Declined for a Secured Card from Capital One

[jordanmedical]

Could it be I was an AU on an account that was charged off?

[pizzadude]

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@jordanmedical wrote:

Could it be I was an AU on an account that was charged off?

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How recent was the account charged~off ?   Cap1 doesn't really have a reputation for blacklisting as much as other companies.   Have you received a letter of explanation yet ?

[MarcinXP]

It could be that your score is way too low or too many baddies. I was declined for Secured Card with Capital One in August of last year and thats when it sunk that my credit must be really low in order to get even that kind of rejections...PFD and deleted few baddies..opened Applied Bank and in November got approved for Unsecured Capital One. Now my TU FICO is at 610 and EQ at 585 and climbing. With 440EQ and 540TU...im thinking its too low of a score or major derogs.

Oh and I had a Capital One Charge Off from 2009 so definitely not because of blacklisting.

[jordanmedical]

Just applied today so no letter yet. CO was a year or so ago.

[modernsurrender]

Are they only secured card you've tried for?  I didn't try for them when I started rebuilding in 08 because I had a CO with them (it's aged off now)... I went with a BofA secured card (because I banked with them and hoped that would give me leverage - don't know if it did) and an Orchard secured.  My scores were TU 495 || EX 539 || EQ 528 at the time and I had loads of baddies that were 1-3 years old and almost nothing positive on my CRs except for one installment account.

The BofA was $300 and became unsecured at 12 months.  They CLI'd to $800 and it's been stagnant since.

The Orchard was $200 and remains so, I'll be closing it next year.

I used those two cards (as well as a jeweler account, but that company no longer reports) to build up some positive tradelines.  After a year and a half I app'd with HSBC (figured I'd slowly climb the rungs to bigger and better fish because I was scared of rejection) and got a $750 unsecured limit that got a $200 auto CLI somewhere around the 18 month mark.

A secured Orchard might be easier to get, but since Cap1 bought HSBC/Orch - I'm not sure how different things are...

[jordanmedical]

I only applied for them because their depsit was either 49 or 99 or 200 for a 200 line and someone here got one and had lower scores than me. Do they recon? I have about 3 baddies falling off by next month.

[modernsurrender]

I'm not sure if they recon, but you could certainly try... If you have baddies falling off in a month, it's probably just better to hold off a bit longer and try again after they're gone since you'll likely see some sort of increase.

[luvsandyshores]

When I started trying to rebuild my credit 2 years ago, I tried for Cap1 secured first and was denied.  Tried Orchard next, and was approved.  All I had on my report were a couple 4-5 year old charge offs, and no current tradelines.  My vote is try Orchard.

[jordanmedical]

Doesn't Orchard have a lot of fees?

[Wolf3]

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@jordanmedical wrote:

Doesn't Orchard have a lot of fees?

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Just an annual fee, about $39.   Capital One and Orchard secured cards are considered easier to get than most major banks.