Merrick Bank

[Anonymous]

I have about 9 inquiries with transunion. Some will drop off in august 2015. Reluctant to loose points with hard pull.

[babynurse06]

I have nothing bad to say about Merrick. The $72 annual fee might sway me to not apply, but in general, mine has been a great card for me. Started my rebuild in March 2013 with a Cap1 secured card. Got my Merrick offer in October. Mine was no annual fee, $1000 starting limit. I didn't get the double your line offer, but mine has increased to $1800 over the last year 1/2 pretty steadily $300 at a time. No hidden fees. Interest is high, so you definitely don't want to carry a balance. Because of this card I now have a QS1 with a $2750 limit and just got a Freedom last month with a $2500 SL.

[Anonymous]

The fee for the Merrick Card is $72.00

[Anonymous]

I guess 1 more inquirie wont make a differance. At least the double line increase is attractive.

[Anonymous]

Ours was a no fee. But you have a very thin file. I would take this card and also try for a Cap One and the Shopping Card trick for Overstock and J Crew. I would not apply for anything else as your small limits and thin file won't support it. If you are able to get a couple of these accounts by Christmas things should start moving up for you .

[Anonymous]

I dont understand the shopping card trick though. How does it work.

[Anonymous]

Just do a search for it . LOT'S of info on the forum about it. You basically can go on the websites of Stores that a Comenity Bank handles the credit cards for put an item or 2 in the shopping cart, input your credit info EXACTLY as it appears on your bureaus ( particularly Equifax) and if you get a pop up saying you're approved for a credit card, you accept the offer and you got a new account with a soft pull where the inquiry won't show on your bureaus, but the account will report to all 3.

you don't have to buy what you put in your account to get approved.

[joedtx]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The fee for the Merrick Card is $72.00

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Based on your current score you aren't too many points away from getting Prime cards, if your CS was in the 500's and your are starting your rebuilding then this would be an option but you are past this stage, work with your exisiting lines and your CS will go up and you won't have to deal with closing out this card or any other fees.

[DaveInAZ]

I've been happy with Merrick Bank, got it back in 4/2012, auto CLI'd to $3100 CL. I've outgrown it with much larger CLs & Rewards, but as one of my oldest post BK TLs I keep it open, letting a couple small monthly bills charge to it & PIF before statement, forcing a $0 balance report. they recently sent me a replacement card ith new expiration date of 3/2020, so I guess they're happy with that.

But I think maybe they've been seeing what Credit One & First Premier get away with on fees, mine has no AF but horrendous 25.5% APR, which just guarantees I'll never carry a balance. But $6/mo. isn't bad for a better rebuilding card. Use it and let balances report before PIF and Barclays & Cap One will come a'knocking in 6 mos or so.