SSL needed at this point?

[FM2000]

Chapter 7 discharged spring 2021, mortgage and HELO not reaffirmation, and not reporting to credit agencies.
I was approved for two secured ($500) credit cards, one $3000 UNsecured and one UNsecured Penfed credit card.
Will a SSL will help my fico score at this point, or will the unreported mortgage and HELO suffice?
My fico scored in the very high 600s

Regards

[shipo]

My understanding is, given your mortgages are not reporting, the SSL will help your FICO scores. In my case, the only mortgages on my credit report were closed, so also not reporting, and the SSL I opened with PenFed definitely gave my scores a small lift (trying to remember, but I believe it was between 10 and 20 points).

[justbroke]

For those wondering, an SSL is a share-secured loan. It is a personal loan which is secured by deposits on hand in a credit union member's share account. The share account is a type of checking account and at least $5 is required to be in that account to remain a member of the credit union.

A strategic use of an SSL can bump a score up to 40 points or more. This is because it puts an "installment" account on your credit reports which improve an area of FICO reporting known as credit mix, which is worth 10% of the total score (up to 85 points).

There is a specific strategy for an SSL and there are a couple of banks that seem to do it 'correctly.' Those banks are PenFed and Alliant. The goal is to obtain the SSL, let it report the first month, then pay it down to 8.9%. Then you won't have a payment until near the end of the installment loan's life. The strategy also (more than) suggests that you take the maximum term on the loan (60 months) or an absolute minimum of 36 months. Otherwise you will quickly lose the benefit of the SSL reporting too early.