Okay after raising my FICO/Beacon to the mid 600's I've gotten the following approvals in the past few days: Target Store Card - $200 Chevron Gas Card $???? (Just got approved) I already had the following: Citibank - $2500 (approved in April) Orchard Bank - $500 (approved in November) I also have a loan from Household which is listed as paid/30 days late - my car loan that I refinanced but it took over 30 days to get a check to Household. $%#^# Household!! The new account is current with Roadloans. Is this a decent mix of cards for me at this time? Should I go ahead and apply for something else to give me a nice mix of cards that will help balance my scores? I know they are new and it will take time but one of my reason codes was that I don't have a good balance. I'm hoping to have a decent mix that will help keep my scores in the mid 600's or higher so I can apply for more later.
As far as your mix, I think you've done a great job and deserve to enjoy your success. Target and Chevron are staples of a good credit portfolio. I think you will need at least two more bankcards eventually. But aging the ones you have is even more important. And it's also important not to go subprime just to get extra cards quickly. You needed Orchard to get a history started, but now you should wait for good bankcards to come to you. One of my big mistakes was accepting five preapproved subprime cards in my first year of credit building. I only needed two. The rest just turned into high (!!!) APR balances that crowd out prime cards for which I could otherwise qualify.
The key is to keep your debt ratio low. The more credit you have VS balance the better. So if you plan to use what you got, you better get some more.. High debt ratio can tank your score 40 points e-z.
I don't know if they are worth bothering with in terms of raising your score, but you can get some nice catalogs and coupons that way. Dept/specialty stores are also more willing to take returns when you use a store card because it shows some loyalty towards the store and they are more likely to get repeat business.
Sam, Good observation about debt ratios. In my case: If you've already used what you've got, then you need to get some more to help your ratio, but you can't because your ratio is too high. Someone just starting out could avoid that mistake.
One thing I like about my retail cards is that they charge no annual fees. This wouldn't be an issue for someone with high scores, but for someone who has paid 3 annual fees of $59 each to Capital One and 5 more to Providian, that's still an issue. Retail cards are a breath of fresh air to anyone who has subprime cards.
Ratios are really a problem for me. I have a company credit card which I use most of the time because I travel alot, so I really don't spend a lot on my cards and if I do I pay it off before the within 45 days after charging it. I had terrible credit, a repo, charge-off's..etc I've managed to clean up most of my reports. Now if Experian (stuck at 599!!!!!) and Transunion STUCK REALLY STUCK at 577 would just move up to the 600's I'd be estatic. Basically I'm building a small portfollio, I'm not out to have 100k in credit. I don't need it. I've got enough in the bank to cover everything and 1.5mill in investments (Stocks, 401k, Mutual Funds & CD's) The DOT.COM era was really good to me. Knew when to get out at the best times. I just want to be assured when I purchase a house in a year or two that I will have a sufficient credit rating to get the best rates.
