<human>: After reading up on credit cards and credit improvement,  I decided to apply for a second credit card to try to increase my debt-to-credit ratio. ( I have one credit card with a 650 limit that I have had for 5 years)

 
History summary: messed up on some student loans and a card about 4 and half years ago on a Chase CC card and just had the debt written off this year on my Taxes. (What's done is done unfortunately)

Been more actively trying to fix this for the past 18 months or so. I pay Sallie Mae on time monthly and (though my CC use is infrequent) I pay it off quickly. 

I applied for a Discover Student IT card and was denied (ugh) but was offered a secured card. Should I take it? Where do I go from here? 

I was interested in getting a secured loan from my local credit union to help boost my credit score and I am beginning to use my Sears card under 30% and paying off monthly (I havent really used it for the past year)
 
According to Mint Credit Monitoring:

Equifax 640 (updated 7/4/14)

Experian 627  (updated 3/31/14)

TransU 609 (updated 3/31/14)

Up about 85-105 points from a year and a half ago.  My goal is 700 by summer 2015 if possible.

**Can I call Discover to see if it is possible to get the credit card? or Should I just accept Discover's secured card?I applied online. Can the secured loan help me get to 700?

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: Trying to fix credit. Tried applying for a basic student credit card and was denied but offered secured card instead. Would like to know my options going forward