Increasing score with very little credit

[Anonymous]

I am so new to this credit game and am not sure what to do. I have been reading all these forums lately and have seen some good advice. I am 45 and have NEVER had a credit card or mortgage. I have had several loans with the last one recorded in '09 for $40K. All have been balloon notes, not monthly. There were 2 times I was 30 days late on two of these notes, once in '05 and once in '07. I have 3 negative medical collections from '04, '05 and '08. The last time I pulled my score was in April 2010, it was 602. I recently tried pulling my credit again and was informed that I didn't have enough credit on file to calculate a score. So last week I went to my bank and made a $15K loan that I plan to pay back in 30 days. I am now thinking I should have arranged to pay the loan back in installments. I have always used the same bank, all my adult life. 

I also applied for a secured credit card with a $1,000.00 deposit. I hope I am on the right track to get some kind of credit. Anyone have any better ideas or suggestions? 

Thanks!

[RobertEG]

Did you determine, before taking out the loan, that your bank will report it to a CRA?  If they dont report it, FICO will not be able to score it.

Getting substantial improvement in credit scoring will require establishing some form of revolving ((CC) credit.  FICO places heavy risk analysis on use of revolving credit, and without it, any score improvement will be slow and small. Getting the secured card is a good start, as long as they report to a CRA.