I read this forum all the timefor probably about two years and am now ready to start sharing what I've learned. I went from a score of about 430 with major debt and collections to NEARLY 700 last year. However because of higher than normal credit usage and over 17 inquiries from buying a car last yearmy score is currently around 600. My Credit Karma shows my TU at 578 and EQ at 573and when I log in to Experian it shows 645... so I dont know who to really believe.
BUTafter waiting and working on my utilization getting it down from 90% to 52%I applied for a Helzberg card and was APPROVED for $2101 through Capital One and $3,000 through their private account. They pulled a report from Transunion. So hopefully this helps someone looking for a Helzberg card.
I have two collections accountsand am sitting at the scores I posted above. Good luck to you!!