Greetings all! I am pretty new to these forums, but I have REALLY enjoyed reading here. Seems to be a great community. Reading these forums actually inspired me to go ahead and purchase MyFico 3B monthly. I am excited to start my journey towards rebuilding!
After graduating college, I had copious amounts of debt (including credit cards, student loans, car loan, etc.), and unfortunately lost my job 2 years after graduating and was forced to file for BK7. In retrospect, this was a fantastic decision. I'm now employed and married with an AGI (household) of $120,000. My wife and I are paying approx. 3k a month on (my) student loans which survived the BK7. I still have about 30k to go, but anticipate paying off 2 loans (14.5k) by summer this year! All in all, we have made great progress, and now, I'm interested in rebuilding my credit for the future. We have a very solid emergency fund (7k), and a rock-solid budget.
My starting scores are listed below (2.5 years post filing, 1.5 years post discharge). I decided this month to open my first credit card since BK, and got approved for a QS1 with 1k limit. MyFico projects a credit score increase from 625 ---> 660 with a new card (as I don't have any open revolving accounts). I intend to always be in the 1-9% utilization category, as my wife and I have no actual need for credit (I.E., I don't need to use my card because I have plenty of cash and savings and 3k a month extra outside of budget, which is presently going to student loans).
My question to you all who are much more knowledgeable is this: I would like to significantly increase my credit limit, and perhaps get 1-2 more cards. Ideally, I would like to get the Cap1 Venture or QS card with a credit limit of at least $6k in the near future. I was looking for insight and suggestions of how to continue from this point, aside from my plan of 1) low utilization, 2) continuing on-time monthly payments of all accounts, and 3) paying down loans. More specifically, I'd like to get more insight into how I can increase my availability of revolving credit without opening too many accounts or having too many HPs?
Thank you all for the time!