@Anonymous wrote:Sorry if these have been asked before, but I haven't seen any recent threads asking any of these. I'm also sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong area, but I am not rebuilding credit, I am just building credit and have questions.
Is there an ideal amount of credit cards to have? I only have one secured card with a small credit limit ($200, I'm a college student with a part time job. I can't just tie up $1000 in a single card.) and I am not sure if I should go ahead and get one or two more secured cards with the minimum deposits.
I only have a school loan and that credit card, is that enough to optimally improve my credit score? Though my loan is relatively new, I am on top of the payments every month. Not to mention my card hasn't even arrived from Discover.
I am also confused on utilization. Is ten percent good? Or is it 20 or 30? I have no clue, I keep getting so many different answers when I try and search for them. I'm not about to max out the card, I am just wondering what I need to limit myself to: $20, $40, or $60. The exact percentage is actually a big deal on a card with such a small limit.
As to anything bad on my credit score: I have quite a few inquiries, a few are going to drop off next year. I know that it's bad to have 6/8 (depending on where I look my score up), but I applied for a few before I even cared about credit. Heck, I didn't even have credit. I stupidly thought that they would actually give a student a student credit card. No questions about this, just adding this for information.
That's it. That's all. I haven't declared bankruptcy, I always pay my bills on time, I just don't have multiple revolving accounts. I want to improve my score as much as I possibly can without having to deal with a bunch of secured cards. My score has reported as low s 537 and as high as 650. It's low, so I know I cannot get an unsecured card or even a store card.
People say 3 revolving lines is optimal, no one can say for sure.
Inquiries won't hurt too much after 6 months.
Let your student loan and secured card age for the next 6 months. UTL before you apply for new credit should be less than 10%. No need to micro manage the UTL when not apping. Just let 1-9% report for 60 days prior to make sure it's there when you app if you can't view your reports daily/weekly.
Have you looked at your reports? Score seems to be a FAKO. In 6 months you can check your scores here, I recommend the 3 score watch its so much cheaper than the 1 time check.. You will likely have a 700 score, at that time you will be able to get a Capital 1 card and Barclaycard then 6 months later you can apply anywhere!
Good luck
I stick to the 6 months time frame.
I would also suggest viewing your free annual credit reports. Something is dragging your scores down, you should likely have no scores or higher scores in my opinion. There may be a derogatory mark on there that isn't yours.
I would also suggest viewing your free annual credit reports. Something is dragging your scores down, you should likely have no scores or higher scores in my opinion. There may be a derogatory mark on there that isn't yours.
Just a thought but the scores you received may be internal scores, not fico as you may not have one yet. You need 6 months of history to generate a FICO score.
In 6 months you should check your scores you may be able to get an Amex at that time even..
In 6 months you should check your scores you may be able to get an Amex at that time even..
I think it is an issue with time. I think in 2 months your scores will be much different than what you received to date. With 6 months on the revolving credit (discover) you will have great scores.
Of course scores aren't everything and limited history will limit you a bit (chase and Citi like seeing a year or so of history as does Barclaycard somewhat) but you will be in a much better position.
With no history your inquiries may have a larger impact as there isn't much to help balance out the scores. In 6 months they will hurt a lot less and the payments will help a lot more so I think you will be fine for Barclaycard., walmart and cap 1. Or a credit union card, Walmart and cap 1 in that order.
Good luck!
Of course scores aren't everything and limited history will limit you a bit (chase and Citi like seeing a year or so of history as does Barclaycard somewhat) but you will be in a much better position.
With no history your inquiries may have a larger impact as there isn't much to help balance out the scores. In 6 months they will hurt a lot less and the payments will help a lot more so I think you will be fine for Barclaycard., walmart and cap 1. Or a credit union card, Walmart and cap 1 in that order.
Good luck!