topic Re: Closing secured card? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Closing secured card?

cmfazio000 — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 23:42:01 GMT

I am in the process of rebuilding my credit after overextending myself years ago and letting all of my accounts become delinquent. Started 2022 with a fico score of around 550 and I'm currently sitting at 630-660 depending on the bureau. One of the first cards I got to start my rebuild was the CapOne quicksilver secured. I got the card in July of 2022 and put down a $500 deposit. I have a card from cred.ai that reports a $1500 limit, an auto loan that's been open since 2018, and am an authorized user on a discover card that was opened in 2016. Since starting my rebuild I've added a CapOne Walmart Rewards card and a SavorOne card. I have very low utilization and never carry a balance. I recently paid back Amex to get their optima card offer. I am being approved for unsecured cards now and I'm wondering if it's even worth keeping the secured card with CapOne? They never gave me an auto cli after my 7th statement cut and I've heard of people never graduating to an unsecured card. I don't think it will affect my credit age much or my utilization. Should I keep the card open, or am I in a good spot to cancel it? What would the negatives be?

Re: Closing secured card?

FireMedic1 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 11:01:57 GMT

No real negatives with a low limit card if you close it down and get a refund. It ran its course that led to what you got now. I say shut er down. It will still count on your age metrics for up to 10yrs. Theres no set in stone when it will graduate. Its all over the place. Congrats on the rebuilt restart.

Re: Closing secured card?

Bill77 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:15:58 GMT

I would close it because why tie up a deposit when you have much better options now.

Re: Closing secured card?

OniStringer — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 04:09:44 GMT

I would close it. I had 2 secured cards for a good while in the beginning, as soon as I got better options. I closed one down and the other i kept because it had graduated. I would have closed it down otherwise.

Re: Closing secured card?

nelson_xxiii — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 02:26:30 GMT

Glad I found this thread. My thoughts lately are similar to OP and been contemplating the same thing. Currently have 2 secured cards I rather close and get my money back. Scores are all in the mid 600s at the moment and I have my eye on cards like Savor One, Quicksilver or Cap One walmart card but the one I really want is the apple card. Seems like they have generous SL and i'm entrenched in the apple eco-system. I see @OniStringer shows similar scores as mine and has the apple card. Very encouraging and makes me wanna give it a shot in 3 weeks after I close on this house.

Congrats on the successful rebuild and working yourself out of the secured cards, i'm right behind ya! 🙌🏽

Re: Closing secured card?

OniStringer — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:42:02 GMT

@nelson_xxiii wrote:
Glad I found this thread. My thoughts lately are similar to OP and been contemplating the same thing. Currently have 2 secured cards I rather close and get my money back. Scores are all in the mid 600s at the moment and I have my eye on cards like Savor One, Quicksilver or Cap One walmart card but the one I really want is the apple card. Seems like they have generous SL and i'm entrenched in the apple eco-system. I see @OniStringer shows similar scores as mine and has the apple card. Very encouraging and makes me wanna give it a shot in 3 weeks after I close on this house.

Congrats on the successful rebuild and working yourself out of the secured cards, i'm right behind ya! 🙌🏽

If you are in the apple eco system, and also use apple pay a decent amount. I think its a great starter card/rebuild card if you can get in with them. I also shop at the likes of Nike for the 3% so its worth it to me. I also have quicksilver and walmart. But tbh, im not a huge fan of walmart. Simply took it because they offered me highest SL yet of 3500. Im in heavy garden mode now lol

Re: Closing secured card?

OniStringer — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:43:53 GMT

@FireMedic1 wrote:
No real negatives with a low limit card if you close it down and get a refund. It ran its course that led to what you got now. I say shut er down. It will still count on your age metrics for up to 10yrs. Theres no set in stone when it will graduate. Its all over the place. Congrats on the rebuilt restart.

Question, if a card has a no annual fee. Think I should close it down if I wanna clean things up? Or just simply let it sit if it isnt hurting anything until they decide to close it down so that it just delays that 10 yr period? Not sure what I wanna do with about 2 of my rebuilder cards.

