Question about retail cards...

[PayingTheBills]

This question is for my girlfriend.  She wants to diversify her credit cards by adding a retail card. First of all, I gues I should verify with you guys that this strategy of adding a retail card is actually beneficial to her score? She will NOT be running a balance on the card, but will use it every month. 

She recently got an Amex Blue and USAA Mastercard, and that was only because I harrassed her about waiting so long to establish some revolving debt history in the first place.  She is halfway through an auto loan that is paid early every month, has never had a baddie of any kind, her only negative is her low average age of accounts, so she was preapproved for both of those.

My question is this... she wants a Target Credit Card, and Target offers two "RedCard" options - either a Target Visa Credit Card which can be used anywhere Visa is accepted, and a Target Credit Card, wich can only be used at Target and Target.com.  Do BOTH of these count as retail cards or only the second one?

Thanks for your help guys.

[Tuscani]

That "perfect" mix is like the Loch Ness monster, we've heard about it, but there seems to be no definitive answer as to what it truly is.

IMO, the perfect mix includes at least one of the following:

Open
Revolving
Installment
Mortgage

Only the non VISA would be considered retail.

[GFer]

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@PayingTheBills wrote:

This question is for my girlfriend.  She wants to diversify her credit cards by adding a retail card. First of all, I gues I should verify with you guys that this strategy of adding a retail card is actually beneficial to her score? She will NOT be running a balance on the card, but will use it every month. 

She recently got an Amex Blue and USAA Mastercard, and that was only because I harrassed her about waiting so long to establish some revolving debt history in the first place.  She is halfway through an auto loan that is paid early every month, has never had a baddie of any kind, her only negative is her low average age of accounts, so she was preapproved for both of those.

My question is this... she wants a Target Credit Card, and Target offers two "RedCard" options - either a Target Visa Credit Card which can be used anywhere Visa is accepted, and a Target Credit Card, wich can only be used at Target and Target.com.  Do BOTH of these count as retail cards or only the second one? Only the 2nd one.

Thanks for your help guys.

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Honestly, a Macy's card would be better than Target. Even if you only shop online. The credit lines are bigger and cli's come more often (sometimes w/Target not at all!), and you can request these about every 3-6 months. The higher your available credit lines the less you have to spend to get ideal scores. Just my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Having a store or gas card almost always helps your credit mix, and often the added points will overcome or balance out the loss in your average age from adding a new account and the ding from a new account.

I recommend a store card that you will use without having to invent purchases to keep it in use. Its not worth buying something from macy's to keep their card if you wouldn't normally shop there. That said I have a macy's card and love it. There are a lot of good store cards that if you pay the balance in full you can earn great savings.

[PayingTheBills]

So a gas card is considered a retail card?  That would be doable, she definitely wouldn't have to invent purchases to use it.

[llecs]

It is considered a charge card (if not Visa-branded) and is like a retail card per scoring.