Repair Credit Report Help

my fiancee has poor credit and he has a Aspen Mastercard thats a secured credit card, however i dont think?

that they report to the credit bureaus. theyve raised his limit due to his good payment history but how do we know if they are reporting this to the credit bureaus? are there any secured credit cards that have a good reputation for credit repair?

Public Comments

1. The best way to ensure that it's reporting to the credit bureaus is to pull is credit report. He can get a free one from any of the agencies - equifax, experien, or transunion. As far as secured credit cards that help with credit repair, I don't know about that. If his credit isn't too horrible though, he can always get a department store card or go to a jewelry store and finance something (they usually have lower credit standards) and then just make the monthly payments (DO NOT PAY IT OFF IMMEDIATELY) to rebuild his credit. Plus, you could probably talk him into buying you something on top of it! ;)
2. I got a secured card through Bank of America. First had a checking account with them. It was $250, then after a year, they put that $250 back into my checking account and it became an unsecured credit card. They've increased the limit like 4 times, it's now up to $1800!!! Anyway, point is, there are secured cards that can turn into unsecured cards. I think Capital One has one like this also. Also, after a matter of timely payments and low balances, say a year, you can call your credit card company (or he can), and get his rates lowered. Mine were like 22%-25% and I called and just said, "I've had this card for a while and I have other cards now with lower rates and I would like to see my rate lowered on this card." They immediately transferred me to someone who could do that and SURPRISE. They did!!! I got Chase, Capital One, AND my Bank of America Credit Card to lower the rates ALL to 14.99%. Hope this helps you a little. It's helped my credit a good bit. I started out with a credit score of less than 600 and now it's almost up to 700. Not great still, but a lot better than it was. Also, go to www.annualcreditreport.com to get your free credit report from all three major bureaus. You can do this once per year (they keep track). So I suggest getting one now, then one in 5 month, then another in 4 or 5 months. It helps you to know what's going on there...good and bad.
3. Secured credit card can be the start to a credit rebuild. Get a free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com to what is reporting. If the card doesn't show up on his credit report, it isn't reporting. But once the bank allows the card to become unsecured, it surely will. Either way, keep it open and work on the transition. You're on the right track, it just takes time unfortunately. Learn more about mortgage, credit, and finance: http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com
4. There are many secured and un-secured bad credit cards that report to the credit bureaus each month. Try the Impact Prepaid MasterCard or the Orchard Bank Secured Mastercard.
5. All you have to do is call up Aspen MC and ask. A specific secured cc won't help repair your credit, it's the way you handle the account. This means paying it off in full every month or at least keep the balance below 25%. Go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp. You are eligible to receive 1 free report from each of the three agencies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) and you will be able to see if it is on your report.