Secured card ?

[Anonymous]

I have a 560 credit score& am trying to increase it so I applied for a household cc and I got a reply that I could get a secured card.  I was wondering if it makes any difference to my credit score how much of a credit line I get.  On the paperwork it says a minimum of $200 just wondering if I do more it that will increase my score more.  This will be my only open card everything else I have is in collections.

[WhirledPeasPlease]

Hello!

I'd suggest you a search for 'secured cards' on here.  Lots of discussion about how a secured line will look.

Congrats!!!

[Wolf3]

I would not worry too much about the fine points of your score at this time.  Dealing with the collections is your first priority.       

That said it is good to start new secured credit cards for your use and to rebuild for the future.     

Having 1 open credit card vs none will make the biggest difference in the score.  Having 2 is even better.   Two $200 limits is better than one $400 limit.   The total amount is not that significant.  I would set the limit based on how much you plan to spend each month on that card. At least 2x your monthly charges,  if you can afford it.  You want a comfortable limit so it is not maxed out.  

Consider opening a 2nd secured card in the near future.  Be careful, there are some high fee secured cards that are horrendous.  You may want to post questions about who you are considering..       

[haulingthescoreup]

+2

And while you are recovering, get two cards. Period. That's all you need to start a trail of clean credit history. You will find that with patience and good management, your scores will rise to where you become attractive to better lenders. A dozen cards won't speed up the process, and in fact, might alarm some future creditors. Once you get some distance between you and your past troubles, and are maybe able to get some of them off your reports with PFD's, etc., you can start looking at credit unions and so forth.

For scoring purposes, the actual CL is irrelevant. The FICO scoring formula looks at the percentage of the CL that you owe. So $20 on a $200 card is the same as $200 on a $2K card is the same as $2K on a $20K card. And in fact, the formula also looks at the total $ value of balances, so the smaller, the better.

Just read around here for tips on how to control the amount that is reported to the bureaus (which is the figure used in calculating your util), and you'll do fine. Congrats on the recovery!