2 secured cards @ $500 or 1 $1k card

[Ronnie1429]

i was thinking of doing a secured card to help out and get some positive TL's, my credit union offers a secured visa and i was thinking of getting the boa secured as well. would it be better to have 2 cards/tl's at $500 each or 1 account at $1k ?

[hopelesscred]

I am not sure how far along you are in the repair phase. I have only one card, an Orchard bank unsecured visa and I am content to leave it as the only TL until I remove more negs.

Bank of America is a good card and I've read that they will consider upgrading to unsecured before the year is done.

In regards to your credit repair:

Do u have any accounts still within SOL?

are all of them paid?

Will u need any funds to offer PFD on small $200-500 TLs after they've been verified?

Credit repair costs money and time, all of those CMRRRs do add up!

A secured card is still a secured card----so one is enough I would think and work your way up to unsecured status. Save your money and use it to build good payment history or pay off small annoying debts

[CleverCynic]

1 secured, and also consider getting Crown Jewelers (no credit check and high limit) and also Target is pretty easy as far as that goes.

[IHateCAs]

If it's the only cards you'd have, I'd go for two secured cards. You're gonna need a couple cards anyway. I dunno about your CU, but BoA will unsecure in as little as 9 - 12 mos if you're good.

If you've got really bad credit now, my gut tells me to not get anything from banks and only get store cards that don't convert (this leaves out Target for instance).

My reasoning is, I suspect banks are not stupid. If you come to them now, hat in hand, with a 580 score they'll see all the baddies you have. In a year when you are either asking for more cards or higher CL, whose to say that they don't rememeber that you used to be a big risk and plan accordingly even if your CR is clean now?

With that in mind, if you have a small local CU, I'd go with the $1k secured card from them. If they are a small local CU (like most), chances are they won't give you that much unsecured credit ANYWAY, so them knowing now that you suck won't hurt you later. Once you're clean, you can go to BoA, Citi and get the big cards as if you've been an angel all your credit life along with solid history on a couple store cards and a CU Visa.

I think my ideal credit building timeline would go something like....

1) Get a Crown Jewelers ASAP. It's too easy to ignore

2) Get a Macy's card when you qualify. Even if you get the $100 limit, it goes to $1000 after a year if you have good payment history with them. If you have perfect credit, I've seen them auto increase to $2500.

3) Get a secured CC with a decent limit (try to put at least $1k down) from a small local CA.

4) Get the rest of your report SPIC AND SPAN. No Orchard, no Aspire, no nothing else (that I can think of off the top of my head).

5) Go to the prime banks and say look at me now (3 positive TLs reporting for 12 months or more with no derogs).