Where to start? Equifax score 527

[calihlove75]

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@Greydawn wrote:
Thanks for all the responses.

I definitely plan to spend more time in the rebuilding area of the forums, just thought I'd get the card question out of the way here.

My collections (if none of them are settled) add up to about 19k, there is a Car repo from 09 that is te big'un there, so it's not a matter of a few months to pay them, more like 18 months-2years.

So my thought was if I get a secured card and use it for one expense (like gas) and then pay it off each month, it would be better to have that account be 2 years old when I clear everything up than to have it be brand new?...

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Of course, the sooner you start a positive revolving history the better. I don't know anything about secured cards, but I would imagine that having multiple collections might hinder that. Perhaps Cap one would.

You definitely  need to be focusing on the collections because Fico doesn't care whether you owe $10 or you owe $10,000 and doesn't matter if its paid or not~ it's still counted against you the same. I don't know how many collections you have, but you should start somewhere. The ones that remain will have less impact as time goes by.

[twall06]

My first secured card is with merrick bank annual fee is line with other subprime cards but I get my TU score free every month not the whole report just the score . And so far I have had no problems with them .

[MovingForward_2012]

Yes for a mortgage they like to see a min of 12 months good payment history on 3-4 active trade lines. If you don't have that, they may still approve with nontraditional lines of credit such as rent but you will have to be manually underwritten which extends the process.

[jdirilo]

I have the same EQ fico as you (525) and was able to get an unsecured card with navy federal CU back.in Sept for $500. I don't remember ny score back then but I doubt it was much different. And they just increased my limit to $2500. If you qualify for a membership. It wouldnt hurt to try them. They are well known for their generous credit limits for everyone, including those with low scores. Good luck.

[Greydawn]

I do qualify for navy fed as I'm civil service. I would've thought they would be harder to qualify for for some reason. I'll look into it.