topic Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020 in Rebuilding Your Credit

Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 06:22:55 GMT

Recently, I made a Top 10 list (on another platform) of Secured Cards for 2020- Q1. They were the following:

1. State Department Federal Credit Union
2. Discover
3. Harley-Davidson Visa (by U.S. Bank)
4. Citi Diamond Secured
5. Bank of America
6. U.S. Bank
7. Bremer Bank
8. Capital One**
9. Merrick Bank*
10. OpenSky*

**doesn’t graduate, but is partially secured
*does not graduate

With that said, I ruled out cards that were more regionalized or required military affiliation. That said, the following cards were not added to the list:

1) USAA (new card coming soon)

2) NFCU

3) Regions

4) TD Bank

5) FBNO

6) BB&T

A hand-full of cards I haven't looked into yet, but want to are the following:

1) DCU

2) American Heritage Credit Union

3) First Tech Federal Credit Union

4) NASA FCU

5) Signature FCU

With all this information, I wanted to get info on some of the cards I'm not as familiar with in order to make a top 10 list of secured cards that graduate. Right now, my tentative list looks like this.

1. State Department Federal Credit Union

2. NFCU

3. Discover

4. Harley-Davidson Visa (by U.S. Bank)

5, TD Bank

6, BB&T

7. Citi Diamond Secured
8. Bank of America
9. U.S. Bank
10. Bremer Bank

Would love others feedback.

Finally, I know there's been several similar posts. However, many of them are outdated. Notably, WF is off the market and the C1S no longer graduates.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:57:02 GMT

Thank you!

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

19eighty5 — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:37:01 GMT

This is a great list, thanks! I would double-down on the NFCU card as if you're eligible to apply, that relationship can literally change your financial situation if you take care of your accounts with them.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

ladeda8971 — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:13:19 GMT

Great list! One note, the First Tech Federal Credit Union Secured MC does not graduate.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

tricie17 — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:28:26 GMT

NFCU should be first

Discover second

Everything else can fall where you like. Do not consider Capital One in my opinion.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 05:43:39 GMT

Capital One Secured is the most overhyped secured card on the market, IMHO.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 05:48:18 GMT

Thanks for the data point. Good to know.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

tricie17 — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 20:29:43 GMT

That and BofA.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

MrZero — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 10:17:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Capital One Secured is the most overhyped secured card on the market, IMHO.

I know I regret getting it, I already had a secured Discover It card that was approved a couple weeks prior and should've stopped there with the secured cards instead of listening to outdated reviews saying the CapOne secured Platinum would graduate and my only needing to secure it with $49. It's pretty much only been used in the down time from around my Disco payment and statement cut date since it offers no rewards. If only I started lurking here a little sooner I would've avoided that waste of a HP on all three CRAs.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Red1Blue — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 20:29:14 GMT

@MrZero wrote:
I know I regret getting it, I already had a secured Discover It card that was approved a couple weeks prior and should've stopped there with the secured cards instead of listening to outdated reviews saying the CapOne secured Platinum would graduate and my only needing to secure it with $49. It's pretty much only been used in the down time from around my Disco payment and statement cut date since it offers no rewards. If only I started lurking here a little sooner I would've avoided that waste of a HP on all three CRAs.

Once it graduates in few months, you can ask for a product change. I know it is too much take a hit on all 3 credit bureaus. Now that part is done let it age and ask for PC once it graduates.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

KJinNC — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 23:56:53 GMT

Capital One secured will never graduate, unless and until Capital One changes its policy back.

Capital One has a good app and web site and their customer service was fine, but they discontinued graduating cards some time ago.

Discover will graduate, if that's the one you were referring to, but you don't need to wait for that to happen to product-change it. After the first statement, you can switch any Discover variant to any other (that is, the 5% rotating categories version or the travel miles version), whether it is secured or unsecured.

If you are eligible for Navy Federal, go for it, otherwise, I think Discover is head and shoulders the best. TD Bank is very good if you live in a state that has TD Bank in it. Citi is decent. If I could go one year back in time, I would skip one or two secured cards (Primor and Cap One) and MJC. They didn't really hurt, but they were a waste of time IMO. Good luck!

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Swatch — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 15:32:04 GMT

@tricie17 wrote:
That and BofA.

Are you saying BofA is overhyped? Or that it's one of the best?

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

MrZero — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 04:55:04 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
Capital One secured will never graduate, unless and until Capital One changes its policy back.

Capital One has a good app and web site and their customer service was fine, but they discontinued graduating cards some time ago.

Discover will graduate, if that's the one you were referring to, but you don't need to wait for that to happen to product-change it. After the first statement, you can switch any Discover variant to any other (that is, the 5% rotating categories version or the travel miles version), whether it is secured or unsecured.

If you are eligible for Navy Federal, go for it, otherwise, I think Discover is head and shoulders the best. TD Bank is very good if you live in a state that has TD Bank in it. Citi is decent. If I could go one year back in time, I would skip one or two secured cards (Primor and Cap One) and MJC. They didn't really hurt, but they were a waste of time IMO. Good luck!

