I have a decent Equifax score, but one of the "negatives" is that I don't have any bank/installments on my account that are current (I do have a dept. store card, but that is it). I have a fairly long history, with some paid off installment loans on there (cars I paid off) with nothing other than being 30 days late over a year ago on my dept. store card on there qualifying as "negative"... I am looking at refinancing a property I have bought (when I get it in a condition to where a loan can be taken out on it and pay off the guy selling it to me) so I am wondering if I should worry about increasing my score. At the moment, I am sitting with a score (Equifax - from MyFico) of 721. According to another monitoring site, the other scores are about 40 points below that one - one of which should go up after getting info off of it that isn't mine. I am considering getting a credit card with a small limit and just using it once a month to buy gas or something, paying it off at least every other month (every month if that looks better) to just increase the score if need be. Anyone out there know of a credit card company that used Equifax as the credit bureau they look into for approvals? I know the score will take a little bit of a ding to apply, but would I see those points and more with paying it either on time or paying it off for the next year until I am ready to refinance?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.