topic Re: Citi Secured Credit Card in Rebuilding Your Credit

Citi Secured Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:33:38 GMT

Hello everyone,

I would like to know what is the best way of using the Citi Secured Credit Card? I have a $200 limit. Should I charge it all the way up to the limit and pay it in full each month or do I have leave a small balance of 1%-9% for the next 18 months? Thanks for your help everyone.

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:45:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello everyone,

I would like to know what is the best way of using the Citi Secured Credit Card? I have a $200 limit. Should I charge it all the way up to the limit and pay it in full each month or do I have leave a small balance of 1%-9% for the next 18 months? Thanks for your help everyone.

Hey, OP!

Thanks for posting.

From I have read here, charging up all the way and paying in full every month is a good way of letting Citi know that you can handle a higher-limit card. However, doing so could hurt your scores---unless you let a small balance report to the credit bureaus.

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:57:43 GMT

This is the problem I see, there is no definitive answer. This should be interesting for sure.

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:21:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This is the problem I see, there is no definitive answer. This should be interesting for sure.

I know. IMHO, use the card how you see fit. Citi should unsecure the card regardless. Just make sure you are current during the 18-month period.

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

SOGGIE — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 03:36:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello everyone,

I would like to know what is the best way of using the Citi Secured Credit Card? I have a $200 limit. Should I charge it all the way up to the limit and pay it in full each month or do I have leave a small balance of 1%-9% for the next 18 months? Thanks for your help everyone.

I would strongly suggest to utilize approx 5% ($10.00) per billing cycle and PIF EVERY month until the account graduates to unsecured status. All persons (personally known to me) were advised by me to follow this method. All of them substantially benefited later with fast unsecuring of account and large CLIs. Good luck!

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

Cookiegrabber — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 04:15:05 GMT

I can only say what I do personally on my $200 Discover secured -- I just keep using it and PIF every 2-3 days, then leave a $2.something balance before the statement date so it reports as 1% util.

It's a pain but I end up reviewing every purchase multiple times a month, and I've learned that I buy too much cheap stuff from China.

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 05:41:52 GMT

@SOGGIE wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hello everyone,

I would like to know what is the best way of using the Citi Secured Credit Card? I have a $200 limit. Should I charge it all the way up to the limit and pay it in full each month or do I have leave a small balance of 1%-9% for the next 18 months? Thanks for your help everyone.
I would strongly suggest to utilize approx 5% ($10.00) per billing cycle and PIF EVERY month until the account graduates to unsecured status. All persons (personally known to me) were advised by me to follow this method. All of them substantially benefited later with fast unsecuring of account and large CLIs. Good luck!

Thanks for the data point, SOGGIE.

Re: Citi Secured Credit Card

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 12:28:43 GMT

Thanks SOGGIE,

Are you saying only spend up to $10.00 on the card and never spend more than this?