topic Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best? in Credit Cards

Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:18:04 GMT

I am trying to find a good secured credit card to rebuild my scores, but all of the best ones that I find seem to require you to open a bank account. So, the three that I have found that seem to be the best contenders for me personally are as follows:

BankAmericard Fully Secured Visa
Orchard Bank Secured Mastercard
First Progress Platinum Secured Mastercard

I know that Capital One Secured Card is #1 right now, but seeing as to how it is the next debt on my report that I need to pay off, I don't think that they will approve me. ha. Anyway. Obviously I am just terrified of making the wrong decision, so I want to hear/read personal reviews regarding these before I make any decisions. Do you (or anyone you know) have any good or bad experience with any of the three that I have listed? Good/bad customer service? Did/didn't report monthly? Any advice is good advice. Thanks!

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Revelate — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:49:47 GMT

Heh, I certainly don't consider Cap One to be the best secured card, but that somewhat depends on your needs.

The big thing on any secured card is that it reports to all three bureaus.

The second is whether or not it graduates

The third is if you can increaes your limit easily over time if you you desire to do that.

You're probably going to want two anyway, I'd skip FP, and probably Orchard secured in favor of BOFA as one, and either C1, USAA, or any other lender which reports to all three. NFCU (if you have access) is an excellent choice and perhaps the best overall, Citi is another possibility but not as many people here have used their product for me to get a good opinion of them as I haven't tried them personally.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

LS2982 — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:01:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I am trying to find a good secured credit card to rebuild my scores, but all of the best ones that I find seem to require you to open a bank account. So, the three that I have found that seem to be the best contenders for me personally are as follows:

BankAmericard Fully Secured Visa
Orchard Bank Secured Mastercard
First Progress Platinum Secured Mastercard

I know that Capital One Secured Card is #1 right now, but seeing as to how it is the next debt on my report that I need to pay off, I don't think that they will approve me. ha. Anyway. Obviously I am just terrified of making the wrong decision, so I want to hear/read personal reviews regarding these before I make any decisions. Do you (or anyone you know) have any good or bad experience with any of the three that I have listed? Good/bad customer service? Did/didn't report monthly? Any advice is good advice. Thanks!

Cap1 is very forgiving, you should try them 1st!

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

namvet — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:07:18 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Heh, I certainly don't consider Cap One to be the best secured card, but that somewhat depends on your needs.

The big thing on any secured card is that it reports to all three bureaus.
The second is whether or not it graduates
The third is if you can increaes your limit easily over time if you you desire to do that.

You're probably going to want two anyway, I'd skip FP, and probably Orchard secured in favor of BOFA as one, and either C1, USAA, or any other lender which reports to all three. NFCU (if you have access) is an excellent choice and perhaps thne best overall, Citi is another possibility but not as many people here have used their product for me to get a good opinion of them as I haven't tried them personally.

I agree with #1 and #3 Revelate. Your #2 recomemdation doesn't matter IMO. Use the secured card to establish/re-build for 1 year then you can graduate yourself to a un-secured card. FP you don't want. Orchard maybe. Best bet is to use a card where you have a banking relationship. If you can't get a banking relationship due to chex systems etc then try Open Sky Visa (no credit check).

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:37:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I am trying to find a good secured credit card to rebuild my scores, but all of the best ones that I find seem to require you to open a bank account. So, the three that I have found that seem to be the best contenders for me personally are as follows:

BankAmericard Fully Secured Visa
Orchard Bank Secured Mastercard
First Progress Platinum Secured Mastercard

I know that Capital One Secured Card is #1 right now, but seeing as to how it is the next debt on my report that I need to pay off, I don't think that they will approve me. ha. Anyway. Obviously I am just terrified of making the wrong decision, so I want to hear/read personal reviews regarding these before I make any decisions. Do you (or anyone you know) have any good or bad experience with any of the three that I have listed? Good/bad customer service? Did/didn't report monthly? Any advice is good advice. Thanks!

BofA is probably the best but hardest to qualify for. I would apply for it first, but not be suprised if declined.

Since you don't want to deal with Capital One, you should skip Orchard as it will soon be owned by Capital One.

First Progress has reasonable terms (AF $39, grace period), so it is probably OK.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:41:06 GMT

I bank at Regions, and they don't offer secured cards. As far as C1 being forgiving- I highly doubt that they will forgive the fact that I owe them over 1k. haha Even if I did want to give them a go and just try to find out, I don't want to risk the hard inquiry. I'm trying to fix my scores, not damage them further.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:43:58 GMT

Thank you, Wolf3. BofA will probably be the one that I choose to go with. When you say they are hard to get approved by - do you think a score of 595 will be turned down?

