Secured Credit Card Question

[Anonymous]

New forum poster here.

I recently started working on my credit and applied all of the advice given in various places on the internet.  One of the suggestions was to open two secured cc's, which I did.  They are OpenSky secured cards.  They've been open for about 10 months and I have made small purchases on them each month being sure to pay them off by the end of the month and not to pay late.  However, I am not noticing any real increase in my credit score.  Something like 1 point a month. 

I know there are other aspects of credit such as length of time, credit variety, credit utilization etc.  What is a reasonable expectation of improved credit by continuing to pay off cc's like these?  I just recently finished paying off a car loan, so no help there.

Thank you for reading

[Horseshoez]

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@Anonymous wrote:

New forum poster here.

I recently started working on my credit and applied all of the advice given in various places on the internet.  One of the suggestions was to open two secured cc's, which I did.  They are OpenSky secured cards.  They've been open for about 10 months and I have made small purchases on them each month being sure to pay them off by the end of the month and not to pay late.  However, I am not noticing any real increase in my credit score.  Something like 1 point a month. 

I know there are other aspects of credit such as length of time, credit variety, credit utilization etc.  What is a reasonable expectation of improved credit by continuing to pay off cc's like these?  I just recently finished paying off a car loan, so no help there.

Thank you for reading

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I suppose a lot depends on what else is going on in your credit history; if you have numerous derogatives, then it is going to take quiet a while for your scores to go up without taking care of them.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

New forum poster here.

I recently started working on my credit and applied all of the advice given in various places on the internet.  One of the suggestions was to open two secured cc's, which I did.  They are OpenSky secured cards.  They've been open for about 10 months and I have made small purchases on them each month being sure to pay them off by the end of the month and not to pay late.  However, I am not noticing any real increase in my credit score.  Something like 1 point a month. 

I know there are other aspects of credit such as length of time, credit variety, credit utilization etc.  What is a reasonable expectation of improved credit by continuing to pay off cc's like these?  I just recently finished paying off a car loan, so no help there.

Thank you for reading

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Using them is great you want activity on them.  But paying them off totally is probably why you're not seeing any points.  Do this and see if it works.  Lets say you have two cards.  Charge small things on there like you are doing.  Instead of paying them all off completely leave a few dollars on each card or carry over a couple of dollars.  See if you gain more points that way.  If you look on here folks talk about the concept called "AZERO" which is a concept of helping gain more points.  Using your card and paying it off completely will not net you alot of points so try out what I just said and see if you gain points.  If that doesn't work then your negative stuff on your credit is draining any points you might otherwise be getting.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Morehouse!  I appreciate the advice and I'll check out AZERO. 

[FireMedic1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

New forum poster here.

I recently started working on my credit and applied all of the advice given in various places on the internet.  One of the suggestions was to open two secured cc's, which I did.  They are OpenSky secured cards.  They've been open for about 10 months and I have made small purchases on them each month being sure to pay them off by the end of the month and not to pay late.  However, I am not noticing any real increase in my credit score.  Something like 1 point a month. 

I know there are other aspects of credit such as length of time, credit variety, credit utilization etc.  What is a reasonable expectation of improved credit by continuing to pay off cc's like these?  I just recently finished paying off a car loan, so no help there.

Thank you for reading

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For best FICO scoring you'll need a min of 3 and then use AZEO. FICO likes <50% of cards reporting. So with 2 cards your at the doorstep for more points. Grab a 3rd card in time and then you'll be at 33.3%. That will help. Also one installment loan. If you got a car loan or something else. Your set.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, FireMedic!  Appreciate the good advice.  I was concerned about getting a 3rd card due to lowering my age of credit, but I think you are right.

[Queen_Etherea]

How long is your credit history? If it's not long, then the only thing that's going to help you is time. Yes, you can apply the AZEO method, but as other's have stated, you would need a 3rd card for that, which is only going to lower your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts). So you have to decide if getting a 3rd card is worth lowering your AAoA for a while. If your credit history is faily new, I say go for the 3rd card so you can let them all age and won't have to worry about it later down the line. 

[Egaffne2]

If you get another card then definitely get the Discover secured. I wish I would have gotten that card earlier. I started off rebuild with cap 1 and opensky. Eventually 9 months later I did get the Discover secured but I wish I'd gotten it earlier. It's THE BEST rebuild card by far. I put down 200, graduated to 2,000 in 7 or 8 months. They just gave me an auto cli to 2700. It's also a real rewards card with no annual fee. While it was still secured I had it switched to the 5 percent rotating card. I earned like 300 dollars in cash back in the first year, which is crazy for a secured card. I know I sound like an advertisement for Discover but I just love that card. You can prequalify on their website first.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the recommendation.  No annual fee!

[Iusedtolurk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the recommendation.  No annual fee!

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@Anonymous 

Here's a copy of a post where I was helping my cousin improve his scores. 

9 months prior he had NO tradelines and he still has several medical collections on his reports But his scores went from an average of 500s across the bureaus to an average of 640s as of today:

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I have a cousin that's like a brother to me and I started helping him with his credit about 9 months ago. With the knowledge I have acquired from this forum since my rebuilding started I myself have come a long way and had been telling him about my success.

He wanted me to assist him with making his credit better. He has a few med collections and his scores were averaging 500 across the bureaus.

He had ZERO tradelines.

I told him our initial goal would be to put some positive tradelines on his CRs so..

(wanted him to have 5 accounts to begin a thick file)

I started him off with: (Over the course of a couple months)

2 secured bank credit cards Cap1-400 and Discover-300

1 unsecured bank credit card Credit1 300

1 department store credit card Fingerhut 250 now 1000

1 SSL through Self

Since we began his average Ficos are hovering around 640

(paying all accounts except one to zero each month)

And after 8 months with Discover he received notice today that...

His card was now...

Unsecured and his 300 dollars was being DD into his bank account.

He also received a CLI to 1500 dollars (5 x intial deposit of 300)

Discover Data Points:

Paid 3-4 times a month

Ran 500-700 through each month paying to ZERO before statement cut.

Hope this provides additional insight for you on your credit improvement journey!