I have a My Jeweler's account that I got at the end of last year. It was the first account I got to start my rebuild.
Pros:
-$5000 tradeline helps pad utilization
-tremendously easy approval
-very quick to report tradeline to CRA
Cons:
-having to buy overpriced jewelery
-$99 annual fee
-store card that can't be used for general spend
-kinda sketchy
-gotta close it sooner rather than later or it gets tremendously expensive (I plan on letting them close mine if they want another annual fee, now that I have 3 other revolvers)
My experience has been positive and I believe that these tradelines can work for a certain type of profile. When I got my MJC account, I had 3 unpaid collections, 1 chargeoff and defaulted student loans. My FICO 09 was a very lowly 462. MJC instantly raised my credit score because I didn't have any other revolving CC's to help offset my chargeoff, from a utilization standpoint. The MJC $5000 was significantly larger than my $1900 maxed out chargeoff, so I crossed several utilization thresholds. This was the single best benefit to the MJC account. Having crossed those thresholds and with MJC reporting the tradeline so quickly, I was able to get an unsecured Capital One Platinum as my first bank card instead of having to go the secured route like I had anticipated.
I credit the MJC account with jump starting my rebuild and accelerating my unsecured bankcard acquisition. I didn't waste any inquiries trying for the Citi or BoA secured cards and I didn't prequalify for the Discover secured card until my score was in the upper 500's. If I got an Open Sky or another "rebuilder" secured card, I'd have to pay an annual fee and I would feel pressure to keep the account open longer than I'd like as it would be my oldest revolver. Now, my MJC is my oldest revolver, but it's only older than my Platinum that's now a Quicksilver by 3 weeks. This was worth the fees and crap jewelery to me. I don't think I would have been able to get an unsecured line of credit so quickly were it not for the MJC account. Because I qualified for the unsecured Platinum, I was able to PC it to the QS netting me an unsecured rewards earning bankcard card that will help anchor my credit profile. I plan on never closing this QS.
Furthermore, I was able to get my hands on the Discover Secured card a month before I paid off the last $1000 of my Wells Fargo chargeoff. I'll never know for sure, but I don't think I would have prequalified for the Discover at that same time with a typical annual fee secured rebuilder card, unless I put down a deposit that was significantly bigger than the chargeoff I was paying on, which I could not afford at the time. At the very least I'd guess that I wouldn't have been able to get the Discover secured card until a month later, when my reports showed that I'd paid the chargeoff in full. This would mean I'd graduate to an unsecured card a month later.
I think it can be worth it for someone like me who has chargeoffs where the $5000 tradeline would bring that person across multiple credit utilization thresholds and puts a premium on collecting long term unsecured bankcards sooner rather than later. That premium was worth the price of the MJC account for me. If I didn't have any chargeoffs and only had collections or if my chargeoffs greatly exceeded $5000, it wouldn't have been worth it to me. An Open Sky or something similar would have been better at fulfilling the same purpose.
I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions.
@bigpoppa1 wrote:Will Secured Credit Cards raise your fico score faster than Primary Tradelines?
My mid fico is 630
I have 5 credit lines right now$300 with Milestone
$300 with Credit One
$300 with Mission Lane
$300 with Avant
$500 with Fingerhut
If you've already got all of those accounts, you're good. No need for any more. So to answer your original question: NO, do not get any of those tradelines you mentioned in your initial post. They're useless and a money grab. Also, lenders are catching on to that trick of using them for padding, so they're discarding them if they see them on your reports.
