Need Help!!

[Anonymous]

I have two First Premier cards, one with $200 and one with $300. The fees are outrageous. But, my score is 564 EQ., brought up by First Premier. I think shutting them down will hurt pretty bad. It would reduce my debt to credit ratio to $0, and that's all the active accoutns I have. Just the two First Premiers. Just my experience. But listen to the seasoned members. :-)

[hdirider1974]

I have 3 other cards other than the first premier. But if it will hurt my score I sure don't want to close it.

[hdirider1974]

Also is your mortgage figured into your util? Because my mortgage shows a high utilization even though I put 50,000.00 down it shows what I financed compared to what the balance is. Does that make sense or did I describe it wrong?

[hdirider1974]

All of my cards are paid down to 10% or under. Hopefully they will report soon and I will see some progress. Now If I can just get those tax liens taken off.  I would at least like to get a Boa secured card but they turned me down a few months ago because of the open liens, I wander if they at least report satisfied if that will help?

[llecs]

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hdirider1974 wrote:
Also is your mortgage figured into your util? Because my mortgage shows a high utilization even though I put 50,000.00 down it shows what I financed compared to what the balance is. Does that make sense or did I describe it wrong?

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No, your mortgage isn't factored into your revolving (CC) utilization. It is factored into your installment utilization, but that's such a teeeeny tiny part of scoring that it isn't worth thinking twice about. In other words, if you paid off your mortgage tomorrow, you probably wouldn't see much of a change in FICO, if at all.

[llecs]

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hdirider1974 wrote:
All of my cards are paid down to 10% or under. Hopefully they will report soon and I will see some progress. Now If I can just get those tax liens taken off.  I would at least like to get a Boa secured card but they turned me down a few months ago because of the open liens, I wander if they at least report satisfied if that will help?

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IMO, I would move past BofA. They used to be good and offered a great product, but they've changed and I would no longer recommend any of their secured cards. In fact, some here won't even recommend any of their cards, even if it fell in their lap.

[hdirider1974]

Which would you recomend?

[llecs]

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hdirider1974 wrote:
Which would you recomend?

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I started with a secured Orchard. They were actually pretty good. HSBC had a bad reputation, but they were good, predictable, and were my lowest APR. They report differently from everyone else, but that was the only issue I had (other than the fees). Also had a BofA 99/500, which is offered as a counter-offer to their unsecured card. I don't think they offer that anymore and I think they still offer a secured card, but I hear those aren't graduating anymore. Check over in Credit Cards for more. Also try your local CU to see if they offer secured CCs. When talking to any lender, ask to see if their card graduates so that way you won't have to close the card in order to get your money back.