Hi everyone! I've received a lot of good info from this forum in the past, without becoming a member. Including the tips that led me to apply for my Capital One Platinum Secured Card. So I'm happy to finally try logging in so I can say thank you to this nice community!
Now I have a new question for you guys!
Backstory: Started with totally blank credit. More than 7 years of having nothing to do with credit.
Got the C-One Secured in January of this year. I upped the deposit just a little so it started as a $300 CL. At the 6 month mark they increased the CL to $600, which was nice. I can't recall how long it usually takes for another CLI, though I know I once read the answer here on the forum.
I'm not in a huge hurry, but I'd like to figure out what to do next. Do I wait to have a complete years worth of credit under my belt? Should I stick with C-One offerings?
Let's see... what do you guys like to know to go with these questions...
My score is hovering around 650. It's been up to 700 when I've paid the card off completely by the right date (the part that throws me for a loop). See, what I've been doing is using the card as much as I possibly can and paying it off multiple times per month. The statement date is the 20th and for some reason that period of the month doesn't work well with my funds, so I'm always carrying about 2/3rds of the limit on the card right before the statement and subsequent credit score impact. This is something I know I should work on but with Covid there's been less wiggle in the budget between paychecks. In any case I've never been near late or anything and I'm funneling about $800 through the card each month. It would help a lot to have more elbow room in the form of CL to work with.
So what I don't want to do is apply for anything else and get denied... I'm waiting until I can be confident of an approval. I had originally been planning on a year minimum, so Jan, to try for another card. It's getting tempting to window shop though, so you guys please let me know what you think?
Thanks a bunch! 
I would wait until you get that one year minimum under the belt like you originally planned. At that point, definitely venture away from Cap One whether it's to Discover or maybe a credit union card if you qualify for membership.
Who do you bank with? Could be an easy in there too possibly.
As far as those bonus points when you pay at the "right time", that's based on your reported utilization. Although it currently has no memory, it is an easy way to bump your score up if you know you're going for some new credit. Keep your statement balance to 9% or lower for your 1/20 statement and you should hopefully get a nice boost.
Caveat being that you might also see a decrease due to scorecard reassignment (no longer a new account card because you'll be 1 year), I don't know the details on how that all works out too well.
Also, once you get to January, start checking the links in this thread to see if you have some other preapprovals and use that as a jumping off point.
as of 1/1/23
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone! I've received a lot of good info from this forum in the past, without becoming a member. Including the tips that led me to apply for my Capital One Platinum Secured Card. So I'm happy to finally try logging in so I can say thank you to this nice community!
Now I have a new question for you guys!
Backstory: Started with totally blank credit. More than 7 years of having nothing to do with credit.
Got the C-One Secured in January of this year. I upped the deposit just a little so it started as a $300 CL. At the 6 month mark they increased the CL to $600, which was nice. I can't recall how long it usually takes for another CLI, though I know I once read the answer here on the forum.
I'm not in a huge hurry, but I'd like to figure out what to do next. Do I wait to have a complete years worth of credit under my belt? Should I stick with C-One offerings?
Let's see... what do you guys like to know to go with these questions...
My score is hovering around 650. It's been up to 700 when I've paid the card off completely by the right date (the part that throws me for a loop). See, what I've been doing is using the card as much as I possibly can and paying it off multiple times per month. The statement date is the 20th and for some reason that period of the month doesn't work well with my funds, so I'm always carrying about 2/3rds of the limit on the card right before the statement and subsequent credit score impact. This is something I know I should work on but with Covid there's been less wiggle in the budget between paychecks. In any case I've never been near late or anything and I'm funneling about $800 through the card each month. It would help a lot to have more elbow room in the form of CL to work with.
So what I don't want to do is apply for anything else and get denied... I'm waiting until I can be confident of an approval. I had originally been planning on a year minimum, so Jan, to try for another card. It's getting tempting to window shop though, so you guys please let me know what you think?
Thanks a bunch!
A year of history would be better but if you have to have something now....Amex has a prequalify tool that's usually pretty reliable and they're not afraid of younger profiles - normally...
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone! I've received a lot of good info from this forum in the past, without becoming a member. Including the tips that led me to apply for my Capital One Platinum Secured Card. So I'm happy to finally try logging in so I can say thank you to this nice community!
Now I have a new question for you guys!
Backstory: Started with totally blank credit. More than 7 years of having nothing to do with credit.
Got the C-One Secured in January of this year. I upped the deposit just a little so it started as a $300 CL. At the 6 month mark they increased the CL to $600, which was nice. I can't recall how long it usually takes for another CLI, though I know I once read the answer here on the forum.
I'm not in a huge hurry, but I'd like to figure out what to do next. Do I wait to have a complete years worth of credit under my belt? Should I stick with C-One offerings?
Let's see... what do you guys like to know to go with these questions...
My score is hovering around 650. It's been up to 700 when I've paid the card off completely by the right date (the part that throws me for a loop). See, what I've been doing is using the card as much as I possibly can and paying it off multiple times per month. The statement date is the 20th and for some reason that period of the month doesn't work well with my funds, so I'm always carrying about 2/3rds of the limit on the card right before the statement and subsequent credit score impact. This is something I know I should work on but with Covid there's been less wiggle in the budget between paychecks. In any case I've never been near late or anything and I'm funneling about $800 through the card each month. It would help a lot to have more elbow room in the form of CL to work with.
So what I don't want to do is apply for anything else and get denied... I'm waiting until I can be confident of an approval. I had originally been planning on a year minimum, so Jan, to try for another card. It's getting tempting to window shop though, so you guys please let me know what you think?
Thanks a bunch!
Unfortunately, with their secured CC, you only ever get 1 CLI (the "credit steps" increase, generally of $300) and at this time they will not graduate secured CCs, meaning you will not get your deposit back until you close the card.
So this CC will be stuck at $600 until they decide to start graduating CCs again or until you get another card and you close the secured one.
You can always try the pre-approval websites durectly through the creditors like: Discover, Amex, and Chase. There are others, too. Bank of America and NFCU only give more like recommendations, than actual pre-approvals, so that you aren't mislead. Getting a preapