No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
So to give a bit of history, I've been on the repair road for about 20-21 months now. I started off really bad, and had tons of collections, most of which were medical. I pretty much never knew how credit really worked and floundered a bunch of chances to get stuff done the right way, simply letting things fall by the wayside. At any rate, in this whole process throughout my entire life, I also never once applied for or had a credit card. I only had one paid auto loan, bunch of unpaid medical collections, and two paid off utility collections.
So I got a few secured cards and put decent deposits onto them. So far I have 3 secured cards through my bank at Fifth Third, one of which has $2k, while the other two have $1500 each. I opened the first one in July 2011 and the other two in March of 2012, so all of them have been reporting for awhile. The oldest one with the highest security deposit has been carrying 4% utilization for the past year or so (the other two have shown a zero balance the entire time), and while these cards are supposed to get unsecured, apparently it's very difficult to do. They already turned me down once and it cost me a HP. That was last July, and I wasn;t sure I wanted to try it again. My scores for EQ and TU from Myfico vary quite a bit, but that's because a bunch more negatives are reporting on EQ. EQ from Myfico was 594 on February 7th. My TU from Myfico is 705, as it's only showing 2 unpaid medical collections and neither of the paid utility collections. Not sure what my score is from EXP since it's not available.
EQ has 6 collections, 2 paid utility collections, 4 unpaid medical.
EX has 7 collections, 1 paid utility collectiion, 6 unpaid medical.
TU has 2 collections, 2 unpaid medical.
So I have a total of $5000 tied up in security deposits for 3 different cards that haven't unsecured. I have been trying to wait and get the last of the medical collections off, before I tried for unsecured credit, (and have also started Whychat's medical collection removal process) but I really wanted to get something unsecured as it's been almost 2yrs since I started rebuilding and establishing positive revolving TL's.
So far I have the following reporting good for me:
Honda Finance paid off car loan from 2002 never late
Honda Finance current car loan from 6/12 never late
Fifth Third Bank Secured $2000 $100 balance open 7/11
Fifth Third Bank Secured $1500 zero balance open 3/12
Fifth Third Bank Secured $1500 zero balance open 3/12
I kept hearing about Navy Federal, and finally got in through a family member. I decided to follow what many others did and apply for a card, and instantly was approved for a $7000CL on their Cash Rewards card! I was shocked and super excited! My question is though, what should I do with those secured cards? I would like to get my deposits back and put them in a better account since I don't need those secured cards anymore, but what happens with AAoA? Should I keep the oldest one open? Keep them all open? I'm just not sure what to do with all the money that's tied up, since I don't wanna ruin what work I've put in. Thanks again to everyone who contributes here, as without many of your posts, I would still be lost without a clue! Thank you again!
So just close one of them? What about my oldest account? It has the most money secured, and they said that even if it unsecured, it would be a totally new TL, not just a continuation of my existing one from 7/11.
I think you should combine the limits to 5k onto the oldest of the fifth third accounts.. That way when it graduates it will be a 5k limit.
Each time I add funds to the secured Fifth Third cards to up the limit they do another HP. I'm not sure if they'd do if I asked them to combine the cards, but I'm thinking they will. I wouldn't really care, but I was just thinking that 5k would probably be best allocated somewhere else. Or at least a portion of the money that's tied up. I'm not sure though...
Just thought I'd bump this, to see if anyone had any other ideas on what I should do with my secured cards. Thanks again!