topic Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D in Credit Cards

Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:34:05 GMT

Hey guys, I decided to get two secured credit cards. I current have two unsecured credit cards but credit limit is very low.

I have 10k to create two secured cards. (5k and 5k)

I am looking into BOA, CITI, and Union Bank.

My credit score is 603 ex. Free credit report says my FACO score is 554. xD

BOA secured credit card.

Last thing I want is that getting rejected on secured credit card application. As far as I am aware of it, I thought i deposit 5k into savings and get a credit limit of 5k.

Has anyone been rejected from BOA secured credit card? and why?

CITI secured credit card

I read it somewhere on here that if you have any negative credit history, they won't approve you for secured credit card. Is this true? I want to see if there's anyone who has a citi secured credit card with a negative history.

Union Bank

I've never had any accounts (checking and savings) with them before. Tell me something about this bank. I have no clue about them. Only thing i know is that they have a secured credit card for its bank customers. If you know something about their secured credit card please let me know

Thank you for your time.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

llecs — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:17:05 GMT

BearInTrouble wrote:

BOA secured credit card.
Last thing I want is that getting rejected on secured credit card application. As far as I am aware of it, I thought i deposit 5k into savings and get a credit limit of 5k.
Has anyone been rejected from BOA secured credit card? and why?

I was turned down for a fully secured BofA about 4 years ago. Got hit with two inquiries: one for the savings opening and the other for the CC. EX FICO at the time was around 580, IIRC (back in the day when we could pull our EX FICO). Denied due to low score, baddies reporting, etc. Focused on repair and in three months EX FICO hit 660 and was denied for an unsecured CC. Offered a partially secured counter-offer which I took.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:33:57 GMT

Hmm. My credit score is bit low 603. I have 4 negative credit history and I am not sure if i am ready to apply for BOA seucred credit card. I use BOA debt card on everyday spendings. Do you think banking with BOA for 8 years will help their decision making?

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:54:38 GMT

I am interested on the Citi also but scared to get denied. Gd luck

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Creditdreamer — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:28:48 GMT

I got denied for BoA because of my 7500 unpaid collection with Citi which I'm currently paying on. They said reapply when it's paid.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Open123 — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:04:36 GMT

B of A - In my view, the best secured card assuming you'd qualify. No major derogs, recent COs, or BKs will lead to a likely approval with your score. This is the only card on your list assured to fully graduate (most likely with CLI) after 12 months assuming no lates or over the limit charges.

Citi - Good secured and competitive rate on an 18 month CD. Takes 18 months to graduate, but will likley graduate.

Union Bank - Their CC program doesn't seem to be a priority. Not much is known about how they handle secured cards. I think you're better off with secured cards that list out the terms of what is required to graduate.

In my view, I'd go with BofA and Citi. I'd leave Union Bank to...well...small deposit accounts.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

LS2982 — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:28:26 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
B of A - In my view, the best secured card assuming you'd qualify. No major derogs, recent COs, or BKs will lead to a likely approval with your score. This is the only card on your list assured to fully graduate (most likely with CLI) after 12 months assuming no lates or over the limit charges.

Citi - Good secured and competitive rate on an 18 month CD. Takes 18 months to graduate, but will likley graduate.

Union Bank - Their CC program doesn't seem to be a priority. Not much is known about how they handle secured cards. I think you're better off with secured cards that list out the terms of what is required to graduate.

In my view, I'd go with BofA and Citi. I'd leave Union Bank to...well...small deposit accounts.

Go for BofA.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:54:23 GMT

I agree with you. I am not so sure about Union Bank's Secured CC. Now it's either Bank of america or Citi. Would it look bad on my credit report if I apply for it both in the same month? Or open BOA one this month and apply for CITI three months late?

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:58:25 GMT

Personally speaking, I had one of the worst credit in history and now my credit is one of the best out there. I only had one unsecured credit card with only $300 limit on it from Aspire Card and I stayed with them for two years and I kept asking them for an increase every six months... (mod cut) Six months later, I went and applied for a Bank of America unsecured visa card and I got approve instantly for $11,000. From that point on, my credit has gotten better and better and I started applying for different credit cards and now I have 7 major credit cards in total. My point is, if you already have two unsecured credit card then that's all you need to fix your credit. You don't really need to get the secured credit card as you stated. Just keep paying on time and always ask for an increase every six months...

