Cap1 plat unsecured --EQ 579 --approved 1k CL

[Duncanrr]

Helping sister on her rebuild. She was just approved for cap1 unsecured cc with 1k limit with EQ score of 579. What second card should she app for next???

[Eschaton]

Personally, I would say nothing. Just use that for a year or two until it's higher. 

[Duncanrr]

I was thinking of her getting a secured from WF or NFCU.

[Eschaton]

I'm sure you could, but at 579 I just don't think there is anything worthwhile to get - at least from my perspective, because I'm always looking to get cards that offer rewards. Having a credit score of less than 650 doesn't really get you the best cards. 

I much rather build my credit score to 650+ and start trying to get cards from that point forward. I pretty much did the same thing. I started with an unsecured Capital One card, used it for a year and moved on to the Chase Freedom and Amex Zync.

But if you qualify for NFCU cards, that might be worthwhile, I think after a year you can change that card to an unsecured. I'm not sure on that but I'm sure others will know  

[Revelate]

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@Duncanrr wrote:
I was thinking of her getting a secured from WF or NFCU.

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Like everyone else she should have multiple revolving credit lines.  If she can get a secured card from NFCU, then don't wait, DO IT.  Get that relationship established as soon as possible.

For a third card, WF secured is fine too.

[SwiftTone]

we would need more information on her credit profile to give advice.

Things such as: AAoA, FICO scores, income, employment status, and especially the baddies.

if she is a student, taking out subsideized Stafford loan(0%) and using the funds to either parking the funds into a bank, or open a secured card  may not be a bad idea. She just needs to be diciplined not to ever use those funds. She is going to take the initial ding to lower her AAoA, but it well give her a credit mix, and as it ages, this loan will help her. Just pay it off before deferrment ends

[Duncanrr]

I just got her reports and haven't really looked at them yet. She isn't in school any more. Her AAoA is in good range. She has just the cc she got today. She is employed with decent salary and the score above is from myfico.

[Anonymous]

I would let that card age at least 12 months and as others said get her score up north of 650

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would let that card age at least 12 months and as others said get her score up north of 650

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Except with multiple accounts and a clean file, you can hit that in six months.  Even get close to that with a dirty file potentially like I did.  12/30 at 561 to 6/29 at 631, and that's with 61% revolving utilization reporting which is clearly suboptimal.  That's possibly mid-640's right there for July when paid.

Payment history is aggregate, you can take 12 entries of OK's from one card, or 36 entries of OK's with 3 cards and still have the same AAoA.  Plus there's the whole number of tradelines thing, where sometimes on some loans you'll just get whacked for not having 4 from an underwriting perspective.  Multiple cards helps, and actually a second card, and apparently a third from people's posted data on this forum, is a straight positive just having them on your reports, at all, from a thin file building standpoint.

Honestly, building/rebuilding with one card just prolongs the journey.  Being in a thinfile or subprime situation blows anyway, there's no point in dragging it out any longer than it needs to be.

[Crashem]

Her score should shoot up with that first card reporting a low balance. Have her keep a small balance (<10%) and wait till it reports. Then pull her score. It should be much higher. I would then app for 1-2 more easy to get cards. Remember even if her score is decent, you have to discount it for her thin file revolving credit wise. Think walmart card or something like that. Then wait 6 months to 1 year to get better cards.