 18% - I personally don’t see this as financial smart thinking.

You recently closed your Cap One due to the annual fee, but replaced it with Barclay – so that only puts you ½ way to your goal of 6 trade lines, Barclay’s, Firestone and Discover. Now what?

With score drops due to 28 inquires, 1 closed account, and 3 new accounts are you sure you will be able to still qualify for that HELOC? As of today you would need a % rate of 3% or lower to have a 200 payment – and don’t they treat HELOC like a purchase meaning you should have a minimum score between 620 and 630? Do you think your score will climb back up - I mean if Macy's is calculating you at 527 what you think a bank will calculate you at?

I wish you the best of luck; I personally wouldn’t have done it but I mean it when I say good luck.

[KAM465]

There is also a way to get credit through WFNNB (store cards) without a hard inquiry at all. If you go to a WFNNB sponsored website and do some shopping, put some stuff in your cart and go to check out you can get a "you're preapproved for credit" message and if you accept it you just get the card no credit check. You have to bee opt'd in for this though. If anybody wants a list of these please let me know.

There is another forum that keeps a list of all bankruptcy friendly creditors and a credit pulls database that everyone puts in their approvals and denials so people can look up trending and such either by credit bureau or by creditor. If anyone would like the link to this, please let me know.

Good luck!

AMY,

I would be interested in knowing what you have found to be BK Friendly Companies. Although I am still in the the 60 day club, It would be nice to know where I can go to start the process of rebuilding my credit. Because I travel frequently for work, it would be nice to have a card for this purpose only.

[Amy26]

I sent you a PM.