Help understanding.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I've been browsing the boards and trying to figure out the best way for me to go about fixing my credit and I just had a few questions.

So first off my fico score (used Experian app to pull this) is 520.

I have two items on my report, a secured loan through nfcu that I paid off in good standing many years ago, almost 7 to 8 years to be exact.

The other thing is verizon, my phone bill, the past year has been rough on me with some medical stuff and not being able to work, my phone has never been shut off, but I've accumulated a year worth of late payments so each one is a negative mark. So its reporting derogatory but I've caught up the bill and now have it on auto pay. So that should be taken care of.

I opened an account at my local credit union, I applied for a capital one card and got approved, I've put money on that and set up auto pay. 

Now to the questions. 

With my secured card I've read all kinds of answers and never got a clear one, 10 percent 8 percent etc.

What percent should I have on the card for my autopay ? Does it not matter as long as its 10 percent ? 

How many secured cards should I get ? The consensus seems that having 3 cards and one installment loan is the sweet spot for building your score.

Also from my understanding it's best to use the three cards and pay two of them off before the statement date and then leave a 10 percent or lower balance on the main card ?

Payment history ? My payment history is thin, only ever had one secured loan, and my verizon bill.

Reading through the forums I've seen people say they get 4 secured loans as well as three cards etc just to build good payment history. Is this a good idea ? 

I'm still confused on the self secured loans, I've done one before, but not how explained on the thread.

So for example if I take a 500 dollar secured loan out, I pay it down to 10 percent instantly, but I'm not understanding how payments would work then ? Do you just pay like a dollar per month until the end of the loan and just pay the 10 percent off?

Thank you for any and all help.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone, I've been browsing the boards and trying to figure out the best way for me to go about fixing my credit and I just had a few questions.

So first off my fico score (used Experian app to pull this) is 520.

I have two items on my report, a secured loan through nfcu that I paid off in good standing many years ago, almost 7 to 8 years to be exact.

The other thing is verizon, my phone bill, the past year has been rough on me with some medical stuff and not being able to work, my phone has never been shut off, but I've accumulated a year worth of late payments so each one is a negative mark. So its reporting derogatory but I've caught up the bill and now have it on auto pay. So that should be taken care of.

I opened an account at my local credit union, I applied for a capital one card and got approved, I've put money on that and set up auto pay. 

Now to the questions. 

With my secured card I've read all kinds of answers and never got a clear one, 10 percent 8 percent etc.

What percent should I have on the card for my autopay ? Does it not matter as long as its 10 percent ? 

How many secured cards should I get ? The consensus seems that having 3 cards and one installment loan is the sweet spot for building your score.

Also from my understanding it's best to use the three cards and pay two of them off before the statement date and then leave a 10 percent or lower balance on the main card ?

Payment history ? My payment history is thin, only ever had one secured loan, and my verizon bill.

Reading through the forums I've seen people say they get 4 secured loans as well as three cards etc just to build good payment history. Is this a good idea ? 

I'm still confused on the self secured loans, I've done one before, but not how explained on the thread.

So for example if I take a 500 dollar secured loan out, I pay it down to 10 percent instantly, but I'm not understanding how payments would work then ? Do you just pay like a dollar per month until the end of the loan and just pay the 10 percent off?

Thank you for any and all help.

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Congrats on building your credit!

There are lots of knowledgeable people here that will help you out with these questions!

Just my personal experience with Self Lender (if that is who you speak of specifically) is that you cannot pay them in advance down to 8.9% and then delay payments. They allow 1 advanced payment and you still have to keep paying monthly. I am not well versed into which lenders still do this, but I do know there are some threads dedicated to this. None seemed to work out for me and I already had a Self Lender loan (and student loans, so didn't realize it didn't benefit me anyway), so I did not investigate them any further. So I dont believe having 4 loans will help your credit at all. Apparently having 1 (paid down to 8.9%) is all it takes to get a good credit mix. I believe if you are still with NFCU that would be the ideal place to try and do a SSL from what I could tell! As well as getting a secured CC with them. They seem to be very generous! I don't qualify for an account with them (my father was a Merchant Marine and that doesn't count), but from what I can see they are one of the best places with awesome products! Your local CU also may have CC or SSL options too.

