Why nobody talks about the secured card method for rebuilding credit

Spent 6 months stuck at a 580 score. Tried everything. Finally put $300 down on a secured card, used it for gas only, paid it off every Friday. Score jumped 45 points in 4 months. Has anyone else had luck with this specific approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_alice15d ago

Ask you something - was this your first secured card or did you already have any other credit lines open? Because I did the same thing with a $200 limit on a Capital One secured card, put my Netflix on it, paid it off every two weeks. My score only went up like 20 points after five months. Wondering if the weekly payments made that big of a difference for you compared to a bi-weekly schedule. Also, did you keep your utilization under 10% every single statement or did you let it hit higher sometimes?

karen_sanchez4915d ago

Did you have a $300 limit or $200? I ask because a buddy of mine did this whole thing last year. He put down $500 on a Discover secured card, used it for his streaming services, and paid the full balance every Sunday morning. He swears by the weekly thing. After 6 months his score went from a 540 to a 620. But here's the weird part - he also had a collections account from an old gym membership that was still showing on his report. So maybe the weekly payments only help if you don't have any other negative stuff dragging you down. The frequency probably matters less than just having a clean slate overall.