@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for your advice. What credit card would you recommend that I open before applying for an AMEX card? Or should I buy another car so I have an auto loan which will start showing my regular payments along with my mortgage? Or do both? My 657 score is Experian. No previous AMEX card but I'll try AMEX's pre-approval page -- just didn't want to have a formal inquiry on my credit that might take it down a few points.
Another installment loan (mortgage, auto) won't do much. The FICO score puts a lot of weight on open revolving credit, because it's riskier to manage.
Where did you get the Experian score? Unless you got it from a mortgage lender or if you belong to a Pennsylvania credit union called PSECU, Experian won't allow consumers to buy our own EX FICO's any more. 
But they will be delighted to sell you what we call a FAKO from their website, and all the credit scores that you get from credit monitoring services are FAKO's as well. (There are more than one type of FAKO.)
Anyway, you might do better with AmEx than others would think. You could always call up their customer service and explain that you'd like to get back into CC usage. The charge cards (Platinum, Zync, Gold, etc.) are easier to get than the revolvers (Blue, etc.), because they can control your usage tightly as they get used to you. Also,, they get a nice big fee out of you, especially with the Platinum. 
Otherwise, I'd suggest starting with a local credit union. Many credit unions (certainly not all) pull Equifax reports and use their FICO score, called Beacon 5.0 in the industry. You might consider buying your FICO Equifax score report here at myfico, printing the whole thing out (report AND score), and visiting local credit unions. Show a loan officer the score and report, tell them it's a Beacon 5.0, and ask if they think that you would qualify for a CC based on what they see. If you decide to apply, they'll have to pull another one for real (=hard inquiry), but you might save yourself a denial this way. Save the score report to disk and/or print out a copy for your files, because it doesn't stay online forever.
An additional possibility is whomever you bank with and/or your mortgage source, if they also do CC's. This used to be a good tactic, back when banks acted like they had an ongoing business relationship with consumers. Talk to a loan officer at your bank first, though; they might be able to warn you off if it would be an automatic denial.