I believe in regards to making payments, it is the AZEO method. Have 3 CCs and have 2 paid off to 0 before statement cuts (use and pay as much as you like before that as long as it is paid to 0 before the statement close date) and 1 CC report 8.9% or less at statement close (minimum $2, as I guess it doesn't count if it is less than $2?). There are also good threads that go into this method on the forums. 

Discover has a prequalify website, as they have a great secured card that graduates and you can at least see if you prequalify before taking the HP.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response!

I was looking into self, but from what I gathered having the SSL would be better.

I know having multiple ssl won't boost my score more, but would it be good to have a few of those reporting paid every month just for good payment history?

So 8.9 percent or lower! Gotcha. This was pretty confusing going through all the information.

I never closed my account with nfcu, but I know longer have my information, it's been years since I've used them, but I would imagine I can just call them up and get the information to get going again.

Thanks for your response I really appreciate it. 

[gdale6]

No, you want more revolving credit cards as they are given more weight than installment loans. One installment loan is all you need in a rebuild.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response.

So just the 3 secured cards and ssl loan would be more then enough?

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the response.

So just the 3 secured cards and ssl loan would be more then enough?

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For a start yup, as your profile improves you can begin apping for some unsecureds and closing out the secured cards, after you are set with the last revolver (3rd) no further apps for at least 6 months.

[Anonymous]

Awesome!

I have the capital one card, but was denied the discover card, credit karma has one that my approval odds are good for. 

Then I could probably get one from my local credit union and the ssl through them too if they have it.

Thank you guys so much for your responses!

[FireMedic1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Awesome!

I have the capital one card, but was denied the discover card, credit karma has one that my approval odds are good for. 

Then I could probably get one from my local credit union and the ssl through them too if they have it.

Thank you guys so much for your responses!

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Please dont go by CK's marketing approval odds. They're meningless. They get paid when you aplly approved or denied.

[FireMedic1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone, I've been browsing the boards and trying to figure out the best way for me to go about fixing my credit and I just had a few questions.

So first off my fico score (used Experian app to pull this) is 520.

I have two items on my report, a secured loan through nfcu that I paid off in good standing many years ago, almost 7 to 8 years to be exact.

The other thing is verizon, my phone bill, the past year has been rough on me with some medical stuff and not being able to work, my phone has never been shut off, but I've accumulated a year worth of late payments so each one is a negative mark. So its reporting derogatory but I've caught up the bill and now have it on auto pay. So that should be taken care of.

I opened an account at my local credit union, I applied for a capital one card and got approved, I've put money on that and set up auto pay. 

Now to the questions. 

With my secured card I've read all kinds of answers and never got a clear one, 10 percent 8 percent etc. With one card let $5 report. Once you get 2 cards. Then it will help with # of cards reporting. Then have one report and pay the other one to $0.

What percent should I have on the card for my autopay ? Does it not matter as long as its 10 percent ? See above. Dont go over 8.9%.

How many secured cards should I get ? The consensus seems that having 3 cards and one installment loan is the sweet spot for building your score. You could get the second card from Open Sky. No HP, secured, all approved to do the 2 card trick.

Also from my understanding it's best to use the three cards and pay two of them off before the statement date and then leave a 10 percent or lower balance on the main card ? Yes

Payment history ? My payment history is thin, only ever had one secured loan, and my verizon bill.

Reading through the forums I've seen people say they get 4 secured loans as well as three cards etc just to build good payment history. Is this a good idea ? 

I'm still confused on the self secured loans, I've done one before, but not how explained on the thread.

So for example if I take a 500 dollar secured loan out, I pay it down to 10 percent instantly, but I'm not understanding how payments would work then ? Do you just pay like a dollar per month until the end of the loan and just pay the 10 percent off?

Thank you for any and all help.

---

You can get the NFCU secured shared loan with 3g's. They will let you pay it down to oless than 8.9% for the life of the loan. Thats what you need. Take it out for a long period. But if you get a car loan or any other loans. It will cancel out the gains from having a low balance. Get OS and wait 6 months. Then give Miss Disco another shot.

[OmarGB9]

Don't listen to the CK approval odds. It's nothing but marketing they get paid for. Definitely check out your local CU.