IMHO, based on your profile you probably doesn't need anymore cards and opening secure cards at this point isn't going to make up for the lates and charge offs.
Also even though you are approved, you haven't closed yet and I wouldn't open any new accounts until I closed. Have you talked to your LO abou the NFCU card that isn't reporting? I believe there are some nuances about being in a dirty scorecard and you not taking the new account hit in the same way as far as you score, but I suspect you may be asked about any recent accounts when they pull your report again before closing.
I don't know why they would be telling you to add extra cards for score, let alone secured cards. You have five uns cards, and the only way I'm aware of to raise your score in the short term by opening more cards is if you have less than three and want to take back points from the too few bankcards penalty. That's on version 8, ofc, and I'm not sure if mortgage scores have the same penalty, but five cards should be plenty to optimize. Possibly the credit solutions rep you spoke to just has canned talking points and doesn't tailor their advice to individual profiles, since they should at least see that you don't need secured cards regardless.
@WhiteCollar wrote:Her and I sat down and went through my most recent credit report from all 3 agencies via my Fico. She said from her experience, I can lower my score with more cards/accounts or get the negative info removed. I told her from my experience, it's not easy getting the negative info removed. I decided against using her services. I will however write a few goodwill letters. Hopefully that will help.
That you can lower your score with more accounts, I believe. 