Should I get a Bank Of America Secured car?

Question

I currently trying rebuild my credit. I have anOrchard Bank unsecured card with a 300 limit. I had the car for about two months. If I get a BOA secured card with a 500 limit, will that help boost my score? Or should I just stick with the Orchard Card?

Answer 1

You won't pay interest on your money if you don't utilize it, in addition you will receive interest on the money your not using.

B of A secured card is not a bad idea and two tradelines can help increase your credit score.

Answer 2

keep the orchard card til something better comes along. try never to get a secured card. why pay them interest on YOUR money?

Answer 3

I can definietely answer this question for you. Not only am I a credit analyst and underwriter for a credit card company, but I had both the Orchard Secured, and the B of A secured to build credit, many years ago, so I would have firsthand information about it

I would definitely get the Bank of America card. It has several advantages over an unsecured card. Depeding on how long the account has been opened, it can take anywhere between 6 months to a year for it to have any positive effect for unsecured cards, as opposed to a secured card reporting usually after the first billing cycle. A secured card allows you to increase the limit by adding to the deposit, which can definitely help your score because it improves the ratio of available credit to total debt owed. As long as you keep the B of A account in good standing for 9 months, it converts over to a regular card and you get the deposit back.

My suggestion to you would be to Open the B of A and add to the deposit to increase the limit as much as possible, yet make a SMALL purchase (max/$20) that can be easily paid off in full on time every month just to show activity, while adding to the deposit to increase the limit. This is important because the secured card allow you to "custom build" your a high limit credit card, something that you wouldn't be able to do with that $300 unsecured Orchard card. Once the card converts, you'll end up with a far better card than either card you have now, not to mention keep the limit that you built up.