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Need a secured credit card but which one?

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Anonymous
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Need a secured credit card but which one?

I'm new here but love to read all questions and feed back . I've learned so much in just a couple of days. But thus far I have yet another question . My husband and I need to build some positive credit . We have no lates in 12 months  but we have old charge offs and collections. They are at least 3 or more years old. We have a great lender who is helping us get some things situated. But one thing he wants us to do is build some positive credit, so now we are looking for a secured credit card that will not pull our credit. I need some help on finding 1 or 2 cards. We have an auto loan that is 12 months old and we have never been late . That is the only positive trade line we have.
   
 
Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Need a secured credit card but which one?

All cards pull credit reports except Crown Jewelers.   Citi secured, Orchard secured and all bank secured cards pull at least one credit report, Orchard pulled all three for me.
Message 2 of 5
Tons_of_Debt
Established Contributor

Re: Need a secured credit card but which one?

I'd go with BofA's. Try applying for one of their regular cards and see if they offer you the 99/500 card. It's partiall secured: You put down $99 and they give you $500 in credit. Also, it'll graduate in 9-12 months.
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Message 3 of 5
Anonymous
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Re: Need a secured credit card but which one?

BofA definitely sounds like the best to me - you have to apply for a regular card and see if they offer it, though (they may just offer the regular secured rather than the 99/500, or no secured card at all) - you can't just apply for it.

I've had a very good experience with US Bank's secured card (I put down $500 for mine, but you can choose your limit, pretty much, and that's the amount you need to deposit as security) - they unsecured me after 12 months, gave me a regular Visa and a CLI to $1000 ,and 90 days later let me upgrade to their Cash Rewards Platinum AND gave me a CLI to $2500. I'm very happy with them, but if I'd known about BofA and the 99/500 back when I started out with this, I'd probably have tried that first.

Whatever you go with, a secured card with a prime lender is a great way to go - for the most part (ie they may not all operate like this, so do your research!) it means you'll get to keep the original opening date when you unsecure the card, and it'll mean you get all this history with a prime lender instead of being saddled with some fee-heavy subprime card that you want to close a year or so down the line. I was a bit apprehensive about putting down money for a secured card when I could get one 'for free', but I'm glad I did it, now!
Message 4 of 5
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Need a secured credit card but which one?

the only thing about the usbank secured is you have to have a 680 credit score to graduate out of unsecured.  if you are not going to be able to get your reports clean enough in a year to pass that then you would be stuck with secured.
I would go with BofA
Message 5 of 5
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