Re: Closing secured card?

nelson_xxiii — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 22:54:08 GMT

@OniStringer wrote:
@nelson_xxiii wrote:
Glad I found this thread. My thoughts lately are similar to OP and been contemplating the same thing. Currently have 2 secured cards I rather close and get my money back. Scores are all in the mid 600s at the moment and I have my eye on cards like Savor One, Quicksilver or Cap One walmart card but the one I really want is the apple card. Seems like they have generous SL and i'm entrenched in the apple eco-system. I see @OniStringer shows similar scores as mine and has the apple card. Very encouraging and makes me wanna give it a shot in 3 weeks after I close on this house.

Congrats on the successful rebuild and working yourself out of the secured cards, i'm right behind ya! 🙌🏽
If you are in the apple eco system, and also use apple pay a decent amount. I think its a great starter card/rebuild card if you can get in with them. I also shop at the likes of Nike for the 3% so its worth it to me. I also have quicksilver and walmart. But tbh, im not a huge fan of walmart. Simply took it because they offered me highest SL yet of 3500. Im in heavy garden mode now lol

Yeah, that 3% back at Nike is a huge plus for me as well. And I'm apple pay guy everywhere I can. I don't even carry physical cards on me 99% of the time. Something about Cap One that just isn't appealing to me unless we're talking the Savor card at minimum or the venture cards. Other than that, I rather avoid them!

Re: Closing secured card?

TRC_WA — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:13:30 GMT

@nelson_xxiii wrote:
the one I really want is the apple card. Seems like they have generous SL and i'm entrenched in the apple eco-system. I see @OniStringer shows similar scores as mine and has the apple card. Very encouraging and makes me wanna give it a shot in 3 weeks after I close on this house.

Congrats on the successful rebuild and working yourself out of the secured cards, i'm right behind ya! 🙌🏽

@nelson_xxiii

You're good to apply as long as you don't have a bankruptcy on your report. I've been denied by Goldman Sachs every time with all 3 scores around 670... citing my 6 year old Ch 13 that will be falling off within the next year.

Re: Closing secured card?

TRC_WA — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:24:15 GMT

@nelson_xxiii

Since you mentioned it I decided to go ahead and try the SP app again since it's been a few months... and I was denied... BUT... they offered me the "Path to Apple Card" program which they haven't done before... so I guess that's progress.

I don't much care either way... the baddies are starting to come off and I'll be 700+ by the end of the year regardless.

Re: Closing secured card?

nelson_xxiii — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:29:27 GMT

Waiting for something to fall off your credit feels like an eternity. I currently have a med debt I paid off a month ago that should fall off any day now and a Portfolio Recovery debt that's a PFD also around the same date and i'm impatiently checking everyday for these things to fall off my experian report. Only bureau reporting these 2 items. Can't wait to see what it'll do to my score when it does!!!!

Re: Closing secured card?

nelson_xxiii — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:34:58 GMT

@TRC_WA wrote:
@nelson_xxiii

Since you mentioned it I decided to go ahead and try the SP app again since it's been a few months... and I was denied... BUT... they offered me the "Path to Apple Card" program which they haven't done before... so I guess that's progress.

I don't much care either way... the baddies are starting to come off and I'll be 700+ by the end of the year regardless.

Hey that's progress and at least you know exactly why, which is always good. You'll get it in no time and you may already know but multiple people here have stated that you can try pre-approval again as many times as you want and it won't kick you from the path to apple or reset your time. Also next time try to apply on apple.com with a macbook or iphone in your cart and choose the apple card as form of payment and apply there. Many posts on these forums how that triggers an approval forso many who were denied when they tried thru the wallet app or without a product in their cart. Keep in mind, you don't have to finalize the purchase of said item once you are approved. Just a lil glitch in the matrix i've heard so much about that helped so many get approved when they were already denied. They love to extend credit if they think you are going to use it to finance an apple product.

Re: Closing secured card?

TRC_WA — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:43:36 GMT

@nelson_xxiii wrote:
They love to extend credit if they think you are going to use it to finance an apple product.

