I really wasn't keeping track of my numbers till September of last year. I do have a 30-day late reporting (i've had some unsuccessful goodwill letters go through so I am just waiting) and a CO from 2010.
The starting score on my signature is what I had when i finally pulled my scores from here.
I have a Cap1 secured CC as well with a 1551 CL (weird number because c1 added $151 to my initial $500 deposit to open the account). I opened that tradeline first not having enough confidence that I would be approved for any CC or any of my mailed offers so I did it just in case I would not have a CL to match my 5k limit secured CC.
Now I am waiting again, the CSP is in my sights
@dddewdrop wrote:You are right to be worried about the money getting locked up in the card. If you add more money it may very well reset the clock completely for graduating the card. If you are going to put money down for a secured card CLI you might as well kiss that money goodbye for the time being. This is the main reason why I don't have a secured card with like 5k CLI myself. The good thing about secured cards is that they don't appear as secured cards on your credit report. I am wondering which product told you it was a negative having a CC with a 500 dollar CL. That doesn't sound like any sort of official FICO scoring model to me. The size of your credit line is not a direct factor in fico score as I understand it. It is used in calculating util% of an individual tradeline as well as in calculating overall util% but the actually dollar number of your CL should not be a direct variable in your score. That is why I suspect whereever you are getting that recommendation is not from a real FICO model. If I am wrong, please explain in more detail the source so I can learn.
It was from Experian. Interestingly enough, my EX score is very close to my EQ and TU FICO, all of which are considerably more than my EQ FAKOS for all three. Here's what EX said; it's listed under a heading of "Negative Factors Contributing to your Score."
"2. Your average credit card limit is less than $2,000.
Lenders understand that it is much easier to manage a small amount of credit vs. a large amount of credit. Your relatively low credit limits signal to lenders that you have not had experience managing large amounts of credit, which makes them worried about extending more credit to you."
Starting Score: TU 641 2/28/13 EQ 640 3/1/13
That's the problem I'm having with EQ. My EQ FAKO is about 84 points lower than my EQ FICO. EX, surprisingly, is only 6 and 7 points less than my TU and EQ FICO.
In a way managing a small amount is the same as managing a large amount if you PIF and don't carry balances month to month. I wonder what they are referring to. Resoisting the temptation to buy something really expensive with a high CL? As we know EX doesn't release a FICO score to the public. The only way to get them is through a lender pull or through psecu. Not to say that that reason is not important for your real fico score...but... well actually what I am saying is that reasoning is not important as far as your real fico score is concerned. It is addressing what a lender may think when looking at your credit report to make a decision and could be legitimate advice in that regard but as far as for your fico score, its irrelevant..... imho.... 
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