Barclay's Denied Me 1 week + after Discharge

[ccmisery]

It's been over a week since discharge, got word I will be travelling soon for work and need a credit card, tried Barclay's Rewards Mastercard for "Good Credit", did not get the instant offer, said they need time to review and will find out in 10 days, but when I checked the status link a minute later it said I was denied?

Has anyone else had issues with Barclay's? I did have a fraud alert on my credit that I activated a number of years of ago, that has caused issues even when I had good credit, but I deactivated it but there is a chance that one of the credit agencies did not follow through with the request?

[Pjmax]

I don't know much about fraud alerts, but from what I've read, Barclays is BK-friendly, but is kind of picky, i.e., low number of inquiries, no other apps for 6 mos. before Barclays. I was denied at 6 mos. post-discharge, but I applied and was approved for a few other cards, so I'll wait 6-8 mos. and try again.

[LadyInTheRed]

tried Barclay's Rewards Mastercard for "Good Credit"

You probably don't have "good" credit a week after a Chap 7 discharge. It's fair at best and likely poor. Go to creditcards.com and search for cards for people with poor credit.

[AngelinaCat]

Just a little over a week after Discharge? You must be joking. No, you are not going to have decent credit for a while. I understand that you may need the card for work purposes, but you may need to go with a pre-paid debit card for a while.

[Pjmax]

I know you're in a hurry, but you may have to settle for a secured card if you need one now. You really need to pull all 3 reports, make sure everything is reporting correctly and check your scores. That takes some time. Also, I think I recall that you are discharged but not closed yet? I'm not sure how that appears on your credit reports. Might not make any difference, but I really don't know. Don't waste too many inquiries before you have some idea what is in your reports.

[ccmisery]

I have a 688 FAKO, based on that I was guessing my actualy FICO would be in the low 600's. I had a 617 FAKO in March, and actualy FICO was high 500's.

Just reading on here that some people got cards soon after discharge, that must be a rare instance?

I am going to pull all my credit reports soon, was told to wait 30 days after discharge then do some clean ups, what annoys me now is I have a hard pull from Barclay's.

[ccmisery]

I know you're in a hurry, but you may have to settle for a secured card if you need one now. You really need to pull all 3 reports, make sure everything is reporting correctly and check your scores. That takes some time. Also, I think I recall that you are discharged but not closed yet? I'm not sure how that appears on your credit reports. Might not make any difference, but I really don't know. Don't waste too many inquiries before you have some idea what is in your reports.

I really do not ever want another credit card, I was not disciplined enough to have them or made enough money to pay them off monthly, I found they provided a false sense of financial stability and frivolous spending. My new attitude is, if I cannot pay for it in cash I can't afford it. My job however requires some travel, luckily not a lot so I may get by on debit and getting a cash advance.

I may end up getting the Paypal Debit that others here said works fine for car rentals, only PITA I have to worry about with my debit.

[AngelinaCat]

The problem with PayPal is that they want 'good' credit also.

I attempted to get the 'Bill Me Later' feature of PayPal but was denied, and told that my credit score was in the 500s. This was after we purchased a truck and when trying to deal with the local monopolized three Big Name Dealers in town, who insisted on trying to finance us through their banks, with three hard pulls on our credit. We told these turkeys that we would ONLY finance through our CU, and to not waste our time. But they did and our credit scores.

Until then we had not pulled any credit reports, or used credit of any kind after we were Discharged August 13, 2008.

[Pjmax]

Bill Me Later and Paypal Mastercard are different than the Paypal Debit Card. The debit card first uses whatever money is in your Paypal account, if anything, then takes the funds from whatever you have designated as your backup account. It does have to be linked to a bank account, but you can still choose a credit card for a backup if you wish.

Also, Bill Me Later is changing to Comenity Bank instead of Webbank.

[tobee43]

i use paypal every month, but only to transfer money to my kids. perfect, free and fast. but no more paypal charge account or bill me later!

[joshuagraham]

You really should expect to go through "credit penance" after BK. It took me about a half a year to get the pleasure of getting a CapitalOne CC with a $500 limit and a $39/yr fee. Once I had that for a year, I was able to move up to no-fee Discover, Barclays & WellsFargo, and demanded that to stay a CapitalOne customer, I would need to no longer have a fee, to which they balked, so I canceled that card.

[AngelinaCat]

Well said JG. Thank you for your input.

[ccmisery]

You really should expect to go through "credit penance" after BK. It took me about a half a year to get the pleasure of getting a CapitalOne CC with a $500 limit and a $39/yr fee. Once I had that for a year, I was able to move up to no-fee Discover, Barclays & WellsFargo, and demanded that to stay a CapitalOne customer, I would need to no longer have a fee, to which they balked, so I canceled that card.

Trust me, I do not desire a credit card at all, but my job requires travel in the US and abroad as well, not sure how well a Debit Card is going to work for much of that, probably not too well. I knew this going into bankruptcy, but I was let go from my job twice in a year and this job came up quick, could not turn down it down either so I am between a rock and a hard place right now due to this.

[iswmle]

I think Barclays wants to see some distance between you and your BK. When I first applied for them I was a good six months out. I did manage to get approved for their Apple Financing card, but it took another year and a half before they would even consider me for the Barnes & Noble card. Pre BK I had never even heard of Barclays. I really like them. They are most generous to me.

[panda]

Try capital one. My husband and I were approved shortly (within 30-45 days) of discharge, not a large limit but enough for us. I think it was $750 or $1000 for six months and then went to $1500 after that time.(each) We actually started with Orchard card, but that is now capital one as they bought them out. I wanted a card for car rental and tickets, as I was having to fly back and forth to help my mom as she was sick. Debit is ok but does not have the benefits of a credit card for theft ect...which I happen to have great knowledge of due to the theft of three of my credit cards for my business prior to the BK