@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@archieb wrote:I would suggest not borrowing against the secured CD because you already have an installment loan reporting. But your score would drop as soon as paying your only installment loan off (student loan), and in that case I would borrow against the CD.
Not all installment loans are created equally from a FICO perspective, and student loans are way at the bottom to the point of possibly being ignored by some calculations (auto loan underwriting comes to mind).
Are you saying student loans don't help or hurt your score?
No just that they're weighted differently, much like national bank cards > store credit cards. One of the auto experts (F&I guy at a dealership) on these forums stated that student loans have little to no positive bearing on your auto-enhanced inquiry as compared to either regular installment loans or prior auto loans.
@sc2761 wrote:As of yesterday I now have 3 unsecured credit cards, I have updated my signature. Barclays pulled TU as creditkarma showed the inquiry this morning. I was pleasantly surprised witht he $4500 immediate approval online, no annual fee, and 15 months of 0% interest. What is funny is that I applied directly at barclays website, but my wife applied via a pre-approval offer in the mail and she got $1500 line, no annual fee, and 0% interest for only 6 months instead. Oh well.
At this point I don't think I would need to open an installment loan. I do have a student loan reporting as well. Now do I just garden for a long time since I have 3 cards? I will continue to work on clearing up the remaining accounts on Equifax that do not show up as IIB and one for my wife on Experian that is also on Equifax (Chase). Chase just won't change it, I'll have to dispute to them directly instead of the credit bureau's.
If you're looking for more FICO bang for a little bit of bucks, the secured loan is still a good option. 3 unsecured cards (congrats on the Barclay's approval) still don't equate to an installment loan, and it's good to have probably two open at any time... I would certainly want an additional one if all I had was student loans: a current mortgage or auto loan, perhaps not so much.
It'll be interesting to see on my own credit reports: I have an extra installment loan which is only reporting to EX. It's only going to be open for another few months (just long enough for basic seasoning) after which it will be paid in full. When I pull my scores next year assuming I can get all three somewhat close together... around the Hail Mary Amex application in my case, it'll be interesting to see whether it is different than either EQ or TU.