My husband does not have any positive CL on his reports. Our LO said his score is 633. Together we have 2 TL's and we need to get a secured credit card. I am afraid to take a hard pull only to be rejected. What might be a good option to try. Really want to keep deposit at a minimum. LO said even $150 would be good.
Our credit is something like this:
Hubby (score from LO - 633)
5 medical collections 4 at $60 and one at $177. - told to leave these alone.
Me (score from LO 658)
CapOne AU $10,000 CL, UTI, 12% Opened 2005
USAA AU $14,000 CL, UTI 0% Opened 2013
CapOne $3,000 CL 80% UTI (I know I am going to bring uti down) 6mo old
Medical collection for $160 dofd 11/10
Amsher/TMobile $393 dofd 6/15 (going to pif-hoping for a delete)
ERC/Sprint $619 dofd 10/11 (going to pif-hoping for a delete)
I had a Discover a long time ago. It was charged off in 1993. Can't remember balance.
We both had a joint cc. Can't remember who with. Maybe Citi????? This had been charged off sometime around 1999.
Thank you for your input!!!
Starting Score: 7/2/2013: TU 532 FAKO (CK) || 7/22/13: TU 569 FAKO
@Tersie319 wrote:My husband does not have any positive CL on his reports. Our LO said his score is 633. Together we have 2 TL's and we need to get a secured credit card. I am afraid to take a hard pull only to be rejected. What might be a good option to try. Really want to keep deposit at a minimum. LO said even $150 would be good.
Our credit is something like this:
Hubby (score from LO - 633)
5 medical collections 4 at $60 and one at $177. - told to leave these alone.
Me (score from LO 658)
CapOne AU $10,000 CL, UTI, 12% Opened 2005
USAA AU $14,000 CL, UTI 0% Opened 2013
CapOne $3,000 CL 80% UTI (I know I am going to bring uti down) 6mo old
Medical collection for $160 dofd 11/10
Amsher/TMobile $393 dofd 6/15 (going to pif-hoping for a delete)
ERC/Sprint $619 dofd 10/11 (going to pif-hoping for a delete)
I had a Discover a long time ago. It was charged off in 1993. Can't remember balance.
We both had a joint cc. Can't remember who with. Maybe Citi????? This had been charged off sometime around 1999.
Thank you for your input!!!
Congratulations on your upcoming home purchase!
There are several good secured cards these days (many more than were available back when I was rebuilding) but the one I would check out first for your husband would probably be Capital One. It's not the most exciting product - most secured cards are quite basic - but it should "get the job done" for your purposes. I'll add that while it may be a good fit for your husband, it likely won't be for you since you already have a non-secured Capital One product.
Capital One is not the best choice for this specific scenario... see why and better suggestions in the posts below...
Something to consider about the Capital One secured product is that most Capital One cards are 'infamous' for their triple HP, that is, Capital One will do a hard pull on all three major credit bureaus for a new account. If your LO indicates this is a problem, you might want to explore either the secured Discover Card or Wells Fargo. Also, if you're eligible for USAA they have a good secured product as well. Capital One's triple pull is the specific reason they are not best for this scenario, something that is usually not a factor but is definitely a factor when qualifying for a mortgage.
I don't have any personal experience with the secured products mentioned above, but from what I've read they generally have good reviews. I'm sure other folks will 'chime in' soon with their own experiences and recommendations as well. 
Edit: The reason this forum is so valuable is because of the input from members across the community, and I have changed my original thoughts to reflect agreement with the posts below.
My congratulations for your upcoming home purchase remains unedited! 
Before you do anything, find out if the lender will accept just an AU tradeline on your husband's report: if so, go add him to your Cap 1 and be done with it rather than opening up his own.
After that the usual rules of look for a quality secured card don't apply: you want one without a credit check. SDFCU secured and OpenSky are the only two that quickly come to mind, and anything which incurs a pull you don't want. I haven't looked at either or others in a while so do double-check, but nothing else matters. Fees don't matter in this case either, you can close the card afterwards and open up better tradelines later for him or just AU him on your own cards.
You especially don't want a secured Cap 1 or any Cap 1 card for him when talking mortgage qualification: you want to avoid the inquiries where possible.
@Revelate wrote:Before you do anything, find out if the lender will accept just an AU tradeline on your husband's report: if so, go add him to your Cap 1 and be done with it rather than opening up his own.
After that the usual rules of look for a quality secured card don't apply: you want one without a credit check. SDFCU secured and OpenSky are the only two that quickly come to mind, and anything which incurs a pull you don't want. Fees don't matter in this case, you can close the card afterwards and open up better tradelines later for him or just AU him on your own cards.
You especially don't want a secured Cap 1 or any Cap 1 card for him when talking mortgage qualification: you want to avoid the inquiries at all possible.
+1
Excellent suggestions... I didn't even consider the no-credit check issuers.
That's why this forum is so valuable!
I was approved for the QS1 with a 621 EX and the rest were lower than that, last year.
Wow, is that a proper sentence? It was faster to type this paragraph than it was to go back and edit the 1st one (=
Wow, is that a proper sentence? It was faster to type this paragraph than it was to go back and edit the 1st one (=
@_NERD wrote:
I was approved for the QS1 with a 621 EX and the rest were lower than that, last year.
Wow, is that a proper sentence? It was faster to type this paragraph than it was to go back and edit the 1st one (=
Capital One was my first thought as well, but they aren't a good option for the OP due to the HPs required for approval.
Like Rev mentioned, this is a 'special' case where an account is needed strictly to drive a score for a specific purpose, after which the card can be closed (in other words, AAoA isn't a concern here). (See my edits to my original post above - I originally had the same idea as you.)
It was a good thought, though... I believe under most 'usual' circumstances (non-mortgage) it would, indeed be a good card to consider.
Consider a Walmart store card. That was my first card to report. I went from 618 to 66x instantly, last May. It reported instantly to the 3B the day I was approved. I didn't have to wait one or two billing cycles.
My subsequent app spree brought my EX down to 621. My $0.02
My subsequent app spree brought my EX down to 621. My $0.02