Folks, I am just trying to sort out the various credit establishing techniques, and come up with the best strategy possible. Any advice is appreciated. Hereâ??s my background: EFX: 2 positive closed tradelines ($1000 installment bank loan, closed in 1996; car loan from a subprime lender, closed in 2001). No derogs. 4 inquiries. EXP: 1 positive closed tradeline (the aforementioned $1000 installment loan). No derogs. 3 inqs. TU: same as EXP. Not much, as you can see. AU is out of the question for me, most people I know have little to no credit as well. Hereâ??s comes the load of questions: 1. Obviously, secured cards reported as unsecured are good. How about those reported as secured? Do they actually do any good to oneâ??s credit? 2. What about secured installment loans? My bank is offering me one, but it WILL be reported as secured. 3. Credit unions. How willing are they to take a chance with an unsecured loan or cc on someone with as little credit as above? 4. What is that magic proper mix of credit? 2-3 open credit cards, an active installment loan, and an auto loan? Anything else to add to the mix? 5. Speaking of an auto loan â?? hoping to get one by the end of June. By then, I should have had 2 or 3 fresh tradelines reported for 3-4 months (the specifics depend in many ways on the advice I get here). How likely will I be to get a $10-12K loan with a decent rate? Sorry of this is too much. Like I said, just trying to sort it all out in my head. TIA for your feedback.
<Bumping> Isn't there anyone out there with opinions on this? I'm not asking for easy answers or fixes, just opinions. Please.
Thanks for responding, Nestea. I can't get to my scores, unfortunately. When I order EFX ScorePower, I get a message telling me they couldn't access my score; but here's the report. Called EFX customer service - they claim it's because there have been no new accounts opened for me in the past 6 months. Experian said the same thing.
Don't waste inquiries on department store cards or "quick approval" cards. Excessive inquiries will kill your chances of new credit. Focus your search on a fairly easy to get credit card (maybe Capital One). Use this card regularly (but not exceeding 50% of the max credit limit) during the next 6 months. Old man FICO will start respecting you soon afterward. Good luck!
Hi: Here is a link that may be of some help -- (stole this from four20nik's post on another thread): http://members.cox.net/faircredit/newcredit.htm That said, I'm in the process of trying to establish credit for my wife (she had none) ... and here are my efforts and results: (1) Through my employer, I was a member in a credit union. I made my wife a member also, and opened a checking account plus a secured Visa card with $500 credit limit. Currently this is 13 months old, and the credit union reports the card as unsecured, but only to Equifax unfortunately. (2) Made her an authorized user on my 12-year old Citibank credit card that _had_ perfect payment history (but has 1x30 day late since, due to job loss). Citi reports the history on her credit report also, albeit with the notation "Authorized User" .... but I believe it does count in bringing up the credit history. (3) Went to a local community bank that accepted $1000 for a Certificate of Deposit, and agreed to loan us $900 for an installment loan with this CD as security. Interest rate was about 4% higher than the rate we were getting on CD. Reported to all the bureaus as "INSTALLMENT LOAN" only, no notation as SECURED on the report. I found that only community banks are willing to do this -- report a secured installment loan as unsecured ... (4) After about 3 months of (1), applied for CITGO gas card only, issued by Citibank S.D., and was approved instantly. Used this card exclusively to fill gas, and always paid on time. (5) After looking over the suggestions from this credit board, went to local Target store and got a Target card with a credit limit of $300; this was just day before yesterday. Best of luck, -- lakpr
