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[espnjunkie]

While your intentions and advice are noble, you cannot be making these decisions for him. At age 25 he is definitely old enough to be keeping his own credit and finances in order. Your friend needs to learn how not just to build credit, but alos how to properly maintain it. Find out what the collections are for and then decide whether to pay them off. A rebuilder card is a solid starting point, but I would stress the need to be very responsible. Giving advice and suggesting iopening up various cards to a person who is probably clueless about what any of this means isn't a recipe for success.

[Whereis750]

In my opinion, his first step should be to verify that the debts owed to the CAs are valid (are the debts legally his and are these debts collectable and reportable - refer to Statute of Limitations for your state).

Not sure what you mean by "closed delinquent" on the Best Buy store card ... is the account still active?

[Whereis750]

Orchard Bank

PRO -- reports to all 3 CRAs pretty quickly

CONS -- really low CLs that go no where, AF

Cap1

PROS -- CLs can be decent (around $1000-1500), reports to all 3 CRAs pretty quickly

CONS -- No user requested CLIs, AF

[Anonymous]

I would suggest he gets a USAA secured credit card.  I have read on here that anyone can get their banking, you just need to be a vet for their insurance.

As for the collections...  I would hate to say he should pay them, because I am not privy to the information.  Plus they are so close to dropping off his report he might be better off to just wait for them to fall off.  Does he plan on doing anything that he will need good credit score before the last falls off?  If the collections were sold to a collection agency he may be able to pay them off at 50% face value.  Still it is best to get the offer in writing before paying. 

So many variables and your friend needs to make some decisions.

[john398]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would suggest he gets a USAA secured credit card.  I have read on here that anyone can get their banking, you just need to be a vet for their insurance.

As for the collections...  I would hate to say he should pay them, because I am not privy to the information.  Plus they are so close to dropping off his report he might be better off to just wait for them to fall off.  Does he plan on doing anything that he will need good credit score before the last falls off?  If the collections were sold to a collection agency he may be able to pay them off at 50% face value.  Still it is best to get the offer in writing before paying. 

So many variables and your friend needs to make some decisions.

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I belive USAA secured cards are only available to full members

[Repo-ed]

BoA secured card, as it is possible to graduate to un-secured.

[Revelate]

He needs to understand that you can't be late on payments period, and not let collections happen again.

Personally I'm a fan of paying the collections especially as he has money, that'll only help his approval chances later.

- BOFA secured is good

- Cap One unsecured or secured is fine (Orchard is now gone, bought by C1)

- Local credit union is always a good place to start.

Recommend that he gets two cards assuming that Best Buy card is still open, evaluate again in a year.  The AU probably won't help him a whole lot but it might, this is something he's going to have to get through on his own though and it may be useless under the new FICO '08 standards for anti-AU-abuse anyway (that's just conjecture).