Should I apply for a secured credit card?
A. The last thing you need is another credit card, and a secured credit card isn’t going to help you anyway. These cards are for people with bad credit, or no credit history, who want to establish a track record of good payments. To improve your credit score, you need to pay all your bills on time and reduce your debt-to-credit level to below 50% on each of your credit cards. For instance, if you have one card with a credit limit of $3,000, you should keep your balance below $1,500, or 50% of your limit. That’s what Fair Isaac Corp., the developer of the FICO score, regards as an acceptable ratio. Anything above that hurts your score.
