topic Re: Bofa Secured in Credit Cards

Bofa Secured

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:10:58 GMT

I'm seeling a lot more posts about bofa secured cards getting graduated. It seems what they tend to do is double your security deposit or start you off with a limit of about 1k.

Right now it has $300 secured on the card. If I bump that up to the max which I believe is 5k, would they give me a higher starting limit when I ask to graduate it unsecured? Anyone have any experiences with this that can chime in?

Re: Bofa Secured

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:15:12 GMT

I just got their secured card for a $1,000.00 and wondering the same thing. Anyone have experience with this?

Re: Bofa Secured

Revelate — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:07:04 GMT

I had an old secured card with a $2500 dollar deposit that turned into a $2500 CL when it automagically unsecured. I wouldn't suspect that their policies have changed any in that. though at one point I did run up the balance to near limit prior to writing a check for it... I'm uncertain what they'd do on a high balance that wasn't ever actually used.

Re: Bofa Secured

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:22:20 GMT

Mine just graduated a few days ago, so my experience maybe unique or maybe it's what they are doing now instead of 2-3 years ago.

Said they will typically double your credit limit if it is low (300, 500, etc). I started with 1000 and they said they aren't changing it for now, maybe in 3-6 months. With some of the recent graduations, that pretty much seems in line with what they are saying to me, and what I'm seeing.

Re: Bofa Secured

L-Force — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:02:25 GMT

I had mine for 2 years with a $1k limit, it never automatically graduated. I called last week to request it, they approved me for the same limit and deposited my security deposit into my checking account 3 days later. The did a hard pull from TU. She did ask me some questions related to income and stuff like that. She also saw I did a cash advance a month ago and said to stay away from doing advances as they look bad to BofA.

Re: Bofa Secured

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:41:35 GMT

@L-Force wrote:
I had mine for 2 years with a $1k limit, it never automatically graduated. I called last week to request it, they approved me for the same limit and deposited my security deposit into my checking account 3 days later. The did a hard pull from TU. She did ask me some questions related to income and stuff like that. She also saw I did a cash advance a month ago and said to stay away from doing advances as they look bad to BofA.

I've never used a CC for a cash advance, but I think that's ridiculous. If they don't want people taking cash advances, they shouldn't offer the option. It's just like balance transfers. If you're going to offer the option for a balance transfer, why throw a fit when people actually take the offer and do a BT? They shouldn't offer features they don't want people using.

Re: Bofa Secured

Revelate — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:56:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@L-Force wrote:
I had mine for 2 years with a $1k limit, it never automatically graduated. I called last week to request it, they approved me for the same limit and deposited my security deposit into my checking account 3 days later. The did a hard pull from TU. She did ask me some questions related to income and stuff like that. She also saw I did a cash advance a month ago and said to stay away from doing advances as they look bad to BofA.

I've never used a CC for a cash advance, but I think that's ridiculous. If they don't want people taking cash advances, they shouldn't offer the option. It's just like balance transfers. If you're going to offer the option for a balance transfer, why throw a fit when people actually take the offer and do a BT? They shouldn't offer features they don't want people using.

Lenders are under no obligation to help consumers, just to accurately and clearly state what the terms are. People apparently want the ability to do cash advances, and cash advances have additional charges associated beyond the standard credit trasnsaction fees... so why not offer them? That doesn't mean that they shouldn't necessarily be looked upon as indicators of risky behavior.

I'm certain there are folks that simply do cash advances for the convenience factor rather than using a debit card at an ATM or going to the bank for larger withdrawls than you can do at said ATM; however, I suspect lender's experiences suggest that's an exception rather than the rule, so I can't fault them for flagging them as a problem. I also think most people typically don't do cash advances, and so those that do, fall into a seperate category on their profiles... sometimes it's not good to stand out from the crowd.

Re: Bofa Secured

LS2982 — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:27:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm seeling a lot more posts about bofa secured cards getting graduated. It seems what they tend to do is double your security deposit or start you off with a limit of about 1k.

Right now it has $300 secured on the card. If I bump that up to the max which I believe is 5k, would they give me a higher starting limit when I ask to graduate it unsecured? Anyone have any experiences with this that can chime in?

If you bump it up and have that CL for at least 6-12 months and show good usage/payment history they should unsecure it at that limit.