Denied for BoA Secured Card

[AndrewF]

---

@Jeffster1 wrote:

---

---

@AndrewF 

The Credit Union for my company told me they were ending my membership when I filed BK in 2017, and basically told me never to come back. I IIB them in BK for a few thousand on one of their credit cards. 

After my DC in January 2021, I got a random call from this same credit union inviting me back. I guess it was an OK gesture, but I really didn't need them, so I passed. I have since wondered why the change of mind on their part. 

---

After the credit union kicked my mom out and got mad (hopefully they fired that loan officer for incompetence...eating all sorts of bad loans when the person obviously wasn't good for it can bring down the entire institution!), she got a bank account at PNC.

They lost over $13,000 on the car (out of a $17,000 loan), and then my mother was mad when they sent her a paper saying they credited her a couple thousand bucks.

She said "They sent that letter to insult me! I could have sold it for more!". I said, "The law requires them to dispose of it quickly, and they will not get a good price at auction. They send that letter to you after deducting the fees for a car repossession, which will always be something...less if you drive it over there yourself and hand them the keys back, more if they have to get it, a lot more if you manage to hide it from them for a while.)

She got a car from a pretty nasty overpriced used car lot, so it had problems from the beginning and she paid too much. Then to add to that, she was following a truck too closely, and a rock flew out of it and chipped the seal on the windshield, and the car whistled at you going down the highway. It was never going to fetch top dollar because even if you sold it private party, they would have noticed a lot of that.

She doesn't seem to know how credit works, so even at 68 years old now, she has poor credit habits. She's never "gotten it" that when you don't pay your bills, you'll pay more for something else later on down the line. Either it will cost you a loan or you'll have to do business with the sharks.

In the end, you save money by paying bills and working with your creditors if you can.

My parents always told me that I never learn from punishment. I know what happens when you don't pay your bills. It's called a credit report, and they start punishing you.

[soxfaininfl]

BOA is horrible! I banked with them for years. They hit me with so many bank fees. I filed BK7 back in 2016. I didn't include BOA in the BK7 as I didn't have any credit cards with them. I applied for the Cash Rewards card and got declined a few years after I was discharged. I tried for the secured card and got declined also. They wanted a co-signer for a secured card Lol. I ended up closing my checking account with them and went to Chase. Chase was such a better banking experience to be honest. Luckily my BK7 drops off my credit reports in December, so I'll try to get back with Chase. I'm with Navy Federal finally but still have Chase as a secondary bank account. BOA credit cards no longer interest me. There are better banks than BOA to get a secure card with.

[Thomas_Thumb]

---

@AndrewF wrote:

---

@Jeffster1 wrote:

---

---

@AndrewF 

The Credit Union for my company told me they were ending my membership when I filed BK in 2017, and basically told me never to come back. I IIB them in BK for a few thousand on one of their credit cards. 

After my DC in January 2021, I got a random call from this same credit union inviting me back. I guess it was an OK gesture, but I really didn't need them, so I passed. I have since wondered why the change of mind on their part. 

---

After the credit union kicked my mom out and got mad (hopefully they fired that loan officer for incompetence...eating all sorts of bad loans when the person obviously wasn't good for it can bring down the entire institution!), she got a bank account at PNC.

They lost over $13,000 on the car (out of a $17,000 loan), and then my mother was mad when they sent her a paper saying they credited her a couple thousand bucks.

She said "They sent that letter to insult me! I could have sold it for more!". I said, "The law requires them to dispose of it quickly, and they will not get a good price at auction. They send that letter to you after deducting the fees for a car repossession, which will always be something...less if you drive it over there yourself and hand them the keys back, more if they have to get it, a lot more if you manage to hide it from them for a while.)

She got a car from a pretty nasty overpriced used car lot, so it had problems from the beginning and she paid too much. Then to add to that, she was following a truck too closely, and a rock flew out of it and chipped the seal on the windshield, and the car whistled at you going down the highway. It was never going to fetch top dollar because even if you sold it private party, they would have noticed a lot of that.

