I was pretty shocked BoA denied me for one of their secured cards. I had tried applying for a BoA unsecured card twice in the past year but they denied me. Thought a secured card would be a way into BoA credit. I had a Ch13 bk discharge on my reports when I applied before, but it's fallen off now. I don't bank with them and haven't had any credit with BoA before. Since they used experian those two times I only unlocked my experian file during this application.
My experian fico is 728 and about 11% total utilization on my cards, no lates or negatives. I did have a lot of inquiries though and new accounts in the past 2 years. Just a warning for anyone, you can still be denied for a secured card! 
@teaxtea wrote:I was pretty shocked BoA denied me for one of their secured cards. I had tried applying for a BoA unsecured card twice in the past year but they denied me. Thought a secured card would be a way into BoA credit. I had a Ch13 bk discharge on my reports when I applied before, but it's fallen off now. I don't bank with them and haven't had any credit with BoA before. Since they used experian those two times I only unlocked my experian file during this application.
My experian fico is 728 and about 11% total utilization on my cards, no lates or negatives. I did have a lot of inquiries though and new accounts in the past 2 years. Just a warning for anyone, you can still be denied for a secured card!
if you want in with boa, get a checking account, it's an unofficial, official requirement.
@teaxtea wrote:I was pretty shocked BoA denied me for one of their secured cards. I had tried applying for a BoA unsecured card twice in the past year but they denied me. Thought a secured card would be a way into BoA credit. I had a Ch13 bk discharge on my reports when I applied before, but it's fallen off now. I don't bank with them and haven't had any credit with BoA before. Since they used experian those two times I only unlocked my experian file during this application.
My experian fico is 728 and about 11% total utilization on my cards, no lates or negatives. I did have a lot of inquiries though and new accounts in the past 2 years. Just a warning for anyone, you can still be denied for a secured card!
So, BofA is still nasty when it comes to folks with bankruptcies on their reports. Lots of other good financial institutions out there. If you're within the TDBank geozone, I cannot recommend them strongly enough. Good luck.
@AndySoCal wrote:If it were me I would investigate opening a secure card with a local credit union. Disclaimer I am biased towards credit unions over banks due to the owership structure. Banks are owned by the shareholders credit unions are owned by the membership. Some credit unions will have on their web site this verbiage "people before profits". Dow Credit Union is one such example. Your interest on the card may be lower as well. Do your research first.
Definitely seconding this. A local credit union (or even a bigger one like Navy Federal, if you qualify) is going to be more generous, at least in my experience. (I'm also biased because I started with NF's secured card 3 years ago, so I'm not exactly impartial.)
@GZG wrote:
@teaxtea wrote:I was pretty shocked BoA denied me for one of their secured cards. I had tried applying for a BoA unsecured card twice in the past year but they denied me. Thought a secured card would be a way into BoA credit. I had a Ch13 bk discharge on my reports when I applied before, but it's fallen off now. I don't bank with them and haven't had any credit with BoA before. Since they used experian those two times I only unlocked my experian file during this application.
My experian fico is 728 and about 11% total utilization on my cards, no lates or negatives. I did have a lot of inquiries though and new accounts in the past 2 years. Just a warning for anyone, you can still be denied for a secured card!
if you want in with boa, get a checking account, it's an unofficial, official requirement.
My spouse got a Customized Cash Rewards card with no deposit accounts. It's not a hard requirement, but their handling of credit files with a fraud alert on it is the worst I've ever seen. They ended up hard pulling his credit twice because everyone there was too dumb to figure out how to handle it, unlike most other banks, where it's like calling you on the phone at the number on the alert or wanting a picture of your driver's license.
I always have Fraud Alerts because it makes the bank do what it should have to do anyway. Hey maybe before you give someone a $60,000 carr and a $30,000 credit card, figure out who they are first.
Comenity Bank AKA Bread Financial also belongs on the Wall of Shame for handling Fraud Alerts. If you have a prepaid phone number so your bill is $20 a month, not $100, for a cell phone, their computer won't let them call you and you'll have a hard pull, not the $7,800 Bread Rewards card they said I was one click away from.
Everyone should use prepaid cell phones because they don't make you get price gouged for "free" cell phones that are actually a commitment to be locked in for three years while the big carriers rip you off for the entire price of the phone and then some anyway, and then if you cancel you find out it was actually bill credits that are due now and you'll pay or get a collection because that's how free phones work apparently.
The fact that Comenity can't call you on Mint Mobile is enough reason to stay away. I've never seen any other bank that can't call me to verify my identity because I use Mint Mobile. Even banks that are SUPER paranoid about risk, like AmEx.