topic Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice? in Credit Cards

Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:00:32 GMT

Hello Everyone and Happy Holidays

Is Citi Financial secured credit cards a good choice... the other two I have heard that are good are First National and BOA.

I already have one CC in excellent standing and want to get a secured CC. I have been thinking of getting one from CIti because I read that if you pay on time in 18 months you would qualify for one of their unsecured
CC's. Any information would be appreciated... Thanks

Strong

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:05:19 GMT

I personally like bofa, expecially if you can get the 99/500, also they graduate 6-9 mo. sooner than citi.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:11:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I personally like bofa, expecially if you can get the 99/500, also they graduate 6-9 mo. sooner than citi.

Oh wow.. that is sooner I had no idea... what is 99/500? Do they do a credit check on secured CC's

Does it really matter how much I put in my CC, someone told me I should put as much as I can like if the min is 200 and the max is 1,000 put alot down towards the max so that it will look better on my credit report? Is this true?

Thanks

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:44:12 GMT

BofA usually graduates at 9 months, at which time you could maybe qualify for an unsecured Citi. The 99/500 is a card that some people get offered as a counter offer online when turned down for the platinum plus visa. Your counter offer will be either a partially secured visa (99/500) which means you pay $99 and get $500 credit, or a completely secured card.

As for the amount to secure your card at, of course it is nice if you can put $1000 down for your secured line, but it isnt necessary. You can open a line with $200, it is just harder to manage and keep at a low utility.

good luck, hope you get a 99/500 offer, I just got mine a few weeks ago and love it!

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:01:47 GMT

I recommend BOA secured also. They will hard you on EX and TU if you are borderline.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:05:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
BofA usually graduates at 9 months, at which time you could maybe qualify for an unsecured Citi. The 99/500 is a card that some people get offered as a counter offer online when turned down for the platinum plus visa. Your counter offer will be either a partially secured visa (99/500) which means you pay $99 and get $500 credit, or a completely secured card.

As for the amount to secure your card at, of course it is nice if you can put $1000 down for your secured line, but it isnt necessary. You can open a line with $200, it is just harder to manage and keep at a low utility.

good luck, hope you get a 99/500 offer, I just got mine a few weeks ago and love it!

Fender

Hi.... I cant find a partially secured visa card application on the website.. do you have to apply for the platinum visa first?

Thanks

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:09:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I recommend BOA secured also. They will hard you on EX and TU if you are borderline.

What do you mean when you say that "they will hard you on EX and TU if you are borderline"

Thanks

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:27:45 GMT

Yes you must first apply for the platinum plus visa, if you are declined they will counter offer partially secured or fully secured.

I think the other guy meant you will have one hard inquiry, and maybe a second hard inquiry if your credit is low. I think I got one hit on two reports.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:47:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I recommend BOA secured also. They will hard you on EX and TU if you are borderline.

What do you mean when you say that "they will hard you on EX and TU if you are borderline"

Thanks

BOA is a pretty notorious EX puller. If they pull your EX and they consider you to be a borderline approval per their criteria, sometimes they will also hard pull TU.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:00:48 GMT

I asked this question when I first started out, and people told me that Citi takes 18 months to unsecure. I too recommend either BoA or your own bank/CU if they offer a secured card. (It makes payments easier that way!)

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

anca21bi — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:09:07 GMT

What is the minimum FICO to get approved for the 99/500 or any credit line with BOA.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:59:32 GMT

I got it with a 600 flat, which was kind of shocking.. usually they want a bit higher from what ive seen, I just got mine a few weeks ago.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:59:50 GMT

@anca21bi wrote:
What is the minimum FICO to get approved for the 99/500 or any credit line with BOA.

Anca

Thats a great question.. I am curious also.

Tisha

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:09:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I recommend BOA secured also. They will hard you on EX and TU if you are borderline.

I am borderline..lol... I think I should wait for a while and bring up my score by getting some PFD's successfully done. I have not checked my FIco score yet but I know for a fact that I am probulary in the early 400 range (Yikes) since I went through a time period in which I did not do any PFD's.

So should I just wait or risk the hard inquiry and pay on time to get the unsecured CC?

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:58:04 GMT

If you are low 400's BofA probably wont give you a secured card, you need to get some stuff cleaned up and try to get an orchard card and start getting some good history, go try the orchard pre-approval so you wont get a hard pull and see if you qualify for anything. You might want to consider a secured with them but it will never graduate. Also check out Crown Jewlers, do a search for it here, it can really help. I was 468 fico when I came here and now im at 600. With alot of work and alot of stamps you can get that score up and have prime cards before ya know it.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:47:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If you are low 400's BofA probably wont give you a secured card, you need to get some stuff cleaned up and try to get an orchard card and start getting some good history, go try the orchard pre-approval so you wont get a hard pull and see if you qualify for anything. You might want to consider a secured with them but it will never graduate. Also check out Crown Jewlers, do a search for it here, it can really help. I was 468 fico when I came here and now im at 600. With alot of work and alot of stamps you can get that score up and have prime cards before ya know it.

Fender

I already have a Orchard bank CC so Im just going to clean up my credit like you said and I am doing right now anyway. I will check for Crown Jewlers like you said, hope I get lucky. You are doing a great job to jump to 600 in less than a year. I just purchased alot of stamps and printing paper and ink for my fax to fax and mail these PFD and whatever else needs to be done... Thanks

Strong

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:53:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
If you are low 400's BofA probably wont give you a secured card, you need to get some stuff cleaned up and try to get an orchard card and start getting some good history, go try the orchard pre-approval so you wont get a hard pull and see if you qualify for anything. You might want to consider a secured with them but it will never graduate. Also check out Crown Jewlers, do a search for it here, it can really help. I was 468 fico when I came here and now im at 600. With alot of work and alot of stamps you can get that score up and have prime cards before ya know it.
Fender

I already have a Orchard bank CC so Im just going to clean up my credit like you said and I am doing right now anyway. I will check for Crown Jewlers like you said, hope I get lucky. You are doing a great job to jump to 600 in less than a year. I just purchased alot of stamps and printing paper and ink for my fax to fax and mail these PFD and whatever else needs to be done... Thanks

Strong

I went on the Crown Jewlers website and filled out the application and they had posted that they do no credit check... they will get back to me in 24 hours considering its the holidays I might not hear a response until Friday or Monday. I will let you know what happens

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:15:25 GMT

crown jewlers is a guaranteed $2500 approval, the only downside is you have to purchase something before they will report.. So you have to decide if you want to spend the $30 or so to get the line.. it will help your credit.

Re: Is Citi a excellent Secured Credit Card Choice?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:52:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
crown jewlers is a guaranteed $2500 approval, the only downside is you have to purchase something before they will report.. So you have to decide if you want to spend the $30 or so to get the line.. it will help your credit.

Im not a big jewelry fan either but I do need a necklace.lol... and I really need for my credit to improve. Me and my best friend want to go into the flipping home business in about 2 years. Wish me Luck and thanks for the information.

Strong