Citi Secured - Denied - is there still a chance?

[Anonymous]

I stumbled across this site last week and spent most of the weekend reading posts, some of the sticky threads and gaining a wealth of knowledge I wish I had just a few weeks, months and even years ago.

I paid off all of my debt starting in November and finished up with my last payment to Bank of America last month. I (foolish) applied for a Citi secured Mastercard before pulling an updated report to make sure everything was correct. And yes, I paid these off without doing a PFD - again, foolish, I know.

I just received the denial letter from Citi over the weekend and decided it was time to pull the trigger and pay for a year of score watch. The three accounts are all derogs and at the time that Citi looked I believe it showed the following:

Verizon - closed - $0 due

Bank of America - closed - $1159 due

Cap One - closed - $569 due

The more recent report shows a $0 balance with BoA and I was promised a letter from NCO stating that I the Cap One account is closed with $0 balance. I have already written GW letters to all 3 companies asking them to remove the late payments but my question is about the Citi application. I faxed them an updated statement from BoA showing $0 due and sent them the letter I received from ALW Sourcing (part of NCO whom Cap One sent me to for collections) stating that if they got a payment of $8xx.xx it would settle the account in full along with a bank statement showing where that exact payment cleared my bank back in November.

Do I have a snowballs chance in getting the card with Citi? I am a member of a credit union but they turned me down a few months back (right before I got serious with tackling my debt) and they advised that I didn't re-apply until I had at least SOME recent positive credit.

[emartin82]

sucks that they denied you. it's really frustrating to know that they wont extend credit even when funds are secured. i applied myself and i'm waiting to get the denial letter in the mail.

im not sure how they are with recons. i think you have a good strategy so far. just keep faxing info with updates on those accounts. my understanding is they will not approve if you have any negative info in the last two years.

with your current scores, i think you should go for the subprime secured or unsecured cards. just remember that your FICO scores will improve over time. the waiting is the hardest part--i've been working on it for five years and my FICOs have been climbing very slowly.

E

[Wolf3]

IMO, very little chance at this time.   And there is no point in trying BofA, Wells Fargo, US Bank etc.  

You need at least 1 or 2 secured cards with positive history.   And you need to use them.   

Be careful, there are some awful sub prime cards.  I started rebuilding with 2 secured cards,  Public Savings Bank, and HSBC/Orchard.    They have decent terms and relatively easy to get. 

[emartin82]

try the HSBC/Orchard Bank preselector site and see what it comes up with. keep in mind its no guarantee that you will get approved for that particular card, even if it's the secured card.

 https://www.hsbcapply.com/start/orchardbank?media=O5IS102AAX0802000161HPHHX

it is a soft inquiry for the qualification tool; a hard inquiry if you decide to apply for it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is frustrating when I can't even get a secured card. I'm not rushing back out there to schoop up a ton of available credit and go hog wild on the spending but I do run through nearly $150/mo in gas with my job and thought a $300 secured card would be ideal for that. I'm going to keep plugging away with the faxes even after the 30 day mark and hope they reconsider.

I appreciate the encouragement to keep on doing what I'm doing as well as the warnings and advise. I may check out the HSBC card if this doesn't work. I don't really know what else to do for another 6 months or so because I have no more debt to pay down and my credit union advised I wait at least 6 months to apply again. I guess I'll sit here and hope a GW letter or 2 will bump me up a little bit... and of course I will keep sending those until they fall of on their own or by the graces of the credit gods.

[Wolf3]

Having just 1 major credit card is important, at this point in your rebuilding.   6 months of good history will proabably get you that CU  card.  Waiting will get you nothing.

At least check out the HSBC and see what they approve.

[emartin82]

you have a tough choice to make. i think wolf is right that you should wait six months and see if you qualify for the CU card...but the reality is that there is no guarantee.

that's six months you've lost when you couldve been building history with a secured card. why dont you go for the orchard secured card? you don't want to go wasting a ton of inquiries. IMO, i think it'd be best to get a secured card with minimal fees (if there exists) right now and go for your CU card at a good rate after 12 mos of good payment history. 

and you're right, go nuts on those PFD letters. keep sending them out. write to the address on your credit reports, utilize planetfeedback dot com, and also google addresses.

i had a hard time getting a paid chase charge off removed from my reports until i found an address for chase executive offices in Illinios that actually led to that tradeline getting removed. still no luck with cap one or verizon, but you win some you lose some. good luck buddy.

E

[Anonymous]

Great advice guys - I guess I'll hold off on any new apps through the 30 day mark on the Citi card as I'm under the impression that they can still use that initial pull for approval purposes up to that point and it's a new credit pull after that. I know HSBC pulls EX, EQ or even both but I'm not sure about Orchard. I'm going to keep hammering out the GW letters and sending them through the mail and PFB. I found the following addresses for VzW and my next chore is to build a bigger list for CapOne and BoA:

Verizon Wireless, 3400 Forest Drive, Suite 2100, Columbia, SC 29204
Verizon Wireless, 3601 Converse Drive, Wilmington, NC 28403
Verizon Wireless, 295 North Maple Avenue, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Verizon Wireless, P.O. Box 17120, Tucson, AZ 85731-7120
Verizon Wireless, P.O. Box 4009, Silver Spring, MD 20914-4009
Verizon Wireless, P.O. Box 1850, Folsom, CA 95763
Verizon Wireless – Mid Atlantic, P.O. Box 761, ATTN Customer Financial Service, Bedminster, NJ 07921-0761
Verizon Wireless, Attention: National Recovery, Department MS-400, P.O. Box 1850, Folsom, California 95630
Verizon Wireless, PO Box 17464, Baltimore, Maryland 21297-1464

[Anonymous]

Update:

I received a letter from NCO over the weekend stating:

"We acknowledge receipt of $839.31 on 11/4/2009. Upon clearance of the payment, the account will be considered settled in full"

I have since mailed a copy of that letter to Experian along with a credit dispute so HOPEFULLY this will bring the balances down on all collections to $0. I faxed the letter to Citi yesterday and followed up with them today and the account specialist told me the following: the only thing they will look at for reconsideration is an updated credit report from Experian and that mailing them letters I have received from CAs will not do me any good. She also told me that the form letter states that I have up to 30 days for reconsideration but she said once a case is opened on an application they will allow up to 90 days before a new application needs to be completed.

I also found out that my credit union does a credit builder loan where you can borrow up to $1500 for up to 12 months; the loan proceeds are deposited into a savings account and at the end of the 12 months you have access to the savings account. I don't know what other rules and terms apply (interest, fees, etc) but because I have never had any type of installment loan I'm thinking that another type of tradeline on my credit report would help considerably.

As I was typing this post, I got a scorealert email - my EQ jumped 6 points just with this most recent dispute on that CO. Woohoo!

[Anonymous]

The problem with the secured loan from the CU is that it's going to report as an installment loan and not revolving credit. You are pretty much going to be paying interest on your own money. You are better off trying to find another CU that does offer a secure cc or going with a secure card with one of the more lenient companys such as Orchard or even Public Savings Bank if you don't want another inquiry.