What does a credit approval today say about my formerly-bad credit?
Cell phone carriers, in my experience, are just about the pickiest creditors on the face of the planet. Sprint made me put down a whopping deposit when I signed up with them (then stole most of it from me when I left them, the bastards), and T-Mobile made me put down a large deposit and then made me take their $40 a month billed-in-advance plan for a year before they’d let me switch over to a cheaper plan. I have no idea why they’re so picky when you’re paying your bill on a credit card anyway, making collection the credit card issuer’s problem rather than theirs, but that’s how they are. A friend who’s gone through a Chapter 7 told me that after a bankruptcy, you can still get a car loan (albeit at an outrageous interest rate), you can even get a mortgage if you put enough down, but nobody will let you have a cell phone. So I’d say it’s probably worth applying, even if you don’t want to pay for your current score first. The worst they can do is turn you down, which will ding your scor
It’s really, really easy. Legally speaking, any time someone runs a credit report on you, you have a right to see that report. Now the cell phone place doesn’t see it–it’s automated, the computer tell them what to give you. I’m assuming you didn’t have to pay a deposit. BUT anyway, here’s what you do. Go to a local bank, like a real bank or a Wells Fargo, and tell them you’re interested in getting a car loan. You haven’t picked out the car yet, and you’d like to know what your rate will be with them. They’ll run your credit. Ask to see the report. Done and done. Or, go test drive a car and let the guy run your credit, but don’t buy the car. No reason to *pay* for anything. As to what’s actually ON your credit report—annualcreditreport.com will give you your once-a-year free credit report for all 3 versions.
If you sign up for the 30-day trial of the score monitoring service at MyFICO, and then make sure to cancel before 30 days, you can see one FICO score for free. That’s probably all you need unless there’s some reason your reports would be different at the different agencies. From what you said it sounds like it would be a good time to apply for a credit card. They are not really that difficult to get, especially if you’re willing to take one that is designed for people with bad credit or doesn’t have quite as good terms. If you don’t have anything negative on your report for a couple years, I think you’ll be fairly OK. The only reason I would say not to apply for one is if you’re not going to be able to handle making the payments. But it sounds like you’re already at the point where you’re being responsible with this kind of thing. Also, the only downside to applying is that you get an inquiry on your credit report. That lowers your score, but only by a very slight amount (and you alre
CapOne does not report your credit limits to the CRAs, so the card is basically useless for helping your overall utilization, if youre looking to improve your FICO scores. With the small credit lines CapitalOne cards offers, it doesn’t really matter much that they don’t report your limit. In this case, the agency will use your highest reported balance as your limit, so if this is a concern, simply run the card up to its max and pay it off the next month. Timely payments matter more anyway. Six months of those, and you’ll start getting offers for unsecured cards from other lenders. I suggested CapitalOne mainly because they do offer low limits, thus it is difficult to get in too much trouble. This can be especially important for someone who has had trouble managing their finances in the past.
I can’t speak to its accuracy since I’ve never actually gotten my real credit score, but here’s a site that will estimate your FICO score.
