topic Re: Citi bank secured card - 18 month cd. Wise choice? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Citi bank secured card - 18 month cd. Wise choice?

Supafly535 — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:41:53 GMT

Hi everyone! I'm looking to build up my credit score. It is currently, 541. I have one credit card with Capital One with a measly $300 Limit. I have been on time for 4 years. I have 2 Accts that still show in my account section : first premier. One shows up as a Closed Acct with a balance of $166 and the other first premier card is "charged off" with a balance of $405. They are due to fall off somewhere around 2014/2015. So my utility ratio shows that I'm using all of my credit, because 1st premier is being calculated in. I am looking to get a secured card with Citibank. It offers an 18 month CD for the amount that you secure down. I'm looking to put about $2,000. Is this a wise decision? It will help to bring up my credit amount available, report to all 3 bureaus since capital one is only reporting to Transunion. Or should I scrap this idea? Also, after the 18 months what happens to the CD with the $2,000 invested? I never done one before. Hope you can help!!

Re: Citi bank secured card - 18 month cd. Wise choice?

MarineVietVet — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:50:15 GMT

@Supafly535 wrote:
Hi everyone! I'm looking to build up my credit score. It is currently, 541. I have one credit card with Capital One with a measly $300 Limit. I have been on time for 4 years. I have 2 Accts that still show in my account section : first premier. One shows up as a Closed Acct with a balance of $166 and the other first premier card is "charged off" with a balance of $405. They are due to fall off somewhere around 2014/2015. So my utility ratio shows that I'm using all of my credit, because 1st premier is being calculated in. I am looking to get a secured card with Citibank. It offers an 18 month CD for the amount that you secure down. I'm looking to put about $2,000. Is this a wise decision? It will help to bring up my credit amount available, report to all 3 bureaus since capital one is only reporting to Transunion. Or should I scrap this idea? Also, after the 18 months what happens to the CD with the $2,000 invested? I never done one before. Hope you can help!!

You'll get different opinions as always but I would spend $571 to pay off those 2 cards. That alone will help your score. By exactly how much is hard to say.

Plus paying them off will stop them from going to collections which would be another major derogatory. Or are they in collections already?

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

Re: Citi bank secured card - 18 month cd. Wise choice?

Supafly535 — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:02:40 GMT

The Acct that is $166 went to collections with plaza associates. It has not come up yet on my "Collections" section, it is still listed as a current account in the "Accounts" section of my credit report with the remarks - collection- . My 2nd account is $ 405.00. It is still with First Premier, listed in the "Accounts" section of my credit report with the remarks - Charged off. * I called First Premier and the "best they can do for me" as the rep said was to offer a settlement for $250, they'll update my report to say; settled for less then original amount. Still leaving it as a chargeoff.* so I told her no thanks, I'll let it fall off.

Re: Citi bank secured card - 18 month cd. Wise choice?

MarineVietVet — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:26:23 GMT

@Supafly535 wrote:
The Acct that is $166 went to collections with plaza associates. It has not come up yet on my "Collections" section, it is still listed as a current account in the "Accounts" section of my credit report with the remarks - collection- . My 2nd account is $ 405.00. It is still with First Premier, listed in the "Accounts" section of my credit report with the remarks - Charged off. * I called First Premier and the "best they can do for me" as the rep said was to offer a settlement for $250, they'll update my report to say; settled for less then original amount. Still leaving it as a chargeoff.* so I told her no thanks, I'll let it fall off.

If you pay off those CO'ed cards it will lower your utilization which should help your score although the CO itself will remain.

Re: Citi bank secured card - 18 month cd. Wise choice?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:59:49 GMT

You might want to first check and see if Citi will even issue a secured card to someone with a credit profile such as yours.

Many secured card issuers will not approve an application where there are major delinquencies reporting. Not sure if Citi will or not.