BoA Secured deposit back (Also, Celebrating new Credit Score!)

[wmweeza]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@darkariel7 wrote:

I got them to mail me the new rewards version of the secured card. However, I got the same answer about the annual fee. It appears that I must keep paying that **bleep** annual fee forever so along as the account is still open. Has anyone had experience otherwise? If not, I'm jutst going to close the account. I already have another 2 CCs anyways. I got a Discover it and one from Amazon.

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as long as you keep that credit card you will continue paying almost $40 a year to keep it....

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Not always true...

[newhis]

@wmweeza, thank you for giving us hope about the AF

[slicemans]

How do you remove the AF when it unsecures?

[Maximuss]

Had mine auto unsecure at exaclty 9 months. Went from a limit of $1000 to $2500, and the AF was removed from the account. I have a feeling that if it auto unsecures the AF is removed, but not if you ask for it to unsecure. YMMV

[zsepthenne]

Mine card unsecured at 9 months/statements. They didn't give me a CLI however. I called and asked to have the annual fee removed and they took it off. Called back a bit ago and asked if I could have my APR reduced and got that down. Still no CLI unless I want a hard pull. My other cards are currently more attractive so I have the card sock drawered.

[Anonymous]

If the secured card auto unsecures is there a HP at the same time?

Here's my story:  I was happily in the garden with my secured CapOne for the past 15 months and paying cash for all my monthly expenses.  I stumbled on a post regarding the BoA secured REWARDS card in these forums.  So after carefully thinking about whether or not I was ready for a second card I applied for the BoA secured in the last week of Nov on a  Saturday.  No suprise I received the dreaded 30 day message.  The deposit funds were debited from my savings two days later on a Tuesday.  Approx 8 days later I recevied the Congratulations you have been approved update.  I called the next day and asked for a product change to the rewards card but the CSR said she couldn't help me since I didn't have the card/account number yet.  It took about 3 weeks for my cc to arrive in the mail.  I called and requested a product change and it was granted.  The CSR said it might take 3-4 wks for the new card to arrive.  In the meantime, I read up on how fast some of the other BoA secured cards graduate and decided it would be worth it to increase my limit from 600 to 2k so that I can charge all of my monthly expenses and then PIF every month (minus a small amount to show usage.)  The funds were taken out of my account the next day but it took another 8 days for the new credit limit to register on the account.

My initial plan was to have a higher deposit and a lot of turnover since that led to a lot of folks graduating in 6 mos.  But now I'm wondering for those of you that had an auto unsecure was there a hp attached or did it unsecure w/o the hp.  I think if its only a matter of a few more months to graduate then maybe I should wait for auto unsecure and hope for dropped AF too rather than request it and sacrifice a HP.

[newhis]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If the secured card auto unsecures is there a HP at the same time?

Here's my story:  I was happily in the garden with my secured CapOne for the past 15 months and paying cash for all my monthly expenses.  I stumbled on a post regarding the BoA secured REWARDS card in these forums.  So after carefully thinking about whether or not I was ready for a second card I applied for the BoA secured in the last week of Nov on a  Saturday.  No suprise I received the dreaded 30 day message.  The deposit funds were debited from my savings two days later on a Tuesday.  Approx 8 days later I recevied the Congratulations you have been approved update.  I called the next day and asked for a product change to the rewards card but the CSR said she couldn't help me since I didn't have the card/account number yet.  It took about 3 weeks for my cc to arrive in the mail.  I called and requested a product change and it was granted.  The CSR said it might take 3-4 wks for the new card to arrive.  In the meantime, I read up on how fast some of the other BoA secured cards graduate and decided it would be worth it to increase my limit from 600 to 2k so that I can charge all of my monthly expenses and then PIF every month (minus a small amount to show usage.)  The funds were taken out of my account the next day but it took another 8 days for the new credit limit to register on the account.

My initial plan was to have a higher deposit and a lot of turnover since that led to a lot of folks graduating in 6 mos.  But now I'm wondering for those of you that had an auto unsecure was there a hp attached or did it unsecure w/o the hp.  I think if its only a matter of a few more months to graduate then maybe I should wait for auto unsecure and hope for dropped AF too rather than request it and sacrifice a HP.

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You got the BoA secured Nov 2014 or 2013?

There is HP for CLI, so you got one from taking your limit from 600 to 2k. 

If they auto graduate there is no HP.

In my experiment, it is better to CLI to 5k while secured instead of requesting the graduation with 1k and then try to CLI, of course YMMV.

I was able to request the rewards card before I got the plain one, I did a request by secure chat and they only asked for the last 4 digits and I got that online.

[hsspres]

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@darkariel7 wrote:

Does anyone know if they give you your deposit back before the 12 months? Ever? Also when the card graduates into a normal non-secured credit card, what card exactly does it become? I've had mine for about 7 months now. I read, what I understood to mean, that CCs can be converted from one to the other. So when it becomes a normal CC can I ask that they convert into a Better Balance Rewards Card?

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I opened a non-reward Visa secured card with BofA in Aug. 2013.  About 4 months ago, I called and PC'd the card to the Cash Rewards card.  I wanted the Better Balance Rewards but they told me since it was a secured card they couldn't PC to the BBR.  They just recently upgraded my card to unsecured (received check/letter just yesterday).  So it took 16 months for mine to graduate.  Nothing has changed with the card, still 1-2-3 Rewards and account number the same only will report now as unsecured.  My account number did change when I PC'd and took 3-4 weeks to receive new card.  For me, no CLI either.  Have used the card anywhere from 0% to 100% usage and always PIF.  But the no CLI may be due to previous history with BofA.  I called a few months ago to inquire about an account that was showing on my Exp report that was not mine (30k CL with no lates).  The rep looked at my info, the 30k account was not showing, but they did mention an account from 1991 (23 years ago) that they said was at that time on some type of payment plan.  The letter I received did state "I may qualify for a credit increase, but would need to call".  My Exp credit report will be pristine (baddies fall off) in Apr of next year, so I'll save any HPs for the mini app spree I plan going on at that time.  I plan on using this card just for my gas purchases (once a month) until that time.  It seems to me BofA is a lender that 'never forgets' so I may SD this card or cancel it all together at that time.  Chase not too long ago approved me for $4500 limit Freedom.  So unless BofA gives me a significant auto-CLI (which I'm guessing won't happen) before then, Chase will be one of the 1st on the spree list, followed by USAA (have checking, auto ins., brokerage accounts with them) and maybe Barclay's (6 month mark comes up next week, heavy usage and always PIF) followed by NavFed.

I would go ahead and call BofA and PC to the rewards, don't have to wait until it unsecures.

[wmweeza]

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@darkariel7 wrote:

I got them to mail me the new rewards version of the secured card. However, I got the same answer about the annual fee. It appears that I must keep paying that **bleep** annual fee forever so along as the account is still open. Has anyone had experience otherwise? If not, I'm jutst going to close the account. I already have another 2 CCs anyways. I got a Discover it and one from Amazon.

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Nevermind, I made a redundant post. See my earlier replies

[wmweeza]

Not true. I never changed my card after it unsecured, it's the same card and I no longer have an annual fee