Ahhh!! I'm in limbo!

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone - I'm a 21 year old newlywed, who has no credit history!  NONE! My main goal is for my husband & I to establish credit, and buy a nice house.

Currently, I have started establishing credit.  I have two credit cards.  One is a secured card from my bank for $500, and the other is a crown jewelers card with $1,500. My balance for my secured card is $25, and I have a zero balance for the crown jewelers card.  Considering I only have four months of credit, I have no credit scores as of yet.

My question is, what should my next step be?  Should I get another secured card?  Should I just wait a year or so until I start building up my score?  Is two cards enough for getting a good credit score?

Thank you all in advance!

[Anonymous]

First, you cannot be Limbo. The Catholic Church closed Limbo.

If you haven't already pulled your CRs, do it. It's free once every 12 months at annualcreditreport.com

Have you pulled scores at MyFico?

Do you have a car loan?

Read thru the Scoring 101 thread.
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

Are you still in college or a recent graduate? Sometimes CCCs are lenient about their definition of a "college student" and will include those who graduated within the past X months. That can be a way in to getting an unsecured CC.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate your quick reply!!

I have pulled all three of my credit reports.  All three (EQ, EX, and TU) are currently reporting my two credit cards.  I am an AU on two of my husband's accounts, and EQ and EX are reporting those as well.  I have one collection account on TU, which is an unpaid medical bill of $149.  Other than that, everything is clean.

I've tried getting my scores from myfico, however they give me a message that I need to have at least six months prior credit history to obtain a score.  So far, I do not have six months.  I'm such a newbie!

The car is in my husband's name, so that's a big negative on the car loan.

I am one year fresh out of college, I applied for a couple student credit cards and have received that infamous letter of denial.

[Anonymous]

Here are a couple of random thoughts on medical collections which may be of help.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=26717
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=30219

On your denials, try recon.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=3183

On the car loan, are the terms extremely favorably? If not, y'all might consider talking to a CU and asking about refinancing the car as a joint loan.

Check out the Friendly CCC link in my sig. Some of the CUs, FCUs in particular, are very understanding.

Message Edited by Noah_Bodie on 08-21-2007 04:24 PM

[Anonymous]

The links you provided were very helpful, thank you for that!   I think my best bet will be to just wait it out, until I build my scores up over time.  Then I'll see exactly where I stand.

Message Edited by becki_ on 08-21-2007 08:08 AM

[Anonymous]

That's your call, but I think you can find plenty of bang for your buck by pursuing these rather than waiting. That collection ain't gonna go nowhere for 7 years from DOFD.

If you're willing to wait several years to buy a house, well, OK, but lemme give you some advice I'd like to go back in time and give myself when I was in my 20s. Buy a house now while you can. Prices are only going to go up, and this current subprime hubabaloo will pass.