Secured Credit Card for Quick Credit Boost?

Anonymous · ‎05-21-2019

My Ex FICO Score 8 is 630 and Ex FICO Score 2 is 686. I don't have my current scores from the other two CRAs.

I've got one $500 collection that I paid off today. The CA is ARS, they've got a good rep for doing PFDs, and they said very clearly that's what they would do when I PIF over the phone today. I think that collection was dropping my score 30-50 points, or more, so I expect a sizeable boost when that disappears.

My credit history is 14 years old. I've got one installment account on there - a student loan, with a balance of $1700 and a monthly payment of only $65. It has been paid without any missed payments for I think at least 7 years.

I have no revolving credit accounts.

I'm looking to start on buying a house sometime this summer. I'm wondering if there's something I could do to get a quick boost to my credit score. I have seen that OpenSky offers a secured credit card without a credit check.

My assumption is that aside from the collection that should be falling off very soon, my score is being held down by a lack of revolving credit, so if I opened an account with OpenSky, then I could quickly gain the reward of having a revolving credit line on my account, without suffering the temporary ding of a hard credit check that comes with applying for other credit cards. Maybe in the next two months, I could get my credit score upwards of 700-720?

If I'm correct that opening a no-credit check secured credit card would boost my score and not hurt it, is it likely to be worth it to open it for more than the $200 minimum deposit they require? That is, will a greater credit line have a significant impact on my score, in my case?

Jnbmom · ‎05-21-2019

Congrats on getting the PFD, is there any other "baddies" on your report? As far as a "quick boost" that will take some time, of course getting the collection removed should help with your scores.

If you have no revolving accounts, have you tried any of the prequalify sites such as discover? They like thin files. Yes you should get some kind of revolving card and let that age a bit.

EXP 780 EQ 791TU 795

Remedios · ‎05-22-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
My Ex FICO Score 8 is 630 and Ex FICO Score 2 is 686. I don't have my current scores from the other two CRAs.
I've got one $500 collection that I paid off today. The CA is ARS, they've got a good rep for doing PFDs, and they said very clearly that's what they would do when I PIF over the phone today. I think that collection was dropping my score 30-50 points, or more, so I expect a sizeable boost when that disappears.

My credit history is 14 years old. I've got one installment account on there - a student loan, with a balance of $1700 and a monthly payment of only $65. It has been paid without any missed payments for I think at least 7 years.

I have no revolving credit accounts.

I'm looking to start on buying a house sometime this summer. I'm wondering if there's something I could do to get a quick boost to my credit score. I have seen that OpenSky offers a secured credit card without a credit check.

My assumption is that aside from the collection that should be falling off very soon, my score is being held down by a lack of revolving credit, so if I opened an account with OpenSky, then I could quickly gain the reward of having a revolving credit line on my account, without suffering the temporary ding of a hard credit check that comes with applying for other credit cards. Maybe in the next two months, I could get my credit score upwards of 700-720?

If I'm correct that opening a no-credit check secured credit card would boost my score and not hurt it, is it likely to be worth it to open it for more than the $200 minimum deposit they require? That is, will a greater credit line have a significant impact on my score, in my case?

For scoring purposes, the amount of credit line does not matter. Adding more than $200 would not increase your score

Credit line matters when it comes to utilization, but seeing how you dont have any accounts, it's not applicable yet.

Also, you should avoid applying for anything close to mortgage app, so I would go ahead and add revolving account soon.

Discover was already mentioned, I think you should see if you're pre-approved.

Dont worry about single inquiry, it would be better for you long term. Secured Discover cards graduate, and you can get cash back rewards.

Who knows, you may even qualify for non-secured card

https://www.discovercard.com/application/prequal

DIYcredit · ‎05-22-2019

You need to open a cc because you are missing Fico score points by not having one.You need a secured cc like capital one that reports to all three credit bureaus.Whichever cc you open a hard inquiry if they least of your worries because it will drop your credit score less than five points.The real damage is when you open an credit account it it lowers you aaoa.On all of your credit accounts continue making monthly on time payments.On any cc it's not so much how much is your credit limit it's how you manage it,so you want to keep cc utilization 1-6%,And yes your credit score should get a boost when the collection falls off and your cr is derogatory free.GOOD LUCK...

Anonymous · ‎05-22-2019

As long as I don't have to worry about opening a new credit card dropping my score, I'll go ahead and do it. Just wanted to double-check. But I definitely don't want my score to drop at all right now, even for a short amount of time, so I am not going to apply for any credit card that does a credit check.

Anonymous · ‎05-22-2019

@DIYcredit wrote:
The real damage is when you open an credit account it it lowers you aaoa.

With my credit history being 14+ years, and having an installment account that's been in good standing for 7+ years, is this likely to be an issue for me?

DIYcredit · ‎05-22-2019

It's called average age of all accounts, not the age of your oldest credit account.The shorter you aaoa is the more your FICO score will go down and the longer your aaoa the less your credit score will go down when you open a credit account.The drop is credit score is usually small and temporary and you get the credit score points back when the credit accounts ages.

Aspireto850 · ‎05-22-2019

@Fappenheim,

To get in the ideal FICO scoring range you need 1 installment and 3 revolvers which is the sweet spot.

If you can afford an inquiry aid try the Amazon card. When you apply they consider you for both the regular store card and the new ‘rebuilder’ card they have which graduates in 7 months. After funding it reports pretty fast to the CBs; like a couple of weeks. Then as someone else mentioned, try the pre qual for Discover. Lastly Home Depot has a pre approval site which for a prospective homebuyer could come in handy.

Another tip, on installment loans you supposedly het higher points if the utilization is at 8.9% or lower. While you mentioned getting a home in 2 months keep in mind that if you open up these accounts you would want them to age at least 3 mos for any score bump to kick it.

Good Luck with home buying!

Anonymous · ‎05-22-2019

@DIYcredit wrote:
It's called average age of all accounts, not the age of your oldest credit account.

I understand. But with my oldest account being well over 7 years old (in good standing for at least that time, but it's at least 10 years old), opening a new account would put my average at, let's say, 5 years. I would expect that, at some point, reducing your AAOA may have little impact if the average is still greater than X years, whatever that number is.

So given the information I've provided about my credit history, is the amount my score will be hurt by reducing my AAOA likely to be a lot less than the boost I'd get going from 0 to 1 revolving credit account?

Remedios · ‎05-22-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
@DIYcredit wrote:
It's called average age of all accounts, not the age of your oldest credit account.
I understand. But with my oldest account being well over 7 years old (in good standing for at least that time, but it's at least 10 years old), opening a new account would put my average at, let's say, 5 years. I would expect that, at some point, reducing your AAOA may have little impact if the average is still greater than X years, whatever that number is.

So given the information I've provided about my credit history, is the amount my score will be hurt by reducing my AAOA likely to be a lot less than the boost I'd get going from 0 to 1 revolving credit account?

Yes, the boost will be a lot higher than any points lost because of AAOA reduction.

Also please, despite of suggestions, dont apply for cards that will be useless to you just to have three accounts.

If any of those cards fit your spend, go for it by all means, but avoid " give me whatever" cards.