why is orchard so bad?

[pyboathon]

i just applied for a orchard credit card and got aproved with a $300 limit. I was happy to get approved since my credit score is 449 and have a steap hill to climb to fix my credit. But all I read on these phorums is how bad orchard is. Sgould I get another card, should I get more than one?

[JM-AM]

---

@pyboathon wrote:

i just applied for a orchard credit card and got aproved with a $300 limit. I was happy to get approved since my credit score is 449 and have a steap hill to climb to fix my credit. But all I read on these phorums is how bad orchard is. Sgould I get another card, should I get more than one?

---

There is nothing wrong with Orchard for a rebuilder card IMO.

Besides with your scores being so low I wouldn't be thinking about applying for additional credit just yet unless I was going to apply for a secured card and open it with a decent limit of 2k-5k.

Let the card you have now age a little.

Good luck 

[pyboathon]

thank you. I know it will be a long process to fix my credit, but I am excited about it. quick question, will getting a secured cc with a 500 to 1000 limit not do much for my credit

[Wolf3]

Congratulations, Orchard is a very good card for your score.  There are much worse out there, but not much better that you can get.    Treat it well for over 6 months and then add another card.   Capital One would be a good choice, especially the secured one so you can build a higher CL on your report.   A $500 to $1000 secured card is good for your credit, but the higher you can grow it the easier it will be to get higher limits in the future. 

[pyboathon]

the higher I can grow it?

what does that mean.  Can you start off putting down $500 and lets say add 100 each month. I feel like there should be a section in communtiy for people that have 400 scores and are clueless. lol

I've been sitting here reading trying to figure out if I should pay off accounts that are in collection that are over 2 yrs old, if I should settle? pay full? some post say it will hurt my score and not help 

[Wolf3]

I like the Capital One secured the best of the major banks.    You can start with a $200 deposit and that would be your limit.    You can add more deposit in $100 increments whenever you want.    It is very easy to do on their website.   Your CL will then be increased by that amount ( takes 2 weeks to show up however).   Capital One will also review your account every 6 months and may add  additional unsecured CL to your account.    You still have to qualify for most secured cards, so I would still wait until I had at least 6 months of good reporting on Orchard before I applied.,  

[vish1]

---

@pyboathon wrote:

the higher I can grow it?

what does that mean.  Can you start off putting down $500 and lets say add 100 each month. I feel like there should be a section in communtiy for people that have 400 scores and are clueless. lol

I've been sitting here reading trying to figure out if I should pay off accounts that are in collection that are over 2 yrs old, if I should settle? pay full? some post say it will hurt my score and not help 

---

If you were to get a secure card, I will first talk to a local credit union. They are generally flexible and are willing to look at unsecuring in less than a year and give a good CL after that.

[pyboathon]

With a $300  limit, should I spend $20 a month and pay it off every month

I  will wait 6 months to apply for the capital one. Now with capital one, I had a car back from 2003 to march 2006, It got repo. Would me applying for a cc mess with it falling off after the 7yr mark, which should be 2013

[vish1]

---

@pyboathon wrote:

With a $300  limit, should I spend $20 a month and pay it off every month

I  will wait 6 months to apply for the capital one. Now with capital one, I had a car back from 2003 to march 2006, It got repo. Would me applying for a cc mess with it falling off after the 7yr mark, which should be 2013

---

You can spend whatever you want on the card. I will pay many times a month (every time a purchase posts) to keep utilization low. Don't apply for capital one unless you try a pre approval. You may end up piling too many cards with an AF.

The best bet will be to see if a local credit union will give you a secured card.

[pyboathon]

how often does utilization get checked, I assumed if I spend $20 and pay it off once a month then my utilization should be close to 0%