Cap1 PC before activation?

[Anonymous]

Income rich, FICO poor -- 3 more baddies to nuke but 2 of them will take at least 3 months (tax lein).  Have Discover IT secured but before I found out about it through here, I had already applied for Cap1 Secured ($49/300) and was going to send them just under $3000 deposit to max out my credit line so I didn't have to send 50000 payments a month to use it.

Now saw that Cap1 Secured is useless since no rewards and rarely graduates.

I have not send the deposit in and my Cap1 site says I can send it up to June 2.  I attempted to apply for the Cap1 QS1 but was declined (no HP) because I had another application pending (secured card deposit).  I know QS1 has a fee but I don't mind it for the first year because I'm assuming by next year I'll have all baddies removed and some history with Cap1 to reapply for normal QS.

Has anyone ever called to PC before activation?  I would prefer a QS1 with a lower limit that gives me cash back rewards versus a secured with a high limit.

If anyone has tried this, did you call any particular group?

[Aduke1122]

I wouldn't say Cap one is useless , they have recently started graduating their secured cards . Ours was opened in Feb 2016 and graduated at the 11 mth mark this Jan , have seen lots more on the forums who was graduated recently too

[Anonymous]

Ah, that is interesting to see.  Downside though is that even with a $3000 limit there's no reason for me to cycle anything through it since I get the 1%-2% with Discover and can easily cycle $4000-$5000 through it monthly (making payments weekly to keep CL available).  So why use a $3000 secured card with zero rewards when I can use a secured rewards card and get something back for it.  I assume Cap1 will want to see usage, PIF, etc before unsecuring.  Also would prefer to use the $3000 deposit elsewhere (maybe Alliant SSL or something) that would be a useful tradeline.

Appreciate the response and it does give at least one reason to do something with Cap1, but since they already hit me with the HPs, I'd prefer to see if I can PC without extra HPs.

Going to call SOME Cap1 group Monday when they're open to ask.

[Aduke1122]

I don't blame you at all for not wanting to tie up any funds with a no reward card . Have you thought about Navy Fed ? Even if you don't get approved for a reg cc you can do a secured and a secured loan all on the same batch of funds so you are getting double the product for one batch of money in their savings . The do graduate their cards too and they have a rewards points card for their secured card

[Anonymous]

Haven't considered Navy Fed but I will look into it Monday, thanks!  I see they require an HP for membership and I want to keep my inquiries down -- if Cap1 will PC a card before activation and without additional HPs, that's my best route.  The 2 worst baddies on my CRs should be relatively easy to PFD when my quarterly dividend comes in.  To be honest, I have zero need for credit (no mortgage, own multiple homes, 6 figure income, etc) but I hate leaving money on the table with rewards on purchases.  I vacation a LOT ($50,000 a year in travel spending) and even at just 2% cash back, that's $1000 a year I've thrown away.  Seriously stupid.

If I can rehab my credit enough in a year to qualify for some sort of higher percentage travel rewards, that'll be even better.

It's too bad some of the premium rewards cards don't have huge secured options.  I'd throw a bank $25,000 for a few years just to get the rewards...  Discover is decent for what it is but the small $2500 maximum makes using it for everything a bit of a pain (4+ payments a month during busy shopping season).

[Anonymous]

Just checked out Navy Fed's secured card page as well as some reviews and it appears they let you deposit up to $50,000 for a $50,000 secured TL.  Insane.  I will definitely sign up for them in May and just try to open a huge secured CC and see how it rolls.  Their SSL looks great, too.  Will need to browse here some more to see how many HPs they pull for membership + secured CC + SSL -- if it isn't too bad I might just roll it all into getting everything now and aging those TLs and once I rehab my CR see what I can do about going unsecured in a year or two.

[Aduke1122]

I will tell you that Navy fed is very HP crazy , Hp for every new acctount you open . But I think it's worth it . They grow crazy crazy fast esp if you have income and a half decent profile to support it . It's not unusual to have 2 25k ccs and 15 k Cloc wishin just a few mths or so

[Aduke1122]

If I may ask (sorry don't want to pry ) but if your income is really good , what sort of issues do you have with your credit ?

[Anonymous]

A very very expensive divorce that bankrupted 2 profitable businesses and left me worse than penniless, and then years later a tax attack when certain authorities discovered that my spouse had other income and gambling winnings she never reported but were my responsibility for whatever reason.

I have a successful business but things popping up out of the blue took my recovered CRAs and demolished them again.  It got so bad at one point that a business I was working on for 3 years ended up having issues because of revolving credit that relied on personal guarantees and my CRs getting trashed and losing those lines.  Really ugly situation -- now I don't rely on credit at all for business (forced to at one point) and my income actually went up measurably and doubtful I will lose any customers in the next 20 years.

It's very frustrating to think you're all caught up with everyone and then things which have no SOL come back to haunt you out of the blue with zero warning -- that one was my fault as I moved and didn't change addresses so I never got notice of any delinquencies until the liens popped up and everything went sideways VERY quickly.

I expect to get it all resolved in the next few months but who really knows.

Also, much to my chagrin, a utility bill in my name that I forgot to close was being used by a remaining roommate who decided to stop paying it.  Since I moved and don't have that utility company anymore (and they were calling his number for collections), that also ended up on my CR on February for $750 -- which had I know about, I would have just PIF'd before collections.  I'm still working on PFD on that one but feel confident it will happen in April.  The OC appears to be pulling back the debt from the CA with repeated phone calls from me, just waiting for the CRs to show it before I pay it off to the OC.

[Aduke1122]

I'm sorry to hear of your unfortunate luck ,I totally understand, all of my credit issues and it was a lot bf I started my rebuild were from my Mom passing and us kids was left to deal with it financially and other things not necessarily things I needed at the time had to be put on the back burner and eventually went to collections. But I'm proud to say my reports are now clean and I'm on a good track of building solid Credit relationships with my lenders . Anyways I wish you good luck in your rebuilding and hope you get it all taken care of