Thread: Getting a credit card after paying off debt?

First post, wont be the last..

Hellow mine amigos, how are you doing?

First of all I'm 24 rebuilding my credit after completely destroying it when I was in the military (joined at 17), was a Amex gold card holder, put about 8k of debt to it and just forgot about it... looked at my score 5 months ago (589) and decided to fix it.

• Paid off all my debts (about 11k) ,and hired Lexington Law to remove all my negative paid off accounts effecting my score, they have done great so far, and my score has bounce to a 690 on my Equifax and Experian and 765 on my transunion (all the negatives item were removed).
• I got about 3/7 remaining negative accounts on the 2 other credit bureau...hopefully they will all be removed.
• I got a mortgage for 3 months now, and a very high risk car loan I finished paying last month.
• I paid off my american express and got an Optima credit card with a credit limit of $500, its my only card, better than nothing, right?

I'm a college grad curently working a full time with a small business also, I earn 60k salary on my job and about $1,700 (after expenses its $900) on my small business in which I have a worker of mine deliver cargo from/to NYC 4 times a week.

I spend about 500 bucks in gas, and the idea of earning rewards from it came to mind, so I was just wondering what would be the best choice for me? Though I keep thinking to wait the other negative items to be removed and apply for a very good card like Amex platinum or the Chase Sapphire.

You have taken the best and most appropriate action needed by paying everything. While Lexington is helpful, they can only dispute items per your request and you would save that money and do it yourself. Your score are GREAT but i think you should not apply for any additional card right now. Chase is extremely picky and if you apply for an American express platinum, you might get denied and flag your existing account as a risk. You said it yourself; it is better than nothing i recommend you keep that account and apply for random credit limit increase.

Give it some time and it will pay off.

Congratulations. You messed up but have taken responsibility, paid off your debts, and fixed it. Those are very good credit scores now. You've had a lot of credit activity in the last few months. I suggest you wait 6 months or so and then look at getting a card with great gas rewards.

I was going to suggest The Household Bank Rewards MasterCard as they were really looking for rebuilders like yourself. They seem to have removed the card, when I looked a few months ago the application was somewhat hidden but still up, no longer the case. It would seem that the article I found while researching the card that said they were looking to get out of the US credit card market is coming to realization.