I have a Secured Cap1 card, it became partially unsecured about a year or two ago. Current limit is 500. The TL is about 3 years old, paid in full every month if I do charge anything to it. Would I see a bump in my credit score at all if I added another 500 or even more deposit to the card? Only other credit line I have is a small 300 secured US Bank card as well which I have had for 1 year. Same thing, paid in full every month.
Every tax return season I like to take a small chunk and do something that may help improve my scores. Currently at 677. I've also thought about getting a simple credit rebuilder loan from my credit union against my savings to just pay on for a year or less just to have another paid in full TL.
Am I wasting my time increasing a secured credit card TL? Thanks!
With two TLs of a year and about three years and a score of 677 (where did you get the score?) then you should be able to get an unsecured credit card without an issue. I would go that route rather than sinking more money into the secured card.
Score is a Fico score from the website here. I cant quite get a fully unsecured credit card yet. At one point in time i had nearly 15 unpaid judgements and tax lien and a bank still wont offer me a fully unsecured card. Unless I want to pay the outrageous setup fees and such which is money completely wasted.
I didnt know if a bump to my longest TL to a 1000, 2000, or so woudl provide enough to help me land a unsecured card perhaps sooner. Thanksfully the negatives have started to finally hit the mark and begin to come off, in the next year it should all be off my credit report.
Getting closer to a complete clean slate. 
Or do I need to look at a card that positively graduates after a period of time? Cap1 doesnt graduate and I dont know if US bank does or doesnt. I could always email them and find out. I have heard that Bank of American does graduate. Would that be a better route to go than just raising credit limits on my current 2 secured credit cards?
Yes, BofA does graduate, so that is always an option. Cap one doesn't that I've ever heard of. Still, I wouldn't take yourself out of the running for an unsecured card, especially if all those baddies are old enough that they will fall off this year. I had 10 unpaid collections on my report when I got my Cap1 Quicksilver One.
I attempted about 6 months ago for a unsecured Cap1 card and denied. I also tried US Bank a year ago, denied, MY UTL's are 0-5% at the most i'd say. So I just picked up a simple $300 secured card with US Bank at that time. I just cant get approved for them yet unless I go a crappy First Premier route or something.
So while I wait for the rest of the old crud to come off I just want to know if a large increase to one of my secured cards would offer any benefits to my score and how banks view me in the next year. If a $2,000 Secured card makes any difference than a $500 secured card even if the UTL is still nothing. Or If adding a 3rd card that positively graduates would be the best route.
If you are going the secured card route, definitely go for one that graduates (if you can help it). The new TL will drop your AAoA a little bit. Or, like you said, you can dump additional funds into an existing card which will save an inquiry and AAoA. If you have low util and PIF every month, I don't know if the extra credit will make a difference to your score, but lenders are usually more comfortable issuing decent credit lines to people that already have them.
MSFN12555 thank you for your help answering so far.
I'd like to go a route that would benefit my scores one way or another. What route that is--- I just wish I knew. Like you said, adding more deposit to a card may not do anything. Adding a 3rd card would probably result in a very minimal drop due to the inquiry but would it help over the course of the next year? If BoA graduates a smart thing for me to do maybe is to get a 1000-2000 card with them and once it graduates It should add a huge bump to my scores I'd think and provide me with a unsecured card.
I assume they graduate probably after a year. If sooner there would be no doubt i'd give that a shot. If its a year than I start to question if its worth it since in the next year I should be completely cleared up of negative information and shouldn't have a problem being accepted for a unsecured card.
@meehan22 wrote:MSFN12555 thank you for your help answering so far.
I'd like to go a route that would benefit my scores one way or another. What route that is--- I just wish I knew.
I assume they graduate probably after a year. If sooner there would be no doubt i'd give that a shot. If its a year than I start to question if its worth it since in the next year I should be completely cleared up of negative information and shouldn't have a problem being accepted for a unsecured card.
The card being secured vs unsecured won't make a difference on your score, so the graduation won't change anything. Like the other poster said, you could always just continue to take care of the two cards you have. Once your baddies are all off, you'll be well positioned for some good cards i would think.