Note: liciousdg, I realize that you're a relatively new member. We ask everyone to read the Terms of Service and User Guidelines when they join. It is against the TOS and UG to advocate disputing legitimate negatives --in other words, negatives that you know are correct, even if you'd rather they not be there.

Please refrain from doing this in the future.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

cashnocredit — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:20:42 GMT

I got a Citi secured card on a thin file with some CAs and a tax lien. They were over 3 years old though and I also had two good lines but they were only open about 6 months. After 18 months Citi unsecured the card.

At the time I think my FICO was around 640. I've heard Citi is more sensitive about recent baddies but they clearly allow some as long as they are older.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Revelate — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:59:04 GMT

@cashnocredit wrote:
I got a Citi secured card on a thin file with some CAs and a tax lien. They were over 3 years old though and I also had two good lines but they were only open about 6 months. After 18 months Citi unsecured the card.

At the time I think my FICO was around 640. I've heard Citi is more sensitive about recent baddies but they clearly allow some as long as they are older.

I've gotten BOA secured cards before with a tax lien, and no positive tradelines. Most recently, tax lien, a few 30 day lates on an old BOFA card, and an open / unpaid collection under a year old (only 193 bucks but...). EX FICO under 600 for certain.

I've banked with them for more than a decade, it probably helped some.

Personally any trouble with the BOFA secured product has been completely my fault, it really is one of the best out there and has been for years.

If you open up 2, do both right now, don't stretch out the inquiries to try to save short-term FICO score damage, plan for the long term and get the new tradelines aging immediately.

That all said, I'd look at the rest of my report before tying up 10K worth of cash on secured cards.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:07:17 GMT

Yeah, Ive been with bank of america for past 8 years. I am hoping that it will help.

SO what you (Revelate) is saying is that you think i should open it up NOW for 10k? But bank of america secured credit card max credit line is 5k. open two seucred credit cards from bank of amreica? xD I was thinking maybe open one bank of america secured credit card now and three months later and open up 5k citi bank seucred card. what do you think about that?

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Revelate — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:12:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, Ive been with bank of america for past 8 years. I am hoping that it will help.
SO what you (Revelate) is saying is that you think i should open it up NOW for 10k? But bank of america secured credit card max credit line is 5k. open two seucred credit cards from bank of amreica? xD I was thinking maybe open one bank of america secured credit card now and three months later and open up 5k citi bank seucred card. what do you think about that?

I probably mistyped something: open the BOFA, *and* the Citi cards at the same time. 5K each if your'e going that route. 2 BOFA secured cards at one time, no for a whole lot of reasons.

Generally speaking for FICO scoring, if you want a tradeline, you're better off establishing it the earlier the better. In this case since you don't really need the cards, and you're just trying to fudge CL's for the future, get them open ASAP if that's the game plan.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:22:46 GMT

I agree with you Revelate. My credit score is 603. FACO score is 554. It's not great. I currently hired a law firm to remove some of my negative stuff. I currently have 4 negative items and 1 fail to pay. Which at least 2 of CO will get removed and hopefully one fail to pay. I am not sure if i should wait and see what happens there or just go ahead and apply for it. If i decided to wait, I need to wait at least 50 days or so. xD

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

clocktick — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:06:26 GMT

I had a $10k secured card from BOA so I'm not sure if they lowered the limit or not. I was/am also a customer for years before applying for the card. To help with my credit, I applied for another secured card through a local credit union. The downside to the latter was they only reported to EX I believe. I would check to make sure the one you choose reports to all 3! BOA of did.

Re: Secured Credit Card Questions. If you have one, you can answer my questions for me :D

Revelate — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:37:49 GMT

@clocktick wrote:
I had a $10k secured card from BOA so I'm not sure if they lowered the limit or not. I was/am also a customer for years before applying for the card. To help with my credit, I applied for another secured card through a local credit union. The downside to the latter was they only reported to EX I believe. I would check to make sure the one you choose reports to all 3! BOA of did.

Yeah, that's a recurring issue with some cards from credit unions. The secured CC from a CU that I took I asked a current holder here on the forum and he confirmed that it reported to all three. We'll see when it finally goes on the report whether it's just EQ or all three.

Experian only isn't a bad deal for reporting if you live out west; pretty much everyone pulls EX for me in Cali. I have a personal loan which only reports to EX, but when I realized that all mortgage applications, and pretty much every prime card I think I'll eventually want (assuming the rewards structures stay relatively similar in the future) all likewise pull EX... so it's not a huge penalty. It could be worse after all, it could be reporting to TU only