Credit Card Suggestions??

[Anonymous]

I want thank MyFico.com for helping me bring my FICO scores out of the gutter. Before this site, I never bothered to look at them because I knew they were bad. Out of sight.....out of mind. Using the great knowledge on these forums. I brought my scores from the low 500's to the high 600's within one year. I am about to close on my first house. I never thought this day would come. :-)

On to business,

My FICO scores ar:

TU 665

EQ 643

EX 678 (According to my realtor)

I have only one credit card. First Premier Bank with $250 limit. I make about $55,000 a year. I have a car loan for $11,000.

I would to improve my credit "mix". I would like to get my FICO scores as high as possible. After I close on my home mortgage, what kind of credit cards or accounts should I apply for to help improve my FICO scores? Also, how long after I close should I wait to apply? Thanks for your help

-Mariachidude

[Anonymous]

Hi

I would suggest:

Credit union cards....

Macy's

Capital One

Chase

Bank of America

Discover

these are the cards I personally have and have always experienced good customer service with them!

[Anonymous]

Great! Thank for the info! Any other suggestions? Like which specific cards will give me the best mix to raise my FICO scores? 1 dept store and 1 credit union card? 2 dept store cards? Lowe's? Thanks for the answers :-)

-Mariachidude

[haulingthescoreup]

All you need (if in fact retail cards help) is one store or gas card, without a Visa/ MC/ Discover/ AmEx logo. So a Sears card would work, a Sears MC would not. A Walmart card would help, a Walmart Discover would not. Two or three or ten store cards won't help more, and they'll just clutter up your reports.

I'd get a CU card for the likely higher CL, and then one bank card for now. Bank cards score a bit higher than do CU cards. But you'll want to get your scores into the 700's if possible before going beyond the one bank card.

What's still on your reports holding your scores down? Different lenders are allergic to different kinds of baddies (BK, charge-offs, etc.)

It will probably take a few months for your mortgage to show up, so you'll have a delay in score benefits from that change to your credit mix. Once it shows up, that should help.

So anyway, go for one purely retail card, one CU card, and maybe one bank card, and then stop and let everything grow before applying any more. Your scores probably won't take much of a hit, since you only have one open CC, and getting six months of perfect payment history on the mortgage and three or four cards will do wonders for your scores and chances of future approval.

BofA has traditionally been the good rebuilding card, but I don't know if that still holds true in this current economic climate.

Generally, CU's pull EQ (TU if you're in the upper Midwest), and BofA pulls EX, plus TU if your credit history is thin or a bit shaky.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for being more specific. :-) Let answer your questions:

 
What's still on your reports holding your scores down? Different lenders are allergic to different kinds of baddies (BK, charge-offs, etc.)

I was an idiot and missed a payment last year in January 2009 so I am still recovering from that. Plus I am still rebuilding so all of my past accounts fell off after 7 years. My average age of accounts is only 2 years :-(

I had not had credit in a while. Do you think I should reopen my old deliquent accounts, pay them, just to get some better age of accounts or will that be too risky and restart them on my credit reports as bad?

So anyway, go for one purely retail card, one CU card, and maybe one bank card, and then stop and let everything grow before applying any more. Your scores probably won't take much of a hit, since you only have one open CC, and getting six months of perfect payment history on the mortgage and three or four cards will do wonders for your scores and chances of future approval.

So would applying for a Lowe's account and Navy Federal Credit Union credit card be a good start?

 
Generally, CU's pull EQ (TU if you're in the upper Midwest), and BofA pulls EX, plus TU if your credit history is thin or a bit shaky.

I live in Las Vegas. What do you recommend?

Once again, thank you sooo much!

-Mariachidude

[haulingthescoreup]

Mariachidude wrote:

...I was an idiot and missed a payment last year in January 2009 so I am still recovering from that. Plus I am still rebuilding so all of my past accounts fell off after 7 years. My average age of accounts is only 2 years :-(

Ouch! Yes, for most of us, a recent late is good for 50 points. The good news is that now that it's more than 6 months old, your scores are starting to recover. Expect a decent jump in January 2010, and if you don't have any more, there will be little impact by January 2011.

 

I had not had credit in a while. Do you think I should reopen my old deliquent accounts, pay them, just to get some better age of accounts or will that be too risky and restart them on my credit reports as bad?

I doubt that you'll be able to get anyone to reopen old accounts and give you the original opening date. AFAIK, AmEx is the only lender that will show the original opening date.

So would applying for a Lowe's account and Navy Federal Credit Union credit card be a good start?

If you can get those two, that would be perfect!

I live in Las Vegas. What do you recommend?

Once again, thank you sooo much!

-Mariachidude

Well, with a recent late, I'd probably try to get in with Navy and hold off on anything else for a while. Maybe Walmart would take you for a store card? I'd say get more info from those with direct experience on apping store cards with recent lates.

I know you want to get the credit ball rolling, and I completely understand, but I do think that you're going to have to let the sting come off of that late before looking for new credit. Unfortunately, recent lates are huge predictors of default risk to new creditors.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

If you are an NFCU member (or qualified to be one) I would app, in order:

  Macys (then wait 'til it reports)

  NFCU (hopefully you get a nice fat CL, then wait six months)

  Discover (then stop for six months to a year)

I think this program will yield good results. You want to app Discover (and pretty much anything else) after NFCU as they will look at your other CL's when setting yours. Someone has to go first when you strive for higher CL's and NFCU is definitely the right man for that job.

[Anonymous]

Thank you sooo much for your advice! I will wait for my house to close and mortage to post. Then apply for the NFCU card and maybe the Lowe's account. Thank you :-)

-Mariachidude

[Anonymous]

If you are an NFCU member (or qualified to be one) I would app, in order:

  Macys (then wait 'til it reports)

  NFCU (hopefully you get a nice fat CL, then wait six months)

  Discover (then stop for six months to a year)

I think this program will yield good results. You want to app Discover (and pretty much anything else) after NFCU as they will look at your other CL's when setting yours. Someone has to go first when you strive for higher CL's and NFCU is definitely the right man for that job.

 

Thanks!!!

-Mariachidude