New to credit and need advice?

[glengen]

I recent bought a car and took out a loan on it.  I got it with a credit score of 1 (one of the big three) by putting $25000 down and taking out a $7500 loan.  My question is...  I have 3 to 4 thousand dollars I can use to help build my credit.  I was thinking  of opening a secured card or possibly more than one.   Would I benefit more from opening 1 with a limit of $4000 or 2, each with $2000.  Or perhaps mabey better off with 1 of say only $1000,  so I dont have $4000 tied up.   My goal is to bring my credit score up as high as possible in the next six months.   Does anyone have any advice on how I should do this?  Does anyone have any other ideas that would aid in obtaining good credit using this money? 

[JoeRockhead]

Optimum scores are able to be achieved when you have a credit mix of 2 to 3 (preferably 3) revolving credit cards with only one of them reporting a small balance every month (less than 5% of the CL), and an installment loan (optimum scoring when it reaches 9% of the balance).  The amount of your limit isn't factored in scores so the limit doesn't matter. 

You'll take hits to your scores for any inquiries, and new accounts showing up. What's happening in six months?

[LIGHTNIN]

@glengen Welcome to the fourms..

Do you know your FICO scores?

What positives do you have on your CR's?

Any baddies on your CR's?

What interest rate ,did you get on your car loan?

Will try to help you ,when we have more information. 

[jdmull]

Welcome to the forums! I myself learned that multiple inquiries can become damaging... I would suggest no more than two secured cards and like @JoeRockhead stated; only report a small balance on one of those cards. I have been battling with my credit most of my adult years and am finally in a place that I am seeing potential. You can do some great work to your score in six months, but I also learned that it's not as fast acting as you might think; simply because most creditors only report once per month. I did see some great help from Experian's little tool called Boost, it helped me jump a little bit instantaneously based on my regular payment of bills and subscriptions.

[JoeRockhead]

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@jdmull wrote:
Welcome to the forums! I myself learned that multiple inquiries can become damaging... I would suggest no more than two secured cards and like @JoeRockhead stated; only report a small balance on one of those cards. I have been battling with my credit most of my adult years and am finally in a place that I am seeing potential. You can do some great work to your score in six months, but I also learned that it's not as fast acting as you might think; simply because most creditors only report once per month. I did see some great help from Experian's little tool called Boost, it helped me jump a little bit instantaneously based on my regular payment of bills and subscriptions.

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Not to be a buzz kill, but Experian boost impacts your EX Fico 8 score only. Any lender pulling a different scoring version won't see anything boosted.

It could cause a lender to make additional pulls of other bureaus to get a more realistic view of a consumer's Fico 8. Or, they could ask the consumer to have the boost removed.

Many view it as nothing more than a marketing ploy, or phishing expedition used to mine data from desperate consumers to sell to third parties.

[FicoMike0]

Ditto @JoeRockhead 

Three $200 or $500 secured bank cards will build credit just as well as any. Just do aze1. Id suggest finding secured cards you'd like to keep when they graduate. Stay away from subprime fee harvesters. Usb offers three different secured cards. Navy offers one. They're not hard to find. Of course, never be late! 

Your car loan will fill the installment loan slot.

[Realist]

We saw the largest and most accelerated increase in credit advancement, to be a starter credit card one with an annual fee.  Credit card two, did not.  Credit card three, no annual fee.  40k credit increase naturally within a few short years, fresh out of college with a very healthy FICO score out of the gate.  Individual is now up to near six cards, holding thousands in free vacation and travel.  

There's really nothing stopping them now, credit wise.