I filed for chapter 7 back in 2014 (don't try to be the cool, young guy who pays for everything for "friends" kids). Since then, I've been very good with my finances from paying everything off on time to getting a car loan and a new credit card. I stupidly applied for an Amazon credit card forgetting I've gotten one in the past to get their instant $70 or whatever so I was denied which is in the contract that I even read.
I received an email from credit karma letting me know they checked my credit so I decided to see how my score was (I haven't even fathomed checking due to the ch. 7). Surprisingly, to me anyway, it's sitting at 709 right now. I started looking at their suggestions for how to boost it a bit more and one of them said I could bring it up four points by spending about $150 less of my credit card. Right now, I spent about $960 of the $2,500 limit on it.
Questions
.Is having 709 credit score after filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy back in 2014 good or bad? I'm surprised it's that high considering how I've heard people having lower after 4-6 years.
.Can anyone explain why it's not good to spend past a certain amount of your credit limit as Credit Karma suggests? Is it a certain percentage? I don't max out the card and I pay it all off in full every month so far but I do go a bit over 50% of it.
.I know when you apply for credit it's considered a hard pull and you take a hit on your score when denied. How long does that typically stick to it, though? Does the damage vary per card or is it all the same? I'd like to apply for another card (which would be a total two cards if approved that I own) because I'm not really getting cash back or any type of rewards with what I have now but not if I'm going to take a big chance of messing things up.
Submitted November 29, 2017 at 08:02AM by PM_For_Help http://ift.tt/2zzx0FM
