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Its a shame when you know better and don't do better. I am looking to get a secured credit card to re-re-re-re build my credit. I do have up to $10,000 cash to put down on a secured credit card. My thinking is the higher the limit, the faster my score will go up. I plan on keeping it aroung the 10% utl.
However, i just read that it may be a bad move to tie up that much money on a secured card and I can get the same amount of point with a $2-3k limit.
Any suggestions?
FYI I just brought everything current of my credit!!!!!!!!!!!
Exquifax: 513
TransUnion : 547
Experian: 537
Do you have any unpaid bills still showing current on your reports? I'd tackle that first.
And it is true, you dont need high limit cards to have higher scores.
Best secured card is the BOA card, after 9-12 months of good history they will unsecure it. Thats the only way i'd ever put down a sizeable chunk on a secured card. Otherwise i'd simply put down what you think you'd use. 10k limit wont bring 700 scores instantly.
If you currently have NO open positive tradelines than you would benefit a lot more by having 2-3 cards vs. 1 large card for building score.
Putting down a higher deposit to get a higher limit may be a wise move, because it will help you get higher limits elsewhere eventually.
But higher limits have no direct effect on scores. The effect they do have is to lower utilization, which will raise scores if the starting utilization is high.
@Creditaddict wrote:If you currently have NO open positive tradelines than you would benefit a lot more by having 2-3 cards vs. 1 large card for building score.
I was going to say exactly this. Not that I am an expert or anything. I've just recently started the rebuilding route myself. If you have $10k though, I would open two to three secured cards and use the rest to do PFD's (pay for delete requests) on any collections you may have. The combination of these two things will get you the biggest point boost. Since I've started, I've increased my scores by avg of 40 points for each CRA. You may also want to search for "shopping cart trick" in the forums and see if you can't get a retail card going this route. I got a $250 Victoria Secret card by doing this. If you tackle this by many different angles, you will probably see a lot more progress in a lot less time than just putting all $10k on one card. Good luck with your journey!
@meehan22 wrote:Do you have any unpaid bills still showing current on your reports? I'd tackle that first.
And it is true, you dont need high limit cards to have higher scores.
Best secured card is the BOA card, after 9-12 months of good history they will unsecure it. Thats the only way i'd ever put down a sizeable chunk on a secured card. Otherwise i'd simply put down what you think you'd use. 10k limit wont bring 700 scores instantly.
I apped for bofa cash reward card and got denied last month, but they counter offered me on their 123 fully secured reward card.
I have til 6/26 to accept. If u going through bofa route...I would not put no more than 3000. good luck
@Creditaddict wrote:If you currently have NO open positive tradelines than you would benefit a lot more by having 2-3 cards vs. 1 large card for building score.
+1, I would open 1000 secured card with cap1 bofa and us bank. now u have 3 TL reporing, that should get u going.
BofA is definitely the best secured card out there, but I don't recommend Cap 1. First of all they will pull all three of your CRs giving you an inquiry on each one, and then they will never become unsecured. If I could change one thing about my rebuilding journey I would have never gotten one of those, it's my oldest TL so I don't want to close it but I no longer need a secured card so I'll probably be cutting it soon. Good luck on everything.