Yeah, when I either have a card that beats or matches the 2% Resturants/Gas, 1% everything else and/or the CB match period ends else I'll probably PC it to the rotating 5% but right now I wouldn't get much use out of the current 5% CB. I actually joined NFCU last month and was approved for their CashRewards card this evening.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

user979797 — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 23:40:34 GMT

I had the Bank of America secured card. It was the fully secured card version and took 3 years to graduate. I got the check in the mail with my security deposit and a CLI without asking. Wells Fargo had turned me down and so had Citibank but I was able to build my credit responsibly with BOA and ended up cancelling the card but my secured to unsecured journey with BOA was a good one.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 02:32:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Recently, I made a Top 10 list (on another platform) of Secured Cards for 2020- Q1. They were the following:

1. State Department Federal Credit Union
2. Discover
3. Harley-Davidson Visa (by U.S. Bank)
4. Citi Diamond Secured
5. Bank of America
6. U.S. Bank
7. Bremer Bank
8. Capital One**
9. Merrick Bank*
10. OpenSky*
**doesn’t graduate, but is partially secured
*does not graduate

With that said, I ruled out cards that were more regionalized or required military affiliation. That said, the following cards were not added to the list:
1) USAA (new card coming soon)
2) NFCU
3) Regions
4) TD Bank
5) FBNO
6) BB&T

A hand-full of cards I haven't looked into yet, but want to are the following:
1) DCU
2) American Heritage Credit Union
3) First Tech Federal Credit Union
4) NASA FCU
5) Signature FCU

With all this information, I wanted to get info on some of the cards I'm not as familiar with in order to make a top 10 list of secured cards that graduate. Right now, my tentative list looks like this.

1. State Department Federal Credit Union
2. NFCU
3. Discover
4. Harley-Davidson Visa (by U.S. Bank)
5, TD Bank
6, BB&T
7. Citi Diamond Secured
8. Bank of America
9. U.S. Bank
10. Bremer Bank

Would love others feedback.

Finally, I know there's been several similar posts. However, many of them are outdated. Notably, WF is off the market and the C1S no longer graduates.

Would love to hear any feedback on DCU or AOD CU Secured cards! Especially AOD....do the graduate, etc....

Thx!

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

user979797 — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 04:22:58 GMT

I really like the US bank secured card BOA secured and I also think Discover is one of the best secured cards you can get right now.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2020 18:18:40 GMT

To whom wants to read this:

I actually called NFCU last year and asked them about a process I had been thinking about to establish multiple types of credit and get established faster for people building credit. They ran it by their supervisors and said that they did not see any issues although they have never heard of that idea. By nature, I work in the finance industry so I decided to get creative so here was the idea: Get a NFCU saving account and deposit your amount (For example: $2000). Take out a secured loan against your saving, then take the $2000 and open a secured credit card. Obvisouly this only works if you can afford both payment and keep your utilization down. Keep your CC under 9% percent and keep paying down your loan. After 5-6 months, you may qualify to graduate and at that time, your $2000 in savings will be released. I do not recommend immediately closing your loan but keep paying it as scheduled (24 month term). This not only established credit card history, but upgrades you to a unsecured card while maintaining an installment loan and having various mixes of credit. As far as asking for a CLI, I am not certain but based on what I've seen, I would think you could ask around 6-7 months after the unsecured card has been open. Hope this helps anyone!

-AK

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Red1Blue — Tue, 05 May 2020 18:21:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
To whom wants to read this:
I actually called NFCU last year and asked them about a process I had been thinking about to establish multiple types of credit and get established faster for people building credit. They ran it by their supervisors and said that they did not see any issues although they have never heard of that idea. By nature, I work in the finance industry so I decided to get creative so here was the idea: Get a NFCU saving account and deposit your amount (For example: $2000). Take out a secured loan against your saving, then take the $2000 and open a secured credit card. Obvisouly this only works if you can afford both payment and keep your utilization down. Keep your CC under 9% percent and keep paying down your loan. After 5-6 months, you may qualify to graduate and at that time, your $2000 in savings will be released. I do not recommend immediately closing your loan but keep paying it as scheduled (24 month term). This not only established credit card history, but upgrades you to a unsecured card while maintaining an installment loan and having various mixes of credit. As far as asking for a CLI, I am not certain but based on what I've seen, I would think you could ask around 6-7 months after the unsecured card has been open. Hope this helps anyone!

-AK

I am not sure if you have to go through all these hoops. There are credit builder programs that you can sign up with many of the Credit Unions where they give you both Secured Credit Card and Secured Loan at the same time. You can also try to see if they can give you unsecured credit builder loan which the amount might be smaller. Check with Affinity Credit Union in NJ. They can give you information. Also with Affinity they will not do your credit check with hard pull if you are opening a secured account with them.

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2020 18:34:25 GMT

Sorry, I should have been a little more descriptive. This was merely an option if you have a person really interested in NFCU for personal reasons and want to establish a relationship with them. Outside of that, I agree with concorduser.

-AK

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate in 2020

Red1Blue — Tue, 05 May 2020 18:38:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Sorry, I should have been a little more descriptive. This was merely an option if you have a person really interested in NFCU for personal reasons and want to establish a relationship with them. Outside of that, I agree with concorduser.

-AK

Not sure what you are referring. Are you talking about NFCU members who went through hardships ? Or are you talking about new people who are non-NFCU member or non-NFCU eligbile people be able to get into NFCU ?