She doesn't seem to know how credit works, so even at 68 years old now, she has poor credit habits. She's never "gotten it" that when you don't pay your bills, you'll pay more for something else later on down the line. Either it will cost you a loan or you'll have to do business with the sharks.

In the end, you save money by paying bills and working with your creditors if you can.

My parents always told me that I never learn from punishment. I know what happens when you don't pay your bills. It's called a credit report, and they start punishing you.

---

@AndrewF 

You sound a lot like poster @IsambardPrince . Very similar background: Chicagoland, family credit issues, car stories and writing style. Any connection?

[AndrewF]

Lots of people have credit issues and family members that do weird stuff.

If you can't figure out who the weird one is in your family, it's probably you.

[Thomas_Thumb]

Sometimes you want to make a fresh start and leave your old self behind.

[creditgnome]

I got this card with a very low score. Definitely your bk. No bk here but lots of derogs over the years. Got in when they offered it by mail. BoA mailed Both secured card offers. Otherwise was denied ..tried many times online. This one is very hard to get.

[E36]

---

@teaxtea wrote:

Just a warning for anyone, you can still be denied for a secured card! 

---

I wrote this in previous post on my credit journey.

People make blanket statements (like get a secured card from a bank or CU), they don't understand why a people would get sub-prime or near-prime cards, because they assume as long as you give a deposit, they'll give you a card. They think, what's the risk? Why would a bank deny someone? They do. I was rejected by BoFA. I didn't declare bankruptcy. I had several charge offs, but none from BoFA. I actually had a card with BoFA that was paid on time and I closed years ago. 

As for Deposits and Secured Card
Chase & Wells: No Secured Card Option as of today
Citi: Graduation date not disclosed and varies. Some can't graduate after years even.
US Bank: Estimated Graduate after 12-18 months, but longer for other reasons.
BoFA: Graduate I forget, but won't graduate you if your score and profile can't support any card you a PC'g too.

Best is NavyFed and Discover: Pretty Much Guarantee to graduate you after 6 months, as long as you pay on time and no derogs on other cards.

When I did prequal with Discover, no card showed up for years. (I didn't want to hard apply for a secure card), but I did hard apply for BoFA card and got rejected.


That's why I was so excited I got approved for a BoFA co-branded card, because they rejected me before.

[Snow-Leopard]

---

@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.

---

BofA might have done you a favor. 

As an alternative, may I suggest . . .

Affinity Federal Credit Union in New Jersey offers a Secured Visa with no HP, no AF, 14.10% variable APR, minimum $250 deposit in the SmartStart savings account paying nearly 3% interest. Secured Loan does not require a HP. The credit union is not geo-fenced either.

Look very carefully, and you will find other credit unions offering secured cards, some with no HP (Ascend FCU in Tennessee and California CU / North Island CU in Southern California are two examples) and others with graduation opportunities (American Heritage FCU in Pennsylvania).

[AndrewF]

BofA gave me a pre-approval then denied me back in 2024.

I'll probably just never waste my time with them again. My spouse got a card but not before they incompetently double pulled him with Experian and Transunion (both twice) because there's like 16 different departments you have to talk with if you have a fraud alert.

If you have the fraud alert they hard pull then decline you and then you have to get the letter, call another department, within 30 days, and it had been like 32 or something.

[Horseshoez]

---

@AndrewF wrote:

BofA gave me a pre-approval then denied me back in 2024.

I'll probably just never waste my time with them again. My spouse got a card but not before they incompetently double pulled him with Experian and Transunion (both twice) because there's like 16 different departments you have to talk with if you have a fraud alert.

If you have the fraud alert they hard pull then decline you and then you have to get the letter, call another department, within 30 days, and it had been like 32 or something.

---

Yeah, Pre-Approval > Denial > Appeal > Denial, that the same game Discover played with me.  I'm never going back to that well again.