topic Re: BoA and WF secured cards... in Credit Cards

BoA and WF secured cards...

IneedAlotOfHelp — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:56:08 GMT

Hey guys,

I am going to be applying for 2 secured cards, one for Bank of America

and another to Wells Fargo and I have a quick question about a CLI.

If I start with a low CL, say $1000 each now, could I increase it them

both to $3,000 in a few months if I just deposit more into the accounts?

Thanks!

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

RobertEG — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:25:29 GMT

Probably not. CLIs that are initiated solely by the creditor, without your request, are slow, and totally at their discretion. Secured cards dont grant many CLIs on their own intiative.

If you request a CLI by communication with them, they can consider it a request for the extension of credit,and post a hard inquiry to your CR.

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

Red22 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:50:22 GMT

Yes. With BofA you can increase your secured credit limit by going inside the your BofA branch or if you have an account with them, you can deposit the funds into your account and call the 800 number on your statement and request a CLI. Usually takes about 3-5 days to post.

Note: I have this CC and this is what works for me. Sure it will work for you. I increase my CL every month $200.00 since March 09.

I don't have any info. about Wells Fardo Secured CC. Maybe someone else will respond!

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

Tons_of_Debt — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:38:43 GMT

Yes for BofA. I started out with a $300 card and increased gradually to $1000 over the 9 months it was secured. I think it was $500 until month 7, then I bumped it to $1000 because I wanted a higher CLI once it went unsecured.

Once BofA unsecures you, you'll keep your CL and get an extra $500 added to it. That being said... wouldn't be a bad thing to pump some cash into it around 7 months just for the higher CLI.

FYI, I paid in full every month and made sure my balance was never too high when it did post. I did this by making several payments during the month.

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:41:31 GMT

Hmmmm, I have a Citi secured card now and i dont think i can do that. I want to keep it, because with time it graduates. Im a BOA member and Wells Fargo also seems pretty nice. i might do that, just keep adding money but bever really charge to much and when it graduates, just put that money into my high yield savings account

So yeah, not a bad idea at all. And your money is already growing interest as we speak.

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

clocktick — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:05:57 GMT

With BOA you can increase your limit all the way up to $10,000 as long as it's in increments of $100. I did this about 3 weeks ago. You can do it right over the phone if you have an account with them. They just did a transfer from my checking to the secured account and it took 3 business days. I'm not sure if you can do it over the phone with them if you do not have accounts with them though.

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

IneedAlotOfHelp — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:11:18 GMT

Please excuse my ignorance here but...

Does this mean if I request a CLI every month

that would significantly decrease my util and

give me many boosts in my report?

If they report back saying that my limits are

increasing, and I keep the balances around

the 10% mark on each, would that not be a

huge bump in my score every time I request

a CLI and deposit more into those accounts?

Again, please forgive my ignorance if that is

only the case with unsecured... I'm treading

unchartered waters here haha!

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

IneedAlotOfHelp — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:16:00 GMT

Little bump

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:46:38 GMT

IneedAlotOfHelp wrote:

Please excuse my ignorance here but...

Does this mean if I request a CLI every month that would significantly decrease my util and give me many boosts in my report?

If they report back saying that my limits are increasing, and I keep the balances around the 10% mark on each, would that not be a huge bump in my score every time I request a CLI and deposit more into those accounts?

Again, please forgive my ignorance if that is only the case with unsecured... I'm treading unchartered waters here haha!

Hi, welcome to the forums!

Increasing total CL while maintaining the same balances can definitely help your scores. Whether it would be huge, and especially whether it would be huge every time, would depend on how much of a util change would result, and whether it would go from one level to another. For instance, you might not get a score change to go from 21% to 20%, but you might if you went from 20% to 19%.

And you can't expect your CCC's to increase your CL's every month. If anything, it would probably draw unfavorable attention to all your accounts, not just the one you have with a particular lender. If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, think of that giant red eye in Mordor suddenly coming alert and starting to search.

Your best bet is to not have balances, even at 10%. There's just no reason on earth to give interest money to lenders if you can pay off your balances. If you're trying to milk every last point for your scores, you would probably do better to have one card report a tiny amount (and then immediately pay it off), but that's just to amuse the FICO scoring gods. In this day and age, util under 1% is best for your scores, and for your finances.

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

IneedAlotOfHelp — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:26:51 GMT

Thanks

What I'd probably end up doing is getting 2 cards from

different banks (if approved) and get limits of $1,000 at

first... Leave it be and PIF every month. Then every 3-4

months add a couple grand to each.

So like, month 1 = $1000/per, month 4 = $3000/per

month 7 = $5,000/per month 10 $7,000/per.

I wouldn't do it every month, just wondering if that was

possible.

Would that be "ok" to do or would that still bring unfavorable

attention to my accounts? And with CLI's, do they hard pull

or soft pull on those?

Thanks!

Re: BoA and WF secured cards...

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:40:01 GMT

The credit money tree has pretty bare branches these days. But I have seen posts about some lenders who do give CLI's every three months, so you can always try to give the tree a shake.

If you want to do this, I would research to find the most likely lenders, including what kind of activity they would want to see from you to put you on the CLI list. And then, I would get my util down very, very low. Lenders aren't dumb, and they know why consumers keep requesting CLI's when they're not reducing balances.

I have to say that I'm not terribly optimistic. It's a whole different credit world out there these days.