Eight years ago, my credit was in trouble. I obtained a secured credit card to help rebuild it. I have used it regularly, and have never been late on a payment - ever. Now, I have successfully repaired my credit (FICO ~ low 700's), and I am using some commercial credit monitoring services. One of them, from one of the three credit reporting bureaus, gives advice on how to improve my score. Unfortunately, the advice is generated automatically, and is nonsense in my specific case. The top three pieces of advice are 1) Make sure to keep the oldest accounts active, 2) Cancel secured card, 3) Get unsecured cards.
I understand why the advice is telling me to do two, diametrically opposed things. However, it is very difficult to decide which is the better thing to do. Should I cancel the oldest account, which has been in good standing for eight years which leaves me with only new credit cards that I now qualify for? Or, should I keep my secured card?
I'm about to move to another city and buy a house, so the last thing I want to do is damage my credit score by trying to improve it. My bank tells me that I'll need a FICO above 750 to get the best rates, so I'm almost there. I want to make only one move to improve my situation before I buy, but I'm terrified that no matter what I do, it'll end up hurting more than helping. Since FICO doesn't say how they calculate scores, I'm completely in the dark. Does anyone out there have first-hand experience with something similar?
Thanks in advance for your help.
