Discover it (Secured)

[Anonymous]

If yiir credit score goes up and down then remember the golden rule. Don't use more than 30% of your available credit. If you have multiple cards/accounts those are calculated too.

Example:
Discover 500 limit
Capital One 600 limit
Total credit limit is 1100

So dont use more than 330 dollars when tge ststements come out.

Doesn't matter whether its 300 one one card and 30 on another. What matters is the total available credit percentage. If you stay below that on the reported cycle amount your credit score will never drop due to credit card usage

[Anonymous]

I want a Discover card also and impatient just like you but going to wait until my score goes up for unsecured card. In my opinion, Capital One secure is the best in that dept with (in my case) just a $49 deposit my CL is $500 just after 5 months. Anyways since you just have little credit history and don't have any negatives on report like I do, you will likely get your unsecured Discover card before me so just be patient

[Anonymous]

If you have the money, I'd recommend upping the credit limit as high as you can so you can start out with a decent limit once it graduates.  They don't graduate before the first year of holding it, so you can call them shortly before your 12th statement cuts and up it if you want -- I have been told by 3 different reps that the clock doesn't reset, and I've been told specifically that even if you send in the money to up the limit and you get unsecured a week later they'll just mail you your money back and your card will have the higher limit.

I say this because sometimes it takes some time to get the floodgates to open with Discover's CLIs, especially if your history or score is kind of borderline.  So you don't want to end up with the low limit for a couple years.

[Anonymous]

Bug101,

I think many of us have experienced a lender that hasn't matched our other limits. I have one now so far off its crazy. Some my say that Chase or Citi gave them a lower limit than the others. For me it's barclaycard. I've seen many many posts lately about good Discover approvals and increases. Maybe your next good one is around the corner.

[joltdude]

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@Bug101 wrote:

We have had no "issues" with Discover CS or any charges etc.  My point is that it does NOTHING for us except help UT.   Yes they run the 5% thing which changes every 3 months but everyone gets that so it is not like they are doing anything special for us for being great customers. Never late, always pay off or far more than the min etc over the last 2.5 years.

If they were monitoring our credit they would see that we had zero balances on $52,100 in CLS (until like 2 weeks ago) been doing a HUGE remode on our house for the last 6 month so just put like 1,800 on our Home Depot card.

In fact we have 2 Boa cards $6,000 and $5,500 and applied today for a different Boa and got $16K. Have a $8K citi and applied today for another and got 11K. And both are ALWAYS sending us zero% offers for tranfers, which we never take.  This is what I mean.

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My question is.. Have you offered to take an HP or called and asked for a CLI with HP?

Have you chatted with their CSR folks online and asked whats up?

Discover  isnt known for handing out hefty CLI's out of the gate...   Yes you have experience... But have you actually tried to see why?

Do you pay off BEFORE or after statement generates?

Also they are a bit bipolar and tend to get a bit envious if they arent your primary card... 

-J

[Anonymous]

If a person applies for a discover it card unsecured and has scores in the 650 range, and is denied, with no offer of a secured version, does calling in change that at all?  or do you basically just wait until your scores improve and apply for the secured? (obviously the regular if scores improved significantly)

I ask because I was helping a colleagues son that had some medical collections.  It was pretty easy getting him a cap1 qs1 and platinum back to back, then in 6 months combined for a total limit of 3500, and then by 9 months the af was removed.  And yes, as 50/50 as I am with capital one, they came through on this one.  Even BOA secured wasnt approved last january.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If a person applies for a discover it card unsecured and has scores in the 650 range, and is denied, with no offer of a secured version, does calling in change that at all?  or do you basically just wait until your scores improve and apply for the secured? (obviously the regular if scores improved significantly)

I ask because I was helping a colleagues son that had some medical collections.  It was pretty easy getting him a cap1 qs1 and platinum back to back, then in 6 months combined for a total limit of 3500, and then by 9 months the af was removed.  And yes, as 50/50 as I am with capital one, they came through on this one.  Even BOA secured wasnt approved last january.

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Things may have changed, but a while back Discover was saying the offer was only made by the computer and if it wasn't made then there wasn't anything they could do about it.  But this was before the secured card could be directly applied for so I don't know if that has made any sort of difference about it.

[Geordi]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ok, I was doing my daily stalking of the boards (lol) yesterday and kept seeing all these people being approved for the Discover it card that I've been wanting for forever. I had applied for the card a couple of months back but they basically told me to kick rocks and denied me. I didn't have much credit card history under my belt (probably around 3 months and less than 9% utility each month) but I've heard of people new to credit getting approved so I thought I maybe had a shot. I called to ask them to reconsider but they told me to let my accounts age and to try back again in a few months. Ugh. I'm the world's most impatient person so I waited a grand total of 2 months before the itch to apply crept up.  I ended up apping for the secured version yesterday (in hopes that it will graduate sooner than the year mark) and I got approved. 

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Could you tell me what were your FICO scores when you apped fort he non-secured and also for the secured?

Did you have any derogs?

[Anonymous]

My insight to the discover secured card is treat it well and they will treat you well in return. As far as deposit amount I have noticed a small trend which may or may not be relevant.

I had a secured version which I put $1000 down. They graduated at month 7 and I got my money back with no CLI. There were several others that all graduated at the 7 month mark as well with $200 - $400 deposits they graduated and got a CLI.

Again that may or may not be relevant due to history of each individual.
Personally I ran my card up to the max a couple of times, but my average monthly spend was $422. I only paid in full 1 or 2 times, however I always paid it down under 30%

I am going to pay it in full this month and see if a CLI comes, if it doesn't I'm going to put very little spend on it next month and PIG again to see if that makes a difference

[Anonymous]

Also I forgot to add, discover has changed their review schedule for graduation. You used to have to wait until month 12 to begin reviews, they have changed that and now they begin to review your account at month 7 to see if you are eligible for graduation