From what I've read, its good to have diverse forms of credit, including cards, personal loans, and mortgages. I have 3 credit cards, a student loan, and a secured loan on which I'm making monthly payments(credit cards 1-9% pif each month) . I'm wondering: Is this enough ? Are any of these unnecessary? I'm particularly looking at getting rid of the secured loan that I took out for the sole purpose of building payment history and diversity. Opening it may have been a mistake if the student loan by itself would be sufficient. Thank you in advance for your time.
Student loans are considered installment loans. You can definitely build a solid credit history with 3 credit cards and the student loan. Having the additional loan won't hurt you, since you're building additional positive payment history, but I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary. If it's costing you interest, you may want to accelerate the payments.
I just started paying my student loan this month, so I can't say how much that will help my score. But I did pay off a secured personal loan in a single lump payment last month. I also started building history on 2 credit cards buy charging 1%-9% of the limit on them each month and paying them in full after they are reported. bumped my score up 41 points in the last month alone. Keep in mind that score isn't everything. If your application for credit is flagged for review as part of the approval process, then you don't want a lot of negatives on your report.
Congrats on the nice bump in your scores! Keep doing what you're doing and I think you'll continue to see improvements.
