Which one is better for building your credit score? A personal loan or a secured credit card?

Public Comments

1. To be honest, I don't think it matters. All credit bureaus look at is how much credit the company has given you, how much credit you have available out of that, and how often your payments are made. All that matters is that your paying off the debt. Typically, that's all that matters. It might also depend on how much you go the personal loan for. If you get a credit card and say, buy JUST gas on it, and pay the balance off every month, it shows lenders that you are responsible with the borrowed money.
2. Having a mixure of accounts helps increase your score. A personal loan would fall into the installment loan category. A credit card falls into the revolving credit category. It will probably be easier to get a secured credit card. Since your deposit is the collateral for the loan. If your credit is good enough to qualify for an unsecured personal loan, you can probably qualify for a regular unsecured credit card (which would be better than the secured credit card). With either, the most important thing is pay on time every month.
3. Actually both. Like one of the posters mentioned, it all starts with a checking and savings account. By opening the accounts, it establishes a relationship between you and the bank by already being a customer which can lead to other products like loans and credit cards. The secured card I would get first, because since it's a revolving account, it would be reusable and would be better to build your score. Like bdancer222 said, it would be the easier to get of the two as well. Make small purchases that can be paid off on time every month, and ususally the card upgrades to a regular card after a year. Then with the leftover deposit then you could use that as collateral for a personal loan. For my personal experience, Bank of America offers the best overall secured card.