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Thread: Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

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    Default Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Hey Guys - Well I'm 20 and have decided to shop around for credit cards. I've applied for maybe a handful. Most have told me that I have too short of a credit history to give me a card. I did get one through paypal - I believe it's providian - but it has a 19% interest rate so I haven't activated it.
    Today in the mail I got a letter denying my application for a credit card. it said the usual but had two things that were new. One was that I didn't have a savings or checking account - which is weird because I have a checking account!!???
    And the other was that there have been "excessive number of finance company inquires" what does this mean? ???

    Any clarification would be great - this credit card thing is just so confusing!
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Every person of age has a credit history. Within that history is a log of all inquiries made by different financial institutions --- either hard or soft hits. Soft hits are ones made by yourself to review your own history, and don't count against you. Hard hits are made by wireless phone companies you might be applying for service with, banks you want to get a loan from, and things like that. You being declined because there have been "an excessive number of finance company inquiries" is because of what you just said in your thread title - you applied for too many cards. Each time you apply, whichever bank it is doing the inquiring for that card looks into your history, which leaves a hard hit (in most cases...) Hard hits are detrimental to your credit history, unless they are grouped around the same time. See the "PLUS Score Expose" story somewhere out there for more on this... The only exception is when the inquiries are all around the same time, like you're thinking about financing a new house and are shopping around for the best rates.

    I'm surprised that you can't get a credit card... most companies will practically give them to anyone that sends in their social security number. You mentioned that you have a checking account with a bank - most banks will extend credit for whatever the amount you have with them, or close to it. For example, you have 700 in the bank with them - odds are good they'll give you a 1k limit.

    Anyway, best of luck. I'd recommend checking your credit history - you are legally in your right to request a free copy of it now that you've been declined by a lender.
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Thanks Bishop - i think I'll get a copy of my credit history. I'm just scared... what if something is inaccurate - can I do anything about it?

    All of the credit cards that I've applied for have all been in the last month and that's pretty much the only time I've ever applied for one. Maybe I just did too many too quick.... ???
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    Featured Member cash's Avatar
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    sucks don't it ...when you don't have any credit you get penalized and when you try too hard to get it you get penalized...i tell ya well all you can do now is pay your card on time every month hopefully those inqueries will fall off soon
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    If there are inaccuracies on your credit report, you can have them removed. It's going to take a lot of time and effort on your part (isn't that just stupid?), but you can have that corrected.

    If you already have the Providian, then just use it. It has the standard rate...just make sure you don't charge the shit out of it and become unable to pay the bill. Just charge a small item, pay 1/2 of it one month, 1/2 the next month...and so on and so forth. After about 6 months of good payment history with this card, you should probably be able to apply for and get a card with one of those great rates (0% APR for x amount of months).

    Oh, and don't inquire into any more cards. Banks only count inquiries on your credit report for 90 days...so, just make sure you don't make any more credit card inquiries until you have the 6-month "history".

    Good luck!

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    OK, here's the scoop.

    First of all Bishop is wrong, not everyone of age has a credit profile. Unless you have applied for credit previously, you do not have a credit profile. The only way a credit reporting agency gets your information is if you fill out a credit application and a creditor sends it into them.

    Second, if you have no prior credit history, it may be difficult to get a credit card. Try getting a gas card first.

    If you have applied your several credit cards and been denied, yoor credit profile now looks bad in the eyes of creditors. The reason is this. Let's say I am Capital One for example. You apply for credit with me and I pull your credit history and see you have been denied by several companies. I ask myself "why did all these other companies deny this individual" there must be a reason. I am going to play it safe and deny you as well. Every inquiry generated without an open account to go along with it looks bad. The more of these inquiries you get, the lower your credit score will be, further limiting your ability to obtain credit.

    You say that you got a denial letter in the mail. If this is the case, read the letter carefully and it will tell you which credit reporting agency was used to base the decision on. It will also tell you since you were denied credit you will be entitled to a free copy of your credit report within 60 days. It will also give you the address of the credit reporting agency. Simply mail the letter you received into the credit reporting agency and they will send you a copy of your credit profile. Check over it carefully and if you find anything that does not belong to you there will be a form for you to dispute it.

