I am thinking about adding a secured credit card to increase my CL. I am thinking of Applied Bank. I have heard a lot of negative stuff about them, but to me, there are two make or breaks for me:
1- Do they report the card as a secured card? The rep on the phone said that they don't but it sounded like she would have said anything to get me to get me to signup for a card. Does anyone know the answer?
2-Do they allow you to increase your line by leaving a bigger deposit?
Any help would be most appreciated
Starting Score: 640
On phone can't see digs. I would steer clear . I had them a few years back. They charge you monthly fees and card never graduates . Better off going to Bofa .
I have had an Applied secured card for a few months and I havent had any problems with them. I beleive you can add funds to the account anytime through their website as well as make online payments with a debit card.I dont think they do a credit pull when you add funds but you may want to call them just to make sure.
I took the max line of $5000 to start with, so Im not sure about adding funds but I see on my online account an option to add funds through a debit or crdeit card to the security acount.
The card does not report as secured on your credit report but they only report to to Experian and Transunion but not to Equifax.
I think the best card to go with is the Gold card because I beleive it has an annual fee around $50 and no monthly maintananace fee with a 9.99% interest.
Had one of those when I first starting the rebuilding process. In my experience they were pretty good, reported as a normal cc however it did not report to all 3 beureus only reported to two ( not sure which one was omited, i think Equifax)
You have to take this card at face value, it will never graduate so dont get your hopes up about that and there is also a monthly fee. With that being said I never had any problems with them and they helped me rebuild. After about a year I canceled the card over the phone and my deposit was returned within a week, no games no BS,
Would I have rather had a BOFA or Wachovia secured, sure, but they both denied me for their secured cards back then and Applied reached out and helped me get to where I am now. No complaints here.
Starting Score: TU 608, Eq 618
I have an applied bank unsecured card. I don't believe they offer this card anymore. Initial limit was $500. I had it about a year maybe 2 and clicked CLI on my account page and they gave me a 300 increase with a 50 charge.....for someone rebuilding thier credir it was an offer i didnt wanna pass. Although I do not see this unsecured card on their website anymore I don't know if this was their busniess card. I just dont remember. I do file a 1099R for some income so i might have applied for the business card, i would contact them and ask. Let them know a friend has an unsecured card with them and you want to know if they still offfer it. When i got the card my score was high 400's or low 500's
JayDilla, you and I have the EXACT same experience! I still have this card, but soon after charging (and soon after THAT, reading the VERY FINE PRINT), I realized that they start charging interest from the time you make a purchase AND they charge $15.00/mo. in addition to the annual fee. Didn't want to let go of them since they're one of my oldest cards, but that's just too rich for my blood...especially now that I've achieved better credit after rebuilding. It will never graduate (hell, took me a whole two years just to get the $300 limit offer and I, like you, needed to take the offer just to show I had a higher limit (I called them a year after having the card to get a credit limit increase and they gave me the same line that Capital One gives--you have to be INVITED and WE will let YOU KNOW when we think you're good enough to be invited). That $100 charge didn't seem like much at the time, but NOW...SHEEZ! I don't think they offer this card anymore (I don't think they offer any unsecured credit products outside of the business card). The interest rate on the secured cards is much lower so maybe that's a better product/choice for you. GOOD LUCK if you choose to go with them, but as another posted said, you should probably steer clear of them unless you ABSOLUTELY need them.
