Do different cards affect credit scores much?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have been sorting through different cards and working hard to improve my credit profile. I was wondering, does having a specific CC (AMEX, Barclays, etc.) improve your credit if you pay and use that card responsibly. I guess im asking, all things being equal, is it better to have a certain CC as opposed to another one. I was considering AMEX, Chase Slate, Discover IT. Thanks for any advice.

[kdm31091]

As far as I know, the only thing that makes any significant difference is different TYPES of credit accounts, not credit cards from different lenders.

i.e. It's better to have a few credit cards and some other type of credit, an installment loan or what have you. I don't think different lender cards make a difference. A card is a card and a limit is a limit, as far as I can tell it makes no difference who it is from.

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

As far as I know, the only thing that makes any significant difference is different TYPES of credit accounts, not credit cards from different lenders.

i.e. It's better to have a few credit cards and some other type of credit, an installment loan or what have you. I don't think different lender cards make a difference. A card is a card and a limit is a limit, as far as I can tell it makes no difference who it is from.

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+1 This is my understanding. That said, its easier to get new cards from lenders if you already have a relationship with them. 

[Anonymous]

The only real difference that I know of are secured cards - if they report as secured they don't look quite as good as those that do not report as secured.

So while BoA's secured card one of the best secured cards out there because they graduate (early for a lot of people) and you can get rewards on them, they still report as secured for the period before they graduate you, while Capital One may keep your card secured forever but it reports as unsecured the entire time.