General Credit Topics

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if i get this orchard bank secured card will this look as a secured card on my CR or will it look like an unsecured CC,,,,and if I put 5k on that will that show as my unused balance???

[Noah_Bodie]

Secured or unsecured, there will be no difference on your CRs.

[Boswd]

It will appear as secured but it doesn't matter score why.   By putting down $5,000 your high credit limit will boost you score by having low utilization.

By reading some of your post and after getting rejected by Orchard Bank unsecured,  I would just go this route of getting the unsecured card.   There may be some other cards out there that would approve you for an unsecured card but the credit limits will be low and more than likely will be buried in fees making it a money pit of a card.  

Start with the secured card, use it wisely, and  probably in a year or less better offers will be coming in.   Also if you haven't applied yet for the Orchard check out Bank of America's secured card, it has a lower annual fee.   But Orchard Bank or BoA  you can't lose.   Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

[Boswd]

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Boswd wrote:

It will appear as secured but it doesn't matter score why.   By putting down $5,000 your high credit limit will boost you score by having low utilization.

By reading some of your post and after getting rejected by Orchard Bank unsecured,  I would just go this route of getting the unsecured card.   There may be some other cards out there that would approve you for an unsecured card but the credit limits will be low and more than likely will be buried in fees making it a money pit of a card.  

Start with the secured card, use it wisely, and  probably in a year or less better offers will be coming in.   Also if you haven't applied yet for the Orchard check out Bank of America's secured card, it has a lower annual fee.   But Orchard Bank or BoA  you can't lose.   Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

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some edits, ok I haven't had my coffee yet.  

I meant to say " I would just go this route of getting a secured card"  and " it doesn't matter score wise.

[UnderEstimated]

Exactly, it might list as a "secured" card, but it has no impact on your score.  It's all about how wisely you use that card.

[ALEXREDD]

Go with BoA secured. 

I had Orchard secured for 19 months with perfect pay record.  My FICOs came up about 75 points in that same time frame. 

No matter who I talked to, cried to, wrote to, or threatened, they would not graduate me to an unsecured card.

This was why I started posting here.  I wanted to see if anyone had ever been graduated from secured to unsecured with Orchard.  The answer was no.  Not one person has ever been graduated from a secured Orchard to an unsecured Orchard.  And no CLI.  Again, this is regarding the SECURED Orchard card.

If you get the secured BofA in a year, year and a half you'll get graduated, cli, etc.

If you get a secured Orchard, in a year, year and half, you'll have a 200 cl and it will still be secured.

[Noah_Bodie]

The issuer of the CC is more likely to drawn attention as either subprime or secured, and that would only count on a manual credit review. If asked, you could probably buffalo your way thru the question. "Yes, I had credit challenges in the past, but Card X issued to me when no one else would, and they've been good to me." Shows customer loyalty, and that tends to look VERY good on a manual review.

Cap One's extensive advertising places them on everyone's lips. As such, many might consider them "mainstream" or even prime. Right up with the same respectability as Chase, CITI, WAMU, BOA, etc.

Orchard, Centennial, HSBC, and others might be unsecured CCs, but many will associate them readily with subprime or secured.