Actually, I believe Macs have a long-standing life as opposed to PC's, so even if it is a depreciative asset, it depreciates in small increments. As for the interest, there is none, assuming the financing is paid off within' 12 months. Afterwards, accrued interest begins to set in.
As for my utilization, I have none because I have no active cards right now so not sure if this fact applies to me. I been thinking of getting two secured cards, using less than 25% utilization and paying them completely off each month. Would this make my score skyrocket, or is the truth that carrying a balance will get my score to rise quicker/higher?
@pizzadude wrote:
@YoungMoney06 wrote:
As for my utilization, I have none because I have no active cards right now so not sure if this fact applies to me. I been thinking of getting two secured cards, using less than 25% utilization and paying them completely off each month. Would this make my score skyrocket, or is the truth that carrying a balance will get my score to rise quicker/higher?
The best starting point to optimize your FICO score revolving utilization is to have several open CCs reporting zero balances and one CC reporting a small ( less than 9% ) balance. If you don't have any open CCs then you could open two or three secured cards initially and try the above approach.....
That's the key point. Get your tradelines established ASAP, and then simply don't be late on your payments. That's the path towards long-term FICO increasing, revolving utilization tricks are short-term as FICO has no memory of what your utilization was on past reports.
Thanks pizzadude. Just curious, how long exactly, should I get 2-3 secured cards, would it take to raise my score from 600 to a 725. That's my ultimate goal is to get to 725 across the board.
Not to get off topic, but is there anything I should check with the secured credit cards before signing up? For example, do all secured credit cards report to all THREE bureaus?
@YoungMoney06 wrote:Thanks pizzadude. Just curious, how long exactly, should I get 2-3 secured cards, would it take to raise my score from 600 to a 725. That's my ultimate goal is to get to 725 across the board.
Not to get off topic, but is there anything I should check with the secured credit cards before signing up? For example, do all secured credit cards report to all THREE bureaus?
Assuming no negatives it's around a 2 year plan for most folks. You have a head start with your other accounts.
No, not all secured cards report to all three; stick with major banks and major CU's. There's lots of secured card postings both here and in the Rebuilding forum, if you have questions about a specific one as to whether it reports or not, ask.
Edit: As a quick starting point for you:
If you have a military connection - NFCU hands down
One of the best secured cards besides the above - BOFA
One of the easiest with good options that reports to all three - Capital One
Everything else roll your own, check with whatever bank you currently use for their offerings too. Think pretty much everyone except Chase and Amex offer a secured product of some sort.