Okay so we are looking to get a secured credit card to start building / rebuilding some credit. I have a few different scenarios and I am looking for some suggestions. First of all would my wife and I be better off each getting a lower limit card in separate names or should we just get 1 together? Secondly even if together would we be better off getting just one larger one or 2 smaller ones from different companies? Lastly once that decision is made, what is the best percentage of utilization to help improve credit, or does this even matter. My thought is that we will get secured cards in an amount a little more than needed to cover our normal set monthly bills and put those on Auto Pay. Then I can just pay the card off each month rather than pay the companies. So any of you see any flaws in this plan? Thanks in advance for any help and advice. I am just jumping in to credit repair and I am going to start working on my credit report too but I might as well start building some good credit while I am fixing the bad.
Welcome to Creditnet! I would recommend just getting a joint card together with the highest limit possible at this point. Keep it simple. Focus on managing it wisely, keeping your credit utilization ratio low (10% or less), and always paying your monthly bills on time and in full. You can worry about adding more cards to the mix later down the road once your credit scores have improved. You might not be able to secure a high enough limit to cover all your monthly bills at first. For example, if you have $1,000 CL on your new card, you don't want to be charging $800 in expenses on the card even if you are paying it off in full every month. Your CU ratio is still going to be too high, so don't plan on spending more than about $100 on the card each month if your CL is $1,000. The max I would push that too is $300, or a CU ratio of 30%.
If you are still in the process of fixing your credit I would apply jointly for a Capital One secured card. You can get more information about secured cards on the creditnet.com website. Secured cards generally have lower limits so you would not be able to pay all your bills with it. You want to keep your utilization low just like Josh said. Thanks! Heather with BoostMyScore.NET
