On track...
I started off with a credit score in the high 500's, I think my Equifax was somewhere around 561 when I applied for a BOA secured card back in December 2012 and was denied. At the time I had a few unpaid charge offs, an old judgment, and basically decided that I was going to wait until my judgment fell off in August of this year to clean up my credit. I reluctantly decided to give Capital One secured card a try (figured my credit couldn't get any worse), surprisingly I was approved with a 200 required deposit.
During my search for a secured card, I found myfico.com, and started reading. I got super energized and started disputing my old debt, and settled my old First Premier card. I got lucky and managed to get Experian and Transunion to remove my judgment early, but no such luck with Equifax. Within one month my Transunion shot up 80+ points, and I was at 702.
I applied for BOA secured card again in February and was approved. I called after I received the card to get added to the cash reward programs, they obliged. I initially secured it with 1,500, and later increased it to 3,200. I put all my large purchases on my card, sometimes 2-3k in purchases and paid it off in full each month.
Fast forward five months, I got the credit itch and decided to call their credit department to see if I could qualify for an early graduation. Spoke to a very kind lady (Joanne) who said she would have to pull my credit report, and see what she could do for me. Not sure which buerer she pulled yet, but my scores at the time were 662 EX, 645 EQ, 676 TU. These are a bit low due to BOA reporting a 1,900 balance from last month, with 38% utilization.
Joanna put me on hold, came back and thanked me for my business, and told me that I have been making wonderful payments over the past few months -- I was sure this was a denial, was patiently waiting for her to say ‘but, unfortunately ’but amazingly she said that she was going to unsecure the card, and that my credit limit would remain the same, and that my deposit would be returned to me in two weeks via check. I thought, darn! I should have increased it to 5k when I had the extra cash.
My hope now is to get them to waive my annual fee; I will be calling back once I receive my check. I’ve read that others have been successful.
If it wasn't for this website, and dare I say Capital One I would have been just sitting and waiting for everything to fall off, rather than actually make some progress along the way. :-) At 31 and 10+ years of bad credit, and just giving up I have finally made it to the place I never thought I could.
I’m excited to share that I was also approved for Discover IT last month with a 1,500 CL. It’s the card I’ve been wishing for since I started my journey. I am now in the ‘gardening’ phase.
Thanks again to everyone who contributes to the boards! I have been a heavy lurker, but I wouldn't have made it this far without so many of you.
Trish
Welcome to the forum! Congrats on your recent successes and no more lurking.
We hope you'll continue to contribute and #PayItForward
We hope you'll continue to contribute and #PayItForward
Yup, congrats and welcome to the forums. 
Wow! Thats a great surprise! You were on a fastrak! Lol! Congrats! 
Congrats...
Congrats!
~kn