USAA Secured American Express

[MojaveMoon]

barbaralee:

 Thank you so much for your help!

May I ask four follow-up questions ?

(1) "To answer your questions, unfortunately USAA does not graduate their secured card. They do graduate the classic"

Is there a classic Amex ?

(2) Is the fee for all the USAA secured Amex cards $ 35, or is the fee higher or lower depending on, say, the applicant's credit report ?

(3) For the USAA secured Amex card, can the customer earn points or cash rewards ?

(4) "When you fund the secured be sure you fund it with the amount you are happy with. The money goes into a 2 year CD and while you can add funds to the CD you CANNOT increase the cl."

So at the two year mark, the CD expires but the secured Amex is not expired ? Once the CD expires, how does the money deposited into this particular CD become available -- does USAA send a check, deposit the funds into your checking account, or apply the funds as a credit on your next secured Amex billing statement ?

[barbaralee]

Yes, there is a classic Amex but the classic is not a card you can straight out request, it has to be a counter offer. Classic cards are not as common as the secured and they are not eligible for cash advances or balance transfers, while the secured ones are. Interest on the classic tends to be quite a bit higher as well, secured will always be at 9.9%. 

The AF for both classic and secured is $35 across the board.

No points/rewards for classic and secured and secured is not eligible for at home deposits (the classic is, go figure).

No, at the two year mark the card does expire. As to how the funds are given back I am not 100% sure. It should be sent in the form of a check, or I am sure you could get a hold of the dept. who services the CD itself and ask them to deposit into your acct. If you were to close out your secured acct through CCS we just send an official check. It definitely would not be credited onto your Amex account.

[unlucky_hove]

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@barbaralee wrote:

Yes, there is a classic Amex but the classic is not a card you can straight out request, it has to be a counter offer. Classic cards are not as common as the secured and they are not eligible for cash advances or balance transfers, while the secured ones are. Interest on the classic tends to be quite a bit higher as well, secured will always be at 9.9%. 

The AF for both classic and secured is $35 across the board.

No points/rewards for classic and secured and secured is not eligible for at home deposits (the classic is, go figure).

No, at the two year mark the card does expire. As to how the funds are given back I am not 100% sure. It should be sent in the form of a check, or I am sure you could get a hold of the dept. who services the CD itself and ask them to deposit into your acct. If you were to close out your secured acct through CCS we just send an official check. It definitely would not be credited onto your Amex account.

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Just spoke to a rep at USAA and she told me that at the end of the two year CD maturation date that you could choose to close the account or extend it for another two years. If you are approved for an unsecured card you would basically have both accounts open at the same time........I wish they would give me the history from the secured account would carry over to the unsecured

[p-]

I ws denied over a year ago for the USAA card, so In Jan I wanted to go for the USAA secured, and got this response:

___________________

 Dear Mr. xxxxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your interest in a credit card with USAA. At this time, we do not offer a secured credit card. We continually look for ways to improve our products and services for our members and will share your request with management.

You are welcome to apply for a (Mastercard) or (Amex).

 ____________________

So decided to go with a WF secured card instead, because I could add to the limit, and it had possibility of graduating.  Then, just a few months later I got pre-approval from USAA for the unsecured Amex.  Now I have a 3k USAA Amex rewards with no AF, and a 1,000 secured card with WF that will hopefully graduate in the future.

Did you try calling them to ask for a manual review or reconsideration?  That might help with the denial. 

[barbaralee]

Whoah. That email is crazy. I was working in ccs in January and we definitely did have a secured card then.

Also, manual review won't help. Been down that road many a times with underwriting and I can pretty much tell you ver batim what they say on the issue: "We stick to the system and as of right now the secured card is the best we can offer" etc etc etc. I don't even go to underwriting anymore on recons, tbh.

[MojaveMoon]

Thank you again for your help !

It seems like there could be a hidden benefit to the secured card. When you have two or more credit cards with the same bank and you apply for a credit limit increase, one of the reasons that your request could be turned down is that the bank feels that it's extended to you the maximum amount of credit based on income, credit report, etc.

But if you have both an unsecured USAA card and a secured USAA card and if you apply for a credit limit increase for the unsecured USAA card, I wonder if you're in a better position to be approved for the request because the credit limit for the secured USAA card is based solely on how much money you put into the CD.

[p-]

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@barbaralee wrote:

Whoah. That email is crazy. I was working in ccs in January and we definitely did have a secured card then.

Also, manual review won't help. Been down that road many a times with underwriting and I can pretty much tell you ver batim what they say on the issue: "We stick to the system and as of right now the secured card is the best we can offer" etc etc etc. I don't even go to underwriting anymore on recons, tbh.

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Weird, huh?  Worked out ok I guess because they ended up pre-approving me for an unsecured card.

[Anonymous]

    Hi.. I am in the military, and currently wish to work on my credit to get it to where I will be able to sufficiently provide for my family.

I don't make a lot of money..( roughly 4k pr mo..). However; I would like to obtain an Am Exp card. I have one through UsAA.. ,but wish to obtain it directly from AmExp..

I am not credit worthy of it presently. What is a sufficient, quick and easy way to get it taken care of so I might even be considered as a candidate for the card?

 Benjamin

[p-]

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@Anonymous wrote:

    Hi.. I am in the military, and currently wish to work on my credit to get it to where I will be able to sufficiently provide for my family.

I don't make a lot of money..( roughly 4k pr mo..). However; I would like to obtain an Am Exp card. I have one through UsAA.. ,but wish to obtain it directly from AmExp..

I am not credit worthy of it presently. What is a sufficient, quick and easy way to get it taken care of so I might even be considered as a candidate for the card?

 Benjamin

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Depends on what is holding your credit back - The best thing to do is spend a little time reading up on the boards here, and find out how to remove bad marks, and add good ones,   

Have you pulled your credit report recently?  You can do it once a year for free at annualcreditreport.com, or USAA has a 12.25 a month service that includes a plus score.  If you need your FICO you can get it here.

Step one is find out what, if anything, is on your report...

[flyingmd]

I too got the same email. From my understanding with CS that the secured products are only available to military memberships. So if u are a member of USAA but not military or military family then you aren't eligible for their secured products or certain insurance products. Anybody hear something similar?