@nelson_xxiii

Thanks for the tip. Will keep it in mind. What's funny though is in addition to the bankruptcy I get a "you have recently been late on a payment" as another denial reason...

... but my last late payment on anything was 2016.

Point being... probably just gonna wait till later this year when all my baddies are gone from TU. Pretty sure I'll be instantly approved then. The PTAC program is 4 months... which is right about the time that I should get the rest of the baddies removed from TU via EE.

Just gonna wait it out...

Re: Closing secured card?

nelson_xxiii — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 03:30:49 GMT

Sounds like a plan. Best of luck and may the time fly by!

Re: Closing secured card?

butterpecan — Tue, 30 May 2023 20:12:08 GMT

@cmfazio000 Have you closed out the cred.ai account? I'm looking for datapoints on this fintech card. Thanks!

Re: Closing secured card?

masscredit — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 22:17:19 GMT

I started rebuilding with secured cards last May (BK discharged later in June). I was in a position to go with high limits. My TD Bank card graduated ($5K). I was hoping my SDFCU card ($5K) would graduate a couple weeks ago (1 year) but it didn't. They review accounts once per year so I'm going to let that ride for one more year. I'll close the account if it doesn't graduate then. Andrews ($3K) and OpenSky ($3K) won't graduate. I'm just keeping them around until I get decent unsecured cards to replace them. Don't want to take away from my current available credit.

As for the Apple card. I try once in awhile. I think the BK is holding me back. If anything, I've been hoping to see the Path to Apple Card message. I live Apple so the card would come in handy. I tried again after reading this thread and used to the shopping cart trick. No luck -

You have recently filed for bankruptcy
You have recently filed for bankruptcy or experienced another negative public record on the credit file

Re: Closing secured card?

PayAndProsper — Sun, 04 Jun 2023 23:45:22 GMT

@OniStringer escribió:
Question, if a card has a no annual fee. Think I should close it down if I wanna clean things up? Or just simply let it sit if it isnt hurting anything until they decide to close it down so that it just delays that 10 yr period? Not sure what I wanna do with about 2 of my rebuilder cards.

@OniStringer This is a bit old but since the thread has already been bumped, I guess I would just let it close down on its own if you were dedicated to letting it go.

My question would be: Is using the card once or twice a year more maintenance than it's worth to have a thicker profile? Having more cards with age on your CR lessens the impact of a new account being added to your profile. You could spend a dollar on your Amazon.com balance twice a year and likely maintain a card open indefinitely.

Re: Closing secured card?

OniStringer — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 01:49:18 GMT

@PayAndProsper wrote:
@OniStringer escribió:
Question, if a card has a no annual fee. Think I should close it down if I wanna clean things up? Or just simply let it sit if it isnt hurting anything until they decide to close it down so that it just delays that 10 yr period? Not sure what I wanna do with about 2 of my rebuilder cards.
@OniStringer This is a bit old but since the thread has already been bumped, I guess I would just let it close down on its own if you were dedicated to letting it go.

My question would be: Is using the card once or twice a year more maintenance than it's worth to have a thicker profile? Having more cards with age on your CR lessens the impact of a new account being added to your profile. You could spend a dollar on your Amazon.com balance twice a year and likely maintain a card open indefinitely.

This is essentially exactly what I have decided to do.

Re: Closing secured card?

masscredit — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 04:23:04 GMT

@PayAndProsper wrote:
My question would be: Is using the card once or twice a year more maintenance than it's worth to have a thicker profile? Having more cards with age on your CR lessens the impact of a new account being added to your profile. You could spend a dollar on your Amazon.com balance twice a year and likely maintain a card open indefinitely.

This is where I'm at with a couple of my cards. Open Sky and Andrews won't graduate. I'm just letting them ride for another year (that will be two years since DC). Neither card has been used for about a year. I play to cancel Open Sky before the next annual fee of $35 hits next June (that's been it's only use). Andrews will probably be cut around then too. This one was last used in August of '22. I put a sandwich on it two days ago. No reason to use them so back to the sock drawer.