OK, I got a CapitalOne credit card account 7 months post discharge

[JackBondLove]

BTW, CapitalOne was not one of the ones I had defaulted on.

It's $39/yr, with a $500 limit. Gosh, I am so used to not paying any yearly charge.

I suppose that I should use it to by anything online. Should I pay it back in full every month or leave a token amount like $100 on the balance, and just pay the 29% interest rate so that I can brown nose FICO?

[Flamingo]

Capital One is BK friendly and most people are able to get the card at varying rates or limits within a year or so after BK. Orchard Bank is another BK friendly lender. Since you are a big credit risk with a BK on your records, there will be an annual fee and, as in your situation, probably a high interest rate (although yours is quite high at 29%). It would be prudent to use the card now and then and pay off the amount due several days PRIOR to the due date and not ever be late with the card. Leaving a running balance at 29% is like burning money but that is totally up to you. Your FICO scores will rise in time with being prudent with your credit and not being late with payments of any kind and not going crazy trying to obtain a lot of credit at one time. Obtaining one credit card is no guarantee you will be able to obtain another one.

[JackBondLove]

It would be prudent to use the card now and then and pay off the amount due several days PRIOR to the due date and not ever be late with the card. Leaving a running balance at 29% is like burning money but that is totally up to you. Your FICO scores will rise in time with being prudent with your credit and not being late with payments of any kind and not going crazy trying to obtain a lot of credit at one time. Obtaining one credit card is no guarantee you will be able to obtain another one.

OK, so what you are saying is to pay it off before the end of the cycle since leaving a balance doesn't add any points to the FICO score.

[IBroke]

OK, so what you are saying is to pay it off before the end of the cycle since leaving a balance doesn't add any points to the FICO score.

Solution: Make 2 monthly payments:

A.) When you get the statement, pay off the entire balance. That way, you pay no interest.
B.) Shortly before the billing-cycle closes and the next statement is generated, just leave a few bucks on the card. This results in a small reported balance and a higher FICO-score.

[ben1381]

Got a cap one unsecured card with $750 limit in December even though I filed CH 7 in May ,2010 discharged August 2010 and cap one was included in the bk.At first they only wanted to give me a secured card but I held out from October to December and got unsecured. Interest rate is high 24.9 but good for post-bk and $19 annual fee waived for first year. We'll see where I'm at come next year LOL.