cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Best secured credit card?

tag
ccnewcc
Established Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?

Could the best secured card be no secured card Smiley Tongue

Message 21 of 35
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Best secured credit card?


@dude11 wrote:

@JCSC wrote:

@HiLine wrote:

@altayar wrote:

Have you thought about the Bank of America secured card?

I think it's the best in the secured CC's market for now.




Second this. Not only does BofA report to all credit bureaus, the secured card also gives you the same rewards and benefits as the unsecured BankAmericard, including cash back rewards, extended warranty and car rental insurance. 


Curious where you found this info.  I don't see this on the page to apply.  Can you show please?


You can't apply for the secured rewards directly. However you can apply for the Bofa secured card and after being approved you can call them and they can convert the card or add the rewards to it. The card will still remain secured however.

 

I actually did this a few months ago. Now if I'm not mistaken and someone please correct me if I am wrong but, I believe if you apply for the rewards card and are not approved you may be countered offered for the same card but the secured version. This I am not 100% sure though.


This is absolutely correct.

 

For reference on the 1-2-3 rewards on the secured cards, it was only added in roughly June or thereabouts and hasn't been widely promoted, but it makes BOFA's card hands down the best secured product outside of possibly NFCU's which a non-trivial number of us don't have access to.

 

There's not a whole lot of details on the counter-offer other than it exists, for most intents and purposes if you're in the credit strata of needing to look at secured cards at all, you're better off going that route than hoping for a counter-offer.  Limits don't really matter at the start of either building or rebuilding (and arguably don't even late in the FICO chasing game either), and as such the opportunity to build payment history is key.  I think it's reasonable to assume in BOFA's case that the counter-offer probably requires at least six months clean history, and more likely a year's worth, and a FICO of 640+, but that's an absolute swag looking at the market and what we've seen anecdotally here.




        
Message 22 of 35
HiLine
Blogger

Re: Best secured credit card?

I have not done enough research on this BofA rewards secured credit card to trace its origin, but from personal experience, I can say with confidence that this card has been available since as early as January, 2012. As far as limits go, the higher credit line you have, the higher credit limits you'll be able to obtain for your subsequent unsecured credit card, provided you apply while having only the secured card on your report. This has been told to me by the commercial bankers as well as credit analysts that I've talked to.

Message 23 of 35
Springer
New Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?

This is a really noob question...but what exactly does 
PCed stand for/mean?

 

In The Garden Since 1/5/13

Starting Score: EQ FICO 627 CK 633 CS 630 (12/2012)
Current Score: EQ FICO-584: EX FICO (BofA, 12/17/2012): 538 :CK 578 :CS 630
Goal Score: 700


Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Message 24 of 35
daybreakgonesXe
Valued Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?

Product change Smiley Happy

Message 25 of 35
Wolf3
Senior Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?


@Springer wrote:

This is a really noob question...but what exactly does 
PCed stand for/mean?

 


http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/m-p/88458

 

 

Message 26 of 35
Dustink
Valued Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?

US bank has some good ones. 

 

 Check out the aero mexico card. No fee the first year. Point bonus, companion ticket....ect

 

Like a prime card, but it is secured.

Too many INQs & low AAoA so I'm off to tend the Garden.     Age:23    


     $17k       $8.5K          Closed          $19k      $6.5k        $24.2k        Closed         $5k       Closed     $8.5k        Closed      @2.49%
Message 27 of 35
Tran92
Regular Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?

I'm thinking of opening a $1000 secured line. Should I go for BofA or Cap1? What are the average approval scores for the BofA secured card?

TU 746 (10/13)
GOAL: 750+






Message 28 of 35
HiLine
Blogger

Re: Best secured credit card?

I would recommend a card that does not report as secured, or a card that offers cash back rewards. For the former, see this thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/What-secured-cards-do-not-report-as-quot-secured-quot/t...

 

For the latter, Bankamericard Cash Back Rewards is the best, hands down.

Message 29 of 35
BearOSO
Contributor

Re: Best secured credit card?

I went with CapitalOne in October. Was approved but wanted proof of income...gave them my VA disability payments as my other beneifts do not count as income.

 

Gave em $500, they gave me a $651 CL. Just recently added $400. Took 10-14 business days for the extra deposit to go in.

 

Now I have a $1051 CL. So far so good, no hiccups other than the amount of time it takes for the extra deposit to go through. 

 

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that my EQ CS dropped 21 points when they did their HP. It's gone up by 17 since Oct.  

Message 30 of 35
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.