    If you are being denied simply due to excessive inquiries then wait about 6 months before attempting to obtain credit again. Most creditors only base the amount of inquiries in the past 6 months. If you applied for the inquiries online, it is terribly difficult if not impossible to prove that it was in fact you that applied for credit with these companies. You can easily dispute these inquiries with the credit reporting agencies by saying you never applied for credit with these companies. The creditors will launch an investigation and if the creditors cannot produce a SIGNED document authorizing the crediotrs to "pull" your credit, they must be removed. This is perfectly legal as the Fair Credit Reporting Act states that an individual legally can dispute ANYTHING on their credit file, and it is the burden of the creditor to verify it. Essentially, you can NOT be in violation of the law for disputing any informaiton on your credit file.

    If you were approved for that credit card with high interest, I reccommend activiating it and charging 100 dollars a month and paying off the balance in full every month, avoiding all interest charges. This will build your credit worthiness very quickly.

    Never charge more than 30% of the credit limit of any credit card. For example, if the limit on the credit card is 1000, never charge up more than 300 on that card. IF you do your "available credit" goes down as does your credit score. This looks bad to potential creditors and looks like you are relying on your credit card to get you through the month.

    To build a super high credit score here are some tips.

    1) Have 5 credit accounts. A mortgage, a car payment, a bank loan, and 2 credit cards looks ideal to creditors. Any more than 5 accounts starts to lower your score.

    2) Keep the balance low on all revolving accounts (credit cards, gas cards, store cards, ect) Never go above 30 percent.

    3) to build your credit worthiness and raise your score do this - go to your bank and tell them you want a loan for 1000 dollars. Don't be shy, tell them you are trying to build your credit history. They have no problem with this as they will be making money from interest. If your credit is good, they will give you the loan no problem. If your credit is lacking, they may ask you to secure the loan. Basically they will give you the 1000 dollars IF you let them hole 1000 of your dollars. This is okay, just make sure you have 1000 in your savings accout before you do this. Okay, so get the 1000 dollars and put it in your savings account. Pay the account off in 6 months. This is important. If you pay it off rite away, it will not show on-time payment history and it won't do much for your credit profile. You can keep doing this and keep building up your credit. It will cost you a few bucks in interest but it's well worth it.

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I understand this now. Now I feel stupid for apply for so many. I just figured if I got approved for a couple of them I'd review the plus and minuses of each and then decide which one I wanted to activate. But I think I'll go ahead and activate the Paypal one I got.(God help me to not make me go over 30% as Ryan said! )
    The only real credit I've ever had is a car loan I got when I was 18, but for some reason that isn't helping me out a great deal! That and my cell phone.
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Ryans advice was right on the money they look at a lot of things such as number of recent inquiries time on the job time at present address. Providian is the easist card to get they will approve almost anyone

    Use ryans advice he knows what he is talking about in this respect

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Ryan is correct except about the 5 tradelines part. Hving more will not lower your score, UNLESS you charge them up past the 30-50% of their limit. Another reason that inquiries are bad is that the creditor has no way of knowing if any of those inquiries turned into accounts, so the creditor may feel that there is a danger that you have too much credit outstanding too soon. After 90 days, creditors won't count inquiries. Take venus's and Ryans advice and activate the card you have. 19% isn't that bad considering you have no credit. You have to start somewhere. Do what Ryan says and pay on time and don't charge past 30%. In 6 months you will be able to apply for a lower interest card, then CLOSE your providian. having a zero balance but open account is just as bad as overcharging, as creditors feel you may at ny time charge more on that card.

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    the advice ryan gave was great ...another thing you said you had a car loan ...i wonder why that is not showing up on your credit ...did you finish paying it off ?? where you ever delinquent on any car payments??
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    No I paid my car loan off - early actually! Never late on a payment either. I'm just figuring that maybe it's not enough to give me good credit. Today I called to get a credit report so I'll see if the car loan was on there.
    I went ahead and took Ryans advice and activated the card I got. I'm thinking it has a $2000 limit so I don't want to charge more than $600. But I want to hurry up and charge something so I'll get the ball rolling on good credit. Maybe I'll buy a computer.... lol
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    well i was thinking that the car loan would have left somthing good on your credit but then again it depends on how soon you paid everything off...if paid too soon somtimes it dosen't change your credit much. since creditors are looking for a monthly payment history/consistency .. oh darn well since you already went ahead and order your credit report i guess this dosent make any sense... but it's also possible to get you report instantly over the internet from all three credit agencies...just go to any of their websites ... www.equifax.com , www.transunion.com or www.experian.com ...
    good luck ,hopefully everything will get back to normal in a few months

