anderl wrote:
Hello to all- I am new to Fico Forums and have been reading a lot of posts/info that I'm finding very helpful. I was wondering if i could get some advice as what my next step should be. Currently my scores are-EX 655,FICO-EQ 662, and FICO- TU 683 (all up from 500's 3 months ago). I have 0 collections, 2 PAID delinquint accts.(from 3yrs. ago),1 PAID tax lein(from 4 yrs. ago), and 1 PAID judgement(from 5 yrs.ago). I know that all the negatives(PAID) will become weaker as they age and eventually fall off. I have not used a cc for the past 6/7 yrs. due to the fact that I became unemployed,got behind, and things began to spiral out of control. But today I am DEBT-FREE and am rebuilding my credit with a secured Visa($500) and low-limit($250), unsecured cc.My questions now are: Should I apply for another cc(unsecured) to increase my available credit and when to apply(since my secured and non-secured lines of credit are only 2 months old)- Any idea of which credit card is good based on my scores? Also is it correct that I should be using as much of available credit as possible and to pay it down to a balance around 7/8% every month?
Welcome to the forums!
As the other poster has said, you've done a great job so far. With regard to whether or not you should try to obtain another cc, my vote probably would be to wait on that and instead carefully maintain (and in the case of the secured card, see if you can add to your deposit to increase your CL) what you've got in hand for about a year - that alone should be a help to your scores. If you're able to wait a year, I think you'd have a better chance of being approved for more decent unsecured credit - both quality of lender and CL.
When it comes to maxing score improvement, doesn't matter whether you use a lot or a little of your CL's; what matters is never going over limit, paying on time every time, and what balances report to the CRA's.
For you, I'd say best to let one report a 0 by paying it in full before the statement/reporting date (these generally will be the same, but a few lenders don't follow this rule of thumb, so you might want to do a search on yours on here to find out how they report) and let the other report 1-5% of the CL. Maybe alternate every month or two which card reports the 0.
Are you able to add to your deposit and thereby increase your CL on the secured card? If so, try to nudge that line up to $1K at least, if you can manage it, in upcoming months, as this will give you more 'wiggle room' for spending and paying on that cc as well as show you can handle larger CL's than just a few hundred dollars.
Hope this helps.
Starting Score: TU 737 EQ 721