Credit - Road to Redemption

[Anonymous]

Should I borrow against $500 to $1000 at my credit union?

Should I activate a credit card at first premier for $95 and get a $225 limit?

Also, capital one deposit $200 for $200 credit builder"?

What should I do"?

Who been there done that"?

advice -- pros and cons?

[kenworthguy]

Hello, If your talking about getting a secured loan through the CU, that may not be a bad idea, i don't know your situation but in this economy, if you have bad credit, it's very difficult at best to get a loan. As for the credit cards, I have a first premier credit card, I don't know why it's 95 dollars, I get charged 48 dollars a year for the use of the card but I also get charged 7 dollars a month for like a service fee, maybe for 95 dollars you don't have that , I don't know. It has been a good card to have, i have never had any problems with them, It's just a fairly expensive card to get. I can't tell you about cap one's secured cards but i have 2 secured cards from another bank, they also have been pretty good but as soon as i can pay them off, I am going to get rid of them. Secured cards are a good way to get started rebuilding, My first 2 cards when i started rebuilding were secured cards, You have the money in the bank, it's earns interest, even if it is a small amount and you have piece of mind knowing that if you do have problems paying your bill, the money is in the bank to cover everything. Good luck getting started, make all your payments on time and before you know it, things will get better.

[Anonymous]

Cool... I was saying borrowing against x amount of dollars.. like if i deposit 500 usd for a 5 month loan they will pay back a 100 usd a month for 5 months. like that.. reason i was asking should i do it..

i guess first premier paying the monthly fee , in a whole one time fee.

[llecs]

If those are your only two CCs, then I'd use the secured funds for a secured CC instead. Installment TLs do very little for your mix and, IMO and IME, they'll hurt more than they help. Revolving mix and util is a very large part of FICO scoring and adding a third CC would go a long way for that.

[sobreezy]

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@llecs wrote:

If those are your only two CCs, then I'd use the secured funds for a secured CC instead. Installment TLs do very little for your mix and, IMO and IME, they'll hurt more than they help. Revolving mix and util is a very large part of FICO scoring and adding a third CC would go a long way for that.

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So which secured CCs are good ones? I figure there's a link somewhere on here but have yet to find it so your assistance is appreciated.

[kenworthguy]

Hello - I strongly agree with llecs, The secured card would be the best way to go. Like i said, that's how i started my road back and it's worked out pretty well. Make sure you do your homework though, there are some good secured cards out there with lower interest rates than non secured cards, I believe cap one maybe one of those but check it out good. It maybe good but there could be better ones.