Secured credit cards

[flguy]

Like most of us here I would like to increse my credit score. I got in some financial trouble 3-4 years ago. With some hard work & this website now my scores are 795 (experian), 718 (Transunion) & 750 (Experian). I would like to get them all near 800 before buying a house again. If I get a secured credit card at this stage would that help or hurt my credit score. (limit on cards I have now are Amex $3,100, Visa $2,500 & Master card $1,750) Plus Sears & dell for $11,7500. My goal is to get a secured credit card for $5,000+.

[moondog7324]

I don't think a secured $5000 card will help you any- You have enough credit cards- you will drop the AAoAs. If you want to get >800 lenght of accounts is a major factor. You would be wiser using that money to pay down any CC debt to the point is around 7%.

What negatives are on your report? Where did you get your scores? 

[flguy]

Thnx for heads up. I got 2 scores from My fico and the 3rd EX website. My visa is less than 2 years old & mastercard is almost 1 year. I see the problem now. Store card has longest history- about 12years & they increased my limit by $2,500 last month on their own accord. My total available credit is around 20K & if I bring that down under 7%, will that help? What's AAoA?

[BungalowMo]

AAoA - Average Age of Accounts

BTW...the EX score is useless.  In your post, I'm sure it's a mistake, but you have 2 listed as Experian.

Message Edited by BungalowMo on 05-26-2009 12:48 PM

[flguy]

My bad. EQ is 795. & Ex is what I got from FCR.com. is that useless?

[BungalowMo]

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@flguy wrote:
My bad. EQ is 795. & Ex is what I got from FCR.com. is that useless?

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Right...EX score is useless.  As of this past Feb, the only way to get your EX FICO score is through a mortgage lender hard Inq.  I don't even think you can coax it out of a CC app inquiry.  Those folks don't normally share the info they receive. 

[flguy]

What is the score from EX? Is that totally false or just inaccurate. In last 2 or 3 months I have seen some movement that score. If its useless, maybe I should ask for my money back. Its kind of a scam, right?

[Anonymous]

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flguy wrote:
What is the score from EX? Is that totally false or just inaccurate. In last 2 or 3 months I have seen some movement that score. If its useless, maybe I should ask for my money back. Its kind of a scam, right?

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It is accurate based on the formula that was used to calculate it. However, that formula was not FICO's formula, so it is not a FICO score, which is what the majority of lenders look at. What that formula may consider good and give you more points for, FICO may not consider so good and give you less or vice versa.

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flguy wrote:

My total available credit is around 20K & if I bring that down under 7%, will that help?

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NO! Your total available credit is fine. Your utilization is what you want to be between 1-9%. Your util is total balances divided by total CL.

You want less than half your accounts reporting a balance, individual util under 9%, and overall util under 9%. However, you don't want all your revolving accounts reporting $0. Let at least 1 report a very small balance.