Just wanted to post my experience with B of A secured for those of you that might have one or get one in the future. I noticed quite a few posts with people having success in getting their card to unsecure after having it 8 or 9 months.
I've had my card for 10 months with a $500 limit. I have put through around $19k on the card over that period so an average of $1900 per month. I have always paid it in full and actually had to make several payments each week in order to run 4 times the limit every month.
They pulled TU which according to my denial letter was 668. They denied me for to high balance to credit ratio. My Util is at 27%. My total CL on all my revolving cards is 41k so my reports show around $11k in revolving debt. Around 6k of that is from a Cap 1 AU account which gets paid in full every month but my sister doesn't pay attention to reporting dates so a balance often gets reported. I have a balance of 4k on my Lowes card that is 36 months at 5.99% for a bathroom remodel, should have that mostly paid off by January.
I understand why they denied me but still a little surprised considering my usage, payment patterns as well as my checking and savings that I've had for years which always have around 15k in them.
I should have my Util down to 10% by December , so ill try again at that time.
I've had my card for 10 months with a $500 limit. I have put through around $19k on the card over that period so an average of $1900 per month. I have always paid it in full and actually had to make several payments each week in order to run 4 times the limit every month.
They pulled TU which according to my denial letter was 668. They denied me for to high balance to credit ratio. My Util is at 27%. My total CL on all my revolving cards is 41k so my reports show around $11k in revolving debt. Around 6k of that is from a Cap 1 AU account which gets paid in full every month but my sister doesn't pay attention to reporting dates so a balance often gets reported. I have a balance of 4k on my Lowes card that is 36 months at 5.99% for a bathroom remodel, should have that mostly paid off by January.
I understand why they denied me but still a little surprised considering my usage, payment patterns as well as my checking and savings that I've had for years which always have around 15k in them.
I should have my Util down to 10% by December , so ill try again at that time.
that seems strange that they would close the card after unsecuring for a few inquiries. I would try to contact thein executive office and see if you can get someone to reverse the decision and reopen the card.
my card was actually unsecured at month 12 and my limit raised from $500 to $1500. I had quite a few me accounts and inquiries when they unsecured it. Are you sure there wasn't some other factor on your report that may have caused them to closs the account. Did you have a balance when they closed it?
@IWOL wrote:that seems strange that they would close the card after unsecuring for a few inquiries. I would try to contact thein executive office and see if you can get someone to reverse the decision and reopen the card.
my card was actually unsecured at month 12 and my limit raised from $500 to $1500. I had quite a few me accounts and inquiries when they unsecured it. Are you sure there wasn't some other factor on your report that may have caused them to closs the account. Did you have a balance when they closed it?
+1
Inquiries are one of those catchall bugaboo reasons which can't be argued with (or sued over). I suspect there was likely something else which spooked them as well.
@FinStar wrote:
@myjourney wrote:
@IWOL wrote:
Just wanted to post my experience with B of A secured for those of you that might have one or get one in the future. I noticed quite a few posts with people having success in getting their card to unsecure after having it 8 or 9 months.
I've had my card for 10 months with a $500 limit. I have put through around $19k on the card over that period so an average of $1900 per month. I have always paid it in full and actually had to make several payments each week in order to run 4 times the limit every month.
They pulled TU which according to my denial letter was 668. They denied me for to high balance to credit ratio. My Util is at 27%. My total CL on all my revolving cards is 41k so my reports show around $11k in revolving debt. Around 6k of that is from a Cap 1 AU account which gets paid in full every month but my sister doesn't pay attention to reporting dates so a balance often gets reported. I have a balance of 4k on my Lowes card that is 36 months at 5.99% for a bathroom remodel, should have that mostly paid off by January.
I understand why they denied me but still a little surprised considering my usage, payment patterns as well as my checking and savings that I've had for years which always have around 15k in them.
I should have my Util down to 10% by December , so ill try again at that time.Sorry to hear this
Get your UTL down and make a plan with sister to coincide the payment on the AU account and try again
+1
Utilization factors can be killer in most cases. While they can take into consideration your usage and overall relationship, they are also in the business of managing risk. Sending a FB message or going through the reconsideration channel will not change the original decision since the conditions have not changed for unsecuring. Once these factors improve, then you can give it another shot down the road.
+2
Completely agree.
@NoNonsense wrote:
There is something else that is not being told in this story. The first red flag is that when your card went unsecured you didn't receive a substantial CLI, we are talking between 2 or 3 times what you had when secured. That no increase was given is highly unusual. And then, half a year later they only give you a $500 increase? Nope, makes no sense in relation to their usual practices. Something else is going on.
I just want to point this out for the benefit of those considering which secured card to get. BoA is the best, IMO, and you shouldn't let a very unusual, and probably factually incomplete, story take you to a really substandard alternative. There are sub-prime cards out there that are a nightmare, the BoA secured card is one of the good guys.
Actually for secured cards over a certain limit (it may be $2k) BOFA will graduate at the limit. I've had this happen three seperate times to me personally.
The large pop is usually for the $300-500 range folks as I understand it anecdotally from reading this forum.
That said I agree fully that BOFA is the best secured product around and should be looked at by virtually anyone building or rebuilding.