What credit Cards will improve my credit

[Anonymous]

I opened up a secured card account with capital one ($200) and have had my card for almost two months now. Previously had no credit and was a ghost. I recently opened up a freescore (.com) account and am now able to see credit score with all three. Now, what Im looking to do is get an auto lease in the next 3-4 months. Reason why that time frame is due to current lease (not under my name) expires in October so I would need to return it and get a new car. I don't want to finance and want to lease again. This time under my name. Will opening up more secured accounts and continuing to be responsible with those accounts (10-15% credit utilization) be wise? From what I have read, if you apply for many CC, it will make you look bad. What I was thinking is opening up 2 more secured account (say $200-$400 limits). What companies would you all recommend and any info on how I could get the best possible outcome in the next 3-4 months (credit score wise).

[tsquad131]

your capital one account is still too new and freescore.com isnt an accurate site to look at your scores because they arent fico scores and fico score calculations are different than other formulas. fico scores is what lenders use to determine whether to grant you credit so you want to be able to see what the lenders see. keep using the card responsibly and make sure that your statement balance doesnt post for more than 9% of your limit. You may or may not get approved for that car lease since your credit history is still very short and you would only have 6 months of history under your belt. I would wait till your 6 month mark before opening any new accounts

[vish1]

The OP can not get a fico score at this point. FICO starts scoring you only after you have a credit account on your name for atleast 6 months.

At this point, according to me, the wisest thing to do will be add a store card. Cards like GEMB/JCP will most probably approve the OP with a his history (2 months) with a small CL to begin like 200$. The good thing is that at about 6 months point (3-4 months from now), GEMB's first CLI will have kicked in and the OP may very well have a CL of 700-800 $ on his JCP card.

In any case the OP should have a FICO of about 620-640 or so at 6 months point, he may be able to get a lease but the rates won't not be good.

To add IMHO, its actually good to have a few cards in the first year of your credit history as in long run they will keep your AAoA high. Though in OPs situation, my advice is to get a GEMB card now and then wait for the history to be 1 yo and then get a couple of good prime cards.

[sgs10]

+1

[Wolf3]

IMO,   It would be better to have 1 secured card with $600 limit or more, than 3 small ones.  Bigger limit cards looks better on manual review and are more likely to get you bigger limit cards in the future.   Cap1 is very easy to add deposit.  

On the other hand, if you want to develop a long term relationship with another bank or CU, a secured card with them would be a good way to start that.    I wait until after the car lease is settled though.