The Best Card for Re-Building?

[JBoswell]

I've heard a lot of horror stories about people applying for credit cards to re-build their credit and getting absolutely ripped off, any advice as to what the best or most reliable "bad credit" credit-card would be to help me build my credit score back up??

[creditreformer]

hard to say as not all options are available to everyone.  what are your ficos? what are your badddies?  when was your last baddie?  do you have a bk, unpaid lien, etc.?

i'd highly recommend a ba secured cc if you can get it.  they have 2 types- fully secured- you can put up 300-10k and that's your cl.  the other type is known as 99/500- put up 99, get 500 cl.  usually unsecures in 9-12 mos.

if you can't get that, i'd recommend either a credit union secured cc or perhaps orchard secured cc- though they do not apparently unsecure any longer.

read the terms of secured ccs carefully- some auto unsecure, but others do not- meaning you have to reapply again if you want a regular cc

other options are orchard unsecured and perhaps cap 1 or hooters...depends on your ficos and reports.

goes w/o saying but never ever be late, overlimit, etc. and of course, keep utilization low (<10%)

[Uncle_Money]

Speaking from experience, I would suggest BOA. Just a little over two years ago, I opened a secure account and deposited just $300 with them. Today, the card has an unsecured 18K credit line.

You may want to look at Citi as well. Good luck!

[Uniqua]

Credit unions are a good place to start as well.

[JBoswell]

my credit scores are 519, 545, and 596 (so I could obviously use the help rebuilding hah). So I'm not even really sure what I could qualify for. I only have one credit card currently, I had heard that having another and keeping up on it could really help my credit, and I obviously want to do whatever will help. Do secured cards still show up like regular credit cards? I mean would it still work as much to help my credit?

[Uniqua]

Yes, secured CCs show up like regular CCs and yes they help your credit just like regular CCs do. The only difference is that your CL will be your security deposit. Most secured CCs unsecure between 6-9 months, granted you pay on time ALL the time (that includes not carrying balances).

Are there any local CUs in your area? Also, are those your FICO scores?

[tray]

Hi, if you apply for a BOA secured credit card which I personally had last year and it graduated, it will show up on your credit report as a secured credit card although it does not matter it still reports the same as a regular credit card and it will improve your score. It is a really great card read up on the threads of other people comments in this forum and I am sure you will apply for this card. Good Luck

P.S. What I would like to know if citi secured credit card shows up as secured on a credit report?

[JBoswell]

We have two credit unions in the area that I know of: Sefcu (State Employees Federal Credit Union) and Sunmark. And yes, those are my credit scores.

[haulingthescoreup]

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JBoswell wrote:
We have two credit unions in the area that I know of: Sefcu (State Employees Federal Credit Union) and Sunmark. And yes, those are my credit scores.

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I think what the previous poster was trying to clarify was whether these are specifically FICO scores, pulled from this site, as opposed to scores from freecreditreport.com, TrueCredit, TU or EX, and other sources.

It's like facial tissue and Kleenex. Credit scores = facial tissure; FICO scores = Kleenex (or Puffs, whatever.)

There are bunches and bunches of credit scores floating around out there. FICO's are the ones that count. (And cost. ) We call the others FAKO's to point out the differences.

[JBoswell]

oh, sorry about the mix up, yes those are my scores from this site. The fico scores.