I only have one credit card-- CAP 1 with $200 limit. This is the only positive I have on my credit reports. I need more. Two questions: 1) What other cards (and how many) should I get to improve my credit? Heard you can get a $500 secured CAP 1 for $99 deposit? True or False? 2) I had a Direct Merchants secured cc with $2,130 credit limit that I opened on 11/99 and then closed out on 12/00. They were supposed to have closed the acct and used the secured funds to pay off my balance. But now I find that they left the acct open for several months, charged me the late/no payment fees, and then used the secured funds to close it out leaving me owing $227. So the acct has been a negative on my credit report since 02/01. Has anyone gotten Direct Merchants to re-open a cc account (and removing 30/60/90 lates) by paying off the balance owed?
I'm in the same boat you are in (having only one positive trade). I applied for a second Capital One card and also an Orchard Bank card. Neither of the new accounts have reported yet, but I expect that my score will probably drop initially. Not that it really matters at this point if my score drops, anyway. I would suggest you do the same--Orchard and another Cap1.
