I’m somewhat mulling over my next steps of building my credit.
I got my first credit card about a year after I came to the US, but didn’t do anything else, because I always thought I’d go home again soon. OK, “soon” didn’t happen, so I started looking into getting my credit up to task just in time for the economic downturn 
.
I don’t have any other kind of credit than credit cards, with CL and age:
WF Visa Signature – CL $8,900 – 5 y 3 m
Amex Costco TrueEarnings – CL $2,000 – 7 m
Discover More – CL $2,000 – 7 m
Chase Amazon Visa – CL $900 (started with $300) – 4 m
Alliant Platinum Rewards – CL $10,000 – 0-1 m (don’t know what it reports yet)
Average age of accounts: 1 y 4 m
My short term goal is just a few more cards, specifically:
- One store card, probably a Kohl’s Charge. The reason is that I shop there, and it will always stay a store card. A negative would be the puny CL’s, which I already have enough of. I’m not sure about Macy’s and Nordstrom, because I don’t really shop that much there.
- A PenFed card. I probably don’t have to add much explanation here
. This would also replace the Costco card as gas card, in case Amex decides they don't want me.
I’m mostly unsure about the time frame. Do you have any suggestions when I should do that? Especially, what is the recommended waiting time for PenFed at the moment?
Do you have any more general suggestions?
@wmarat wrote:I beleive, you need instalment TL for mix.Think about secure (or unsecure) loan from CU (Alliant/Penfed).
To get Penfed card, you have to stay inq. free for 6 months, so do your calculations.
Good luck.
Thank you!
I always get confused which kind of loans help your score if it's already quite good and which ones hurt. I guess my main problem with personal loans at the moment is that I have absolutely no idea what to do with them .
6 months for PenFed sounds good. I hope they won't mind my relatively new accounts.
Take a small loan ($1000), pay back 50% within 2 weeks, an additional 25% within 6-8 weeks and rest within 4 months. By this you minimalize cost of loan (interest) and have positive installment TL on your CL for next 10 years.
@Anonymous wrote:
@wmarat wrote:I beleive, you need instalment TL for mix.Think about secure (or unsecure) loan from CU (Alliant/Penfed).
To get Penfed card, you have to stay inq. free for 6 months, so do your calculations.
Good luck.
Thank you!
I always get confused which kind of loans help your score if it's already quite good and which ones hurt. I guess my main problem with personal loans at the moment is that I have absolutely no idea what to do with them
6 months for PenFed sounds good. I hope they won't mind my relatively new accounts.
I use same strategy with autoloans. Even if I have money to pay in full for a car, I take autoloan and pay it off quickly.