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

atarvuzdar — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:53:24 GMT

As already mentioned, Open Sky doesn't do a credit check for their secured card. Not a bad option.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:09:01 GMT

Open Sky is no longer available.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

namvet — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:18:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Open Sky is no longer available.

Yes it is AFincher. Here's the link: www.openskycc.com

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:23:17 GMT

@namvet wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Open Sky is no longer available.
Yes it is AFincher. Here's the link: www.openskycc.com

The terms on this card have gotten much worse with the new owners. No grace period, $50 AF. First Progress, terms much better.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

namvet — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:26:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@namvet wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Open Sky is no longer available.
Yes it is AFincher. Here's the link: www.openskycc.com
The terms on this card have gotten much worse with the new owners. No grace period, $50 AF. First Progress, terms much better.

It's your call AFincher. $50.00 is a small price to pay to improve your reputation/score.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:28:44 GMT

I would find a local credit union.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:36:33 GMT

I absolutely 100% am not going with opensky - I was already taken back by how fraudulent their website layout appears but with the terms that Wolf3 listen, I would be out of my mind to go with that card. Application fee? No grace period? No way, that's just asking for trouble. Anyway, I wasn't so much asking for advice about other cards, I've already put an insane amounts of hours into research regarding these cards. I just wanted advice from people that have used any of the one's that I mentioned first hand. Thank you for everyone's responses, though... a double thanks to you, Wolf3 for actually answering my question, lol.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Revelate — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:40:00 GMT

@namvet wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Heh, I certainly don't consider Cap One to be the best secured card, but that somewhat depends on your needs.

The big thing on any secured card is that it reports to all three bureaus.
The second is whether or not it graduates
The third is if you can increaes your limit easily over time if you you desire to do that.

You're probably going to want two anyway, I'd skip FP, and probably Orchard secured in favor of BOFA as one, and either C1, USAA, or any other lender which reports to all three. NFCU (if you have access) is an excellent choice and perhaps thne best overall, Citi is another possibility but not as many people here have used their product for me to get a good opinion of them as I haven't tried them personally.

I agree with #1 and #3 Revelate. Your #2 recomemdation doesn't matter IMO. Use the secured card to establish/re-build for 1 year then you can graduate yourself to a un-secured card. FP you don't want. Orchard maybe. Best bet is to use a card where you have a banking relationship. If you can't get a banking relationship due to chex systems etc then try Open Sky Visa (no credit check).

There's a reason why all secured cards expire (and cannot be renewed) at either the 2 or 3 year mark, and it absolutely is not in the best interests of the consumer.

Cards that graduate, can be rewened or PC'd, and their tradeline extended as a result. Look at the way FICO structures their scoring algorithm (even by what we can establish via anecdotal data) and there's a non-zero upside to graduation.

I'll leave it at that, black and/or tinfoil hat conspiracy can be claimed in my case.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

namvet — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:41:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I absolutely 100% am not going with opensky - I was already taken back by how fraudulent their website layout appears but with the terms that Wolf3 listen, I would be out of my mind to go with that card. Application fee? No grace period? No way, that's just asking for trouble. Anyway, I wasn't so much asking for advice about other cards, I've already put an insane amounts of hours into research regarding these cards. I just wanted advice from people that have used any of the one's that I mentioned first hand. Thank you for everyone's responses, though... a double thanks to you, Wolf3 for actually answering my question, lol.

Calm down Afincher. We are on your side. My DD used this cars to establish/re-build her credit. It worked and now she has closed it down and got the deposit back. Moved on to un-secured cards. Best of luck my friend!

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:55:55 GMT

Oh, I'm calm, lol. I guess my statment could have seemed otherwise, but that isn't the case. I was just stating facts, but I blame the internet solely since you could not hear how I was speaking - haha!

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:03:16 GMT

I have 3 secured cards. I have the USAA American Express, the US Bank Visa, and a Capital One Mastercard. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gotten the Bank of America secured card instead of the Capital One -- but, you learn these things as you go along. If you have any questions about the cards I have, please feel free to ask.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:05:46 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
.....
There's a reason why all secured cards expire (and cannot be renewed) at either the 2 or 3 year mark,

I don't believe this in the least. Got anything to back it up.

Re: Which Secured Credit Card is best?

namvet — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:14:01 GMT

We all have our opinions! Read them and use what you think is best for YOU. As they say YMMV. Best of luck!