Discover It Secured Denied

[Anonymous]

So I just decided to apply for the Discover It Secured card today so that I can add more cards to my credit report and I heard that it's a pretty good one to have. I did have a charge-off back in 2012 with them for about $600, but I thought I would give it a shot. Instant denial and called to recon, but that was denied too. They said that the charge-off was too recent in their eyes. What I don't get is the fact that there is literally zero risk on the part of the lender of a secured card, so why would they both to deny people who are trying to rebuild their credit, get back on their feet and give them money for their product down the road? I guess I figured 4 years would have been enough time to wait, but turns out that the rumors about Discover holding grudges over their blacklist turned out to be true. 

I also applied with Cap 1 to get a secured card and was approved for a $200 deposit. Glad they are giving me a change. Too bad I had to waste a hard pull on Discover. I have 2 other secured cards, one with a local CU with a $300 limit and one with NFCU with a $500 limit. Do you guys recommend picking up 1 or 2 more secured cards or should I just start gardening? I am a USAA and SDFCU member, so I was thinking about one of their cards, BoA or DCU secured cards. This has turned out to be a frustrating night.

My current scores are  TU 528 EX 507 EQ 482

Any advice you guys have would be awesome!

[Anonymous]

Sorry about the Discover denial, but congrats on the other secured cards that were approved! I too have always wondered why lenders deny people for secured cards when it's our own money that we are using. There is no risk to them at all.

Personally I think you have enough secured cards for now. Just use them responsibly and hopefully in 6 months or so you will be able to get unsecured cards.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. Just with one card reporting right now, I've bumped my scores up by 50-80 points since 4/01/16. I guess with 2 more cards added this month on my report, it'll probably go up much faster since I use about 10% of my credit line. My sister is also going to add me as an AU on her Chase Freedom that's 4 years old, so that'll really help my AoA. 

Do you think doing a pay for delete with discover might be worth it on that card? For some reason, it's still reporting as open even though it was a charge off for $780 in 07/2014 on a $500 limit. It's wrecking my utilization rate and payment history since it's reporting as open. Is that even legal? Can I dispute it?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply. Just with one card reporting right now, I've bumped my scores up by 50-80 points since 4/01/16. I guess with 2 more cards added this month on my report, it'll probably go up much faster since I use about 10% of my credit line. My sister is also going to add me as an AU on her Chase Freedom that's 4 years old, so that'll really help my AoA. 

Do you think doing a pay for delete with discover might be worth it on that card? For some reason, it's still reporting as open even though it was a charge off for $780 in 07/2014 on a $500 limit. It's wrecking my utilization rate and payment history since it's reporting as open. Is that even legal? Can I dispute it?

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Congrats on the score increase! Paying it will probably help when it comes to Discover's internal records. I don't know if the "pay for delete" will work with Discover, but it doesn't hurt to try. You can't dispute an accurate item, and I think they can report it as open until you pay it or 7 years and 180 days has passed since the date of first delinquency--then it will be removed from your reports. It being open and hurting your util does suck; I've been there. I even had collection agencies before that kept re-aging the opening date to make the collection look newer than it really was. I'm so glad to finally be over that mess, and I have learned my lesson to never screw up my credit again.

[Anonymous]

I think there is still a great amount of risk to the lender with secured cards. I started my journey with a Cap 1 secured and put my sister on as an AU so she could rent a car. She kept the car for a month as opposed to a week and the charges were pushed through and I got the pleasure of paying off $1300 on a $400 limit card. If I had chosen not to pay off that debt, Cap 1 would have ate $900.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think there is still a great amount of risk to the lender with secured cards. I started my journey with a Cap 1 secured and put my sister on as an AU so she could rent a car. She kept the car for a month as opposed to a week and the charges were pushed through and I got the pleasure of paying off $1300 on a $400 limit card. If I had chosen not to pay off that debt, Cap 1 would have ate $900.

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Ouch! I'm surprised they let the charge go through. Hope your sister paid you back.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think there is still a great amount of risk to the lender with secured cards. I started my journey with a Cap 1 secured and put my sister on as an AU so she could rent a car. She kept the car for a month as opposed to a week and the charges were pushed through and I got the pleasure of paying off $1300 on a $400 limit card. If I had chosen not to pay off that debt, Cap 1 would have ate $900.

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Ouch! I'm surprised they let the charge go through. Hope your sister paid you back.

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I worked in the rental car industry through most of college and we never failed to push cards over the limits with overdue rentals. 

As for being paid back, sadly no, but I allegedly learned a lesson (at least that's what my dad told me!)

[Shawndajoy]

For those declined, did you ever enter bank account info?

[RonM21]

Op, I think you go into garden mode for a bit and let things grow. Before you know it things will begin to open up for you. Congrats on the cards you got.

[Saintsfan82]

I apped for a Discover It Secured Card on 6-10-16 and got deneid. After calling the rep, I was told that my BK that was discharged June 2013 was the main factor for denial. I wish I would of known that a recent BK would exclude someone from getting a secured card. I had a Cap 1 secured card and I currently have a Citi secured card. I was wanting to get my foot in the door with Discover with this card. I am currently running about a 35% utilization with about $10,000 in total credit line across all accounts.