rebuilding positive history

[treschic]

i'm trying to rebuild my credit. i already have a hsbc secured card with a $500 limit.  I only have 1 positive tl, other than my student loans which are not yet back in repayment.  i'm trying to have 3 positive tl. i would like to get secured cards with boa and citi.  these are all mainly to build a positive tl history, and i don't really plan to use them, and to keep the util around 1-9% as advised here.  my question is, given this scenario, credit scoring wise, would it matter rather i had a $500 or $5000 credit line, if i'll only be using it sparingly to keep it active, and build a positive history?

[Anonymous]

I too am at the re building stage.

 I do have BofA secured card with 2k limit now. I have about 4 months before they will unsecure. I have asked them what they "prefer" to see. Mostly the amount wasn't important, but that I was making my payments on time and actually USING the card.

 I suppose they are seeing how I will be in the future when they take the restraints off. I am hoping that they don't remove them and only give me a 300 cl or something. I would like to see it match atleast what I have with them secured.

Anyone else have/had this card?

[treschic]

bump

[Anonymous]

I'm a newbie here, and struggling with this question myself.

On the one hand, having a higher CL will help your utilization, which will bring your score up, long term. However, having a bunch of new accounts and hard pulls will hurt your score in the short term. And, you're going to have to put all of that money as a deposit, as you know, for the secured cards. If you are paying high interest on any other debts, you might be better off using that deposit money to pay them off.

Depends on what your goals are; if you could give some more information you'll probably get some better answers on here.

[treschic]

my only other debts are student loans ($140,000) and those are going to be around for a very long time.  i know i have to put the money up for a secured card, since i already have one.  i'm not worried about utilization, because regardless of the credit limit, i would keep the utilization around 1-9%.  i don't need a credit card to live.  but, i do need it to help to rebuild my credit.  i need to add positive tradelines, because besides my one cc, and my student loans, i don't have any.  the rest are ca, which i'm working on, and have posted all of that info in other posts.  i'm just wondering if fico scoring wise, if the cl makes any difference, if regardless of the cl, if you keep your utilization low. 

[Anonymous]

I responded to this exact question in the Credit Card forum.