topic Re: Upgrade Visa in Credit Cards

Upgrade Visa

ecxpa — Mon, 18 May 2020 04:22:45 GMT

Anybody ever heard of this creature; seems like it is a line of credit card that morphs your balances into a loan set up with regular payments; not sure I understand the benefit of having such a card.....just curious, I got a "pre-approval" on Credit Karma

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Mon, 18 May 2020 04:26:13 GMT

No. But the apr sounds humongous. You're better off getting a debt consolidation loan from a credit union, if you are carrying debt on credit cards.

Re: Upgrade Visa

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Mon, 18 May 2020 05:32:13 GMT

I'm curious about this card. It's supposed to take your ending balance and convert it to an installment loan. Great idea for a large emergency purchase, but does it create a new loan on your report?

Re: Upgrade Visa

ecxpa — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:16:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No. But the apr sounds humongous. You're better off getting a debt consolidation loan from a credit union, if you are carrying debt on credit cards.

Not looking for debt consolidation but you are right ................looks like Credit One rates to me....not sure if rates vary during the payoff.

Re: Upgrade Visa

ecxpa — Wed, 20 May 2020 22:17:15 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
I'm curious about this card. It's supposed to take your ending balance and convert it to an installment loan. Great idea for a large emergency purchase, but does it create a new loan on your report?

Not sure....it just appeared on my CK as a pre-approval. According to website you can use it like a regular Visa card for purchases and send yourself cash advances as I understand it. Not sure exactly how it works...whether each month's charges become a separate item or not nor how it is reported. It sort of looks like a line of credit with fixed payments rather than varying payments based on your balance like a regular credit card does.................I just don't know.

Re: Upgrade Visa

M_Smart007 — Mon, 18 May 2020 15:44:30 GMT

Make sure to go over the very fine print.

Re: Upgrade Visa

ecxpa — Tue, 19 May 2020 06:09:52 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
Make sure to go over the very fine print.

Can't find a lot about this card......just wondering if this may be the new credit card of the future, will other lenders follow suit and come out with similar products. Citi already has what they call a flex loan program where you take out a loan against your credit line and pay it separate from your monthly credit card bill......the interest on the flex loan I think is lower than your credit card interest. I haven't used it so there's probably a lot I don't know about it

Re: Upgrade Visa

SweetCreditObsession — Tue, 19 May 2020 07:26:26 GMT

This showed up as option for me on Experian's Credit Match. You're right.. I couldn't see any benefit either. You're better off to pass on it.

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 08:16:09 GMT

It allows you to draw amounts off to your checking account to use as a you wish as well as using it like a regular credit card and with fixed repayment terms like a personal loan for each group of transactions you make in a cycle. It's an interesting idea but unless you need it for constant quick cash infusions with no fees and you get APR on the lower side, it's a bit limited in usefulness.

ETA: Actually this looks more interesting as I read about it. "In practice, a credit line works the same as a traditional limit issued by a credit card, but it is quite different when it comes to credit bureau reporting. Upgrade Card reports its line of credit more similar to a personal loan than a revolving credit card account.

As a result, the balance on your Upgrade Card doesn't get counted toward your debt utilization ratio, a significant factor in determining your credit score."

https://www.cardratings.com/credit-card/upgrade-card.html

They are apparently talking about adding rewards for paying off your installments too.

ETA2: This line of credit is backed by Cross River Bank. If this is actually reporting as a personal loan, you may end up with a CFA ding for it. Cross River Bank is not actually a regular bank, they specialize exclusively in fintech servicing. https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2019/12/17/the-forbes-investigation-inside-the-secret-bank-behind-the-fintech-boom/#4320cded3c10

Re: Upgrade Visa

BamBam2000 — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:01:48 GMT

So I wonder if I take the card with the limit they offered (15,000) and I don't use it will it increase my overall available limit and then decrease my utilization?

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:03:09 GMT

@BamBam2000 wrote:
So I wonder if I take the card with the limit they offered (15,000) and I don't use it will it increase my overall available limit and then decrease my utilization?

It doesn't look like it if the website I linked is to be believed that it doesn't report like a credit card.

Re: Upgrade Visa

BamBam2000 — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:10:41 GMT

Then it must report as a loan, but it's a visa card?

Re: Upgrade Visa

BamBam2000 — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:12:43 GMT

I'll just wait until somebody else tries it. Not feeling like pioneering today. Finally got my EQ and TU to 702 and 701. EX is still a bastard out of Carolina at 666....devil number!

Re: Upgrade Visa

kilroy8 — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:15:44 GMT

Looks like a predatory lender to me.

Reach higher, if you can.

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:34:09 GMT

@BamBam2000 wrote:
Then it must report as a loan, but it's a visa card?

It works like a loan though. Every month your charges are converted into an installment plan. It doesn't surprise me that it reports differently.

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Wed, 20 May 2020 01:38:32 GMT

@kilroy8 wrote:
Looks like a predatory lender to me.

Reach higher, if you can.

What looks predatory? APR can be high if your credit warrants it but BBVA has the same top end and nobody has ever gotten it that I know of.

The way this card is designed you cannot get into endless debt because the minimum payment is a fixed installment every month and your interest will always be less than it would be paying minimum on a credit card.

It actually doesn't seem like a bad deal but people need to beware that it works like an installment loan and not a credit card - that means no fees or variable APR once transactions are converted to a plan but also no grace period so you cannot use the card and not pay interest.

Since I don't pay interest and I don't need cash advances, it's not a good fit for me but if I do decide to go for a PLOC, this hybrid product would be appealing since it doesn't count against revolving utilization.

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2020 17:07:10 GMT

I reached out to their customer service a few months back about how it would report. I was told it would report to the credit Bureaus as an installment loan.

Re: Upgrade Visa

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2020 17:31:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I reached out to their customer service a few months back about how it would report. I was told it would report to the credit Bureaus as an installment loan.

Thanks. I was wondering if that was the case. If it reports an an installment loan that sinks my SSL so I definitely won't get this product now.

Re: Upgrade Visa

atxtyson — Fri, 22 May 2020 18:31:08 GMT

I wish I had done more research before I got it.

It reports as an installment but it's kinda cool if you want to make a purchase and spread it out over payments.

I put like $57 at target on it, thinking it would report as a credit card and then it rolled over to statement trying to split the payments over 12 months or so. I just paid it off. The worst part with Upgrade is they report to all the CR's your affected by natural disaster even if you never asked for help. They said they did this cause FEMA declared it for my area... not cool. I'm fighting for them to take it off my report.

I see no use for this card other than to have it in case you need it one day. It doesnt report you full credit line to the report just when you use it for an installment.

Re: Upgrade Visa

K-in-Boston — Fri, 22 May 2020 19:01:16 GMT

@atxtyson wrote:
I wish I had done more research before I got it.

It reports as an installment but it's kinda cool if you want to make a purchase and spread it out over payments.

I put like $57 at target on it, thinking it would report as a credit card and then it rolled over to statement trying to split the payments over 12 months or so. I just paid it off. The worst part with Upgrade is they report to all the CR's your affected by natural disaster even if you never asked for help. They said they did this cause FEMA declared it for my area... not cool. I'm fighting for them to take it off my report.

I see no use for this card other than to have it in case you need it one day. It doesnt report you full credit line to the report just when you use it for an installment.

This is not affecting you in any way and numerous lenders currently report this. Disputing factual information (which this is, unless you are a resident of American Samoa which thus far has no reported cases) always has the potential to go sideways; I'd just leave it be. It's been on my reports since March, and has appeared several times over the years during major weather events for me.