Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 21:50:21 GMT

Hi guys,

I just wanted to add a data point on this in case anyone is thinking of getting this card. I applied for this card May of last year the day after my 341 meeting for my chapter 7 bankruptcy. I was easily approved and I had $300 to put on deposit which became my credit limit and I immediately paid the $35 annual fee. I realized later that it probably was not the greatest idea to do that becuase my discharge had not happened yet and you really are not supposed to apply for anything until after your discharge letter. Luckily, nothing happened in that time and I recieved my discharge letter in July of 2020 with no issues. This card had served me quite well for the last year. It reported to all 3 bureus every month and I always paid it off before the statement would cut.

(A little backstory that you can skip) My goal for this 1st year was to get my credit to a point where I would have 3 credit cards, all unsecured, with no annual fees, and one secured installment loan always running until I decide to buy a new car in a couple years. To start, I got the Open Sky card (secured), then the NFCU nRewards Card (Secured), a SSL through Self Inc, and when available I used the funds in the Self SSL to get the Self Secured Credit Card (again Secured). I am happy to say that my scores have improved from the low-mid 500s to the mid 600s so far working the plan. We are getting closer to the one year mark (July) and I am looking to start getting unsecured cards instead of secured ones. I am happy to say that the NFCU nRewards has graduated to unsecured so I have one already. Discover and Cap One still are not biting on their pre-qual tool on their website. I suspect Cap One is due to me burning them IIB. Discover I don't know why.

(Back to Open Sky) I ended up applying for a Mission Lane card that I got a prequal for in the mail, with no annual fee, and was approved for $1,500 and a possiblilty of a credit limit increase after 6 months. There is the second unsecured card I need! Since the Open Sky card is going to hit the one year mark next month, bringing with it the $35 annual fee, I decided to close it down. I called the customer service number on the card and after about a 10 minute phone tree navigation, and a 20 minute wait on hold, I finally got a human being to talk to. After telling them I wanted to close my account, they offered to waive the $35 fee for this year if I kept the account open. It was tempting, (because it would keep reporting to the bureaus and extend my length of credit accounts,) but I thought that it would be better to nip it in the bud now, rather than having to deal with this process every April when the annual fee is around the corner. Not to mention making the impact on closing the account even worse down the line. When I refused the offer he closed the account, but then told me that it would take 8-10 WEEKS to get the deposited funds back to me in the mail. Good Lord! Now, it's only $300 and I don't need the money immediately or anything, but why in the world would it take 2-3 months to simply cut a check and mail it out? I just laughed and said "Ok, fine." I'll let you all know when I actually recieve it. ;-P

I have kept an eye on myFico to see how this would affect my scores. It looks like thus far I have dropped accross the board 9-12 points and oddly enough, it is being reported as a "paid loan". I suspect that as soon as the Mission lane card starts reporting, it will change again and it will be interesting to see how that affects things. I will keep you all posted as to the changes.

Re: Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey

Anonymous — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 22:16:52 GMT

Great job rebuilding!!!!

Re: Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey

AllZero — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 22:25:06 GMT

Congratulations on your success! Thank you for sharing data points. Good luck on your credit journey.

Re: Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey

jmcmillan — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 23:26:39 GMT

A lot of people dismiss OpenSky, but it's good for what it is. They report timely on all three credit bureaus as "Capital Bank" and it does not report the account as secured. Unfortunately, since it's aimed at people with poor credit, they do hold your payment for several days, and the deposit is held for several weeks after you close the account. Since Capital Bank purchased OpenSky some years ago, it has much better terms than it used to. I really wish they would offer a process to graduate the card with good payment history, but I guess they aren't interested in that.

Re: Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 19:10:42 GMT

Yeah, I wish they graduated too, otherwise I probably would have kept it just like my Navy Fed card. I loved what their product did for me, but it's time to move to the next step of my credit journey.

UPDATE: I just recurved a letter today saying that my account is being closed and I should receive the funds in 3-4 weeks. That sounds much more realistic.

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Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey

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Re: Open Sky Credit Card Data point and my Journey