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Quote Originally Posted by scorpio link=board=6;threadid=10954;start=msg137019#msg137 019 date=1089738804
    Ryan is correct except about the 5 tradelines part. Hving more will not lower your score, UNLESS you charge them up past the 30-50% of their limit. Another reason that inquiries are bad is that the creditor has no way of knowing if any of those inquiries turned into accounts, so the creditor may feel that there is a danger that you have too much credit outstanding too soon. After 90 days, creditors won't count inquiries. Take venus's and Ryans advice and activate the card you have. 19% isn't that bad considering you have no credit. You have to start somewhere. Do what Ryan says and pay on time and don't charge past 30%. In 6 months you will be able to apply for a lower interest card, then CLOSE your providian. having a zero balance but open account is just as bad as overcharging, as creditors feel you may at ny time charge more on that card.

    Yeah scorpio, that's true about the inquiries. If you go out and get 5 inquiries and soon after (within a month) apply fo more credit - the creditor does not know if those accounts were open or not becasue the creditor does not report the tradeline until either you make a payment, or you don' make a payment. The first 30-60 days after you open a credit account all that will show will be an inquiry, no payment history, no tradeline for that account.


    You ar WRONG about a lot of tradelines not affecting your score. They do. The reason for this is potential credtiors worry if you lose your job or whatever, you will rely on all of this available from all of these different credit cards to hold you over. Statistically the more accounts one has open the more likely they are to default. It's just common sense. People with 20 cards are prime for defaulting, they look credit hungry and unorganized to creditors. One who has a few, preferrably 5 tradelines, all paid on time with a high percentage of credit available looks much more attactive to creditors. 3 or 4 accounts is okay, 7 or more looks iffy. If you have a ton of credit cards consolidate them into 1 or 2 cards. It makes them a lot easier to manage anyhow, and if you lose your wallet or purse you don't have to make a million phone calls to credit card companies. I'm NOT saying haveing 10 credit cards will make you get denied, I am simply saying having about credit accounts is the IDEAL amount, excessive accouts WILL lower your credit score and WILL make some creditors uneasy. Go in for a mortgare with 10+ credit cards and they will tell you to consolidate or close some accounts becasuse the know that with all of that credit available spread out all over the place, you are primed to default. It's all a numbers game.


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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    Not necessarily, Ryan. I have many clients with 25+ open trade lines and have 700+ Scores. It all depends on your debt to income ratio, time trades have been open, etc. In fact, I talked with someone from Trans-Union, and they said that they use a very complex mathmatical algorythm to score cards, and that no one, save the top officers really know how it works. Scoring is weird. I have seen people with a bankruptcy in the near past score a 650, yet the guy with a perfect pay history may score the same or lower. As far as DTI, Someone who has a 20% DTI will get more credit than someone with a 50% DTI. The key is to not overcharge. Overcharging, or limiting your cards lowers your score faster than paying late. I have seen people with perfect pay histories score in the 500's because they were at their limit on many of their cards.

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    BTW, all of those accounts were mine and now they are gone. Just for all of you nonbelievers about credit repair.

    And, no, none of them will ever resurface. They are gone forever.

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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    I really do appreciate all the great advice guys! {I LOVE STRIPPERWEB!!!} My mom had horrible credit so I never learned any of these things and it's not like she'd be the one I'd call for advice on this!

    Okay I'm alittle confused aboused about Ryans last post about 700 and something points and raising your points 200 in 2 years. What are these points - and how the hell am I supposed to get 700 of them?

    And the attachment you posted - what does it mean deleted?

    I'm sorry - I'm naturally blonde and I think this is one of those moments where I'm showing it!

    Thanks again - you guys are awesome!
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    Default Re:Applying For Too Many Credit Cards??

    do an internet search on "credit scoring"

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