Citi Secured or NFCU nRewards Secured? Or both?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So far Navy has refused to give my husband and me ANYTHING, So we have 4-6 HP each in the last three month just from them with absolutely nothing to show for it. There is something they don't like about us but their denial letters are too generic for us to figure out what. They do five generous limits to some with lower scores, but certainly not us.

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Not even a secured card? 

[Scupra]

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@Meanmchine wrote:

I vote for Citi.

Im a non-conformist

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Care to share the reasoning?

I would think the awards alone on the NFCU nRewards is enough reason to not pick the Citi card. Not to mention the Citi card will take longer to graduate. NFCU also does not report as "secured" which is kinda cool. Starting a solid relationship with a lender like NFCU would be greatly beneficial to the OP. Citi is going to look down on the OP until their file is MUCH cleaner. I see NFCU being a better option to grow with

[Anonymous]

If you want to do a CLI on a NFCU secured card, is it as easy as just calling them and having them block off more funds, or do they do a HP before approving?  

[Scupra]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If you want to do a CLI on a NFCU secured card, is it as easy as just calling them and having them block off more funds, or do they do a HP before approving?  

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No HP to increase limit, just add the funds! I have been watching these situations though and I feel like adding funds resets some sort of clock on graduation time. I would pick an amount and leave it be for the 12 statements. They are reviewd for graduation on the 12th statement I started with a $500 secured and when it gradauated I got a CLI to $1k. Then I hit the luv button and went to north of $10k IIRC.

[Anonymous]

I called customer service today, she told me they recently changed the policy and they do a HP for both the secured card and any CLIs. She also offered the Pledge Loan, their SSL.

[joltdude]

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@Anonymous wrote:
@joltdude makes a good point, since @ DoBetterSis says she has the income to dispose... Disposing a few bucks securing the Citi secured isn't gonna "hurt" and it opens that relationship....falls into the why the heck not, let it age with the rest of 'em category

Again she has the cash to splash and the gong ho go get 'em motion right now.....I'm so used to ppl counting pennies to rebuild that you start to get over protective of OPM but she says the cash is there and again Citi isn't just some bull crap company, I'd be cool with adding them to the squad

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Coming from... Building vs Rebuilding.. my misstep is not trying for a second card or opening a SSL sooner... I had a kinda crappy SSL before I found out about Alliant  that was due to expire in a year.. and since I wasnt buying a car or other loan.. i opened one at Alliant right after it ended...  

Sometimes i think folks understate the value of multiple TLs that your likely to keep for a long term vs a short term.. . my big mistake was not opening the second or third card sooner.... Not suggesting a fisfful of cards but if you got the funds, opening more than one secured card esp with a major bank that your likely to have a relationship with in the long haul... might only see modest increasess for the additional account on score.. BUT it will make your score more resilient to activity.. Esp later down the road.... 

Due to my health I didn't go into the armed services.. Wish i got into Navy while there was some back doors.... 

A friend who iv tried to help do some rebuilding.. (most was just time... ) was able to get a secured card with Navy which he uhm.. defaulted on... They took the deposit, applied it to his balance, closed the card and transfered the remainder to his checking account. ... During this time he worked on rebuilding and a lot of accounts aged off.... Started getting the Cap One offers... And got a few cards.. Roughly a year after the default on the secured card.. They offered him an UNSECURED account....  I was like **bleep**... Really? .. He burned them on that card too... They closed the card and started setback even though he did make hardship arraingements for payments... hes still making payments today but hes not using his navy account for his paycheck because they were setting back more than the "promised" payments...

But they didnt close his banking account and its still open... with a few bucks in it

-J

[Anonymous]

It's sometimes amazing the amount of do-overs some ppl seem to get... referencing J's friend
Secured = burnt
Unsecured a year later = burnt again
And still being relatively cool = 😁

Ppl send so much time and effort on getting 'another SHOT' but really don't prepare/ train on being s different person

It, generally takes a wholesale reprogramming/reconditioning of HOW one manages their finances and most don't do that

They just keep finding new horses rather than becoming better riders

It's one thing for a person that had A medical situation or A job loss but the truth is most ppl just get back into the same ole patterns that get them where they wind up....like any recovering addict failing to stay sober, burning through program after program...

W/o wholesale change most rebuilds are coming crashing down

[Anonymous]

And yet they won't give my husband or me an unsecured account for anything. Just doesn't make sense. I'm not getting a secured card with them because I'm not getting a HP for a secured card and j already have two secured cards and plenty of store cards. I don't need another card just to have a card.

[Anonymous]

So, thank you all for your sound advice! I got the NFCU secured card, started with a $500 cl. I will likely add to it next month to get a higher cl. I know that it resets the clock, but I do want one card to have a higher limit and prefer for it to be the one with Navy. I think I'm going to hold off on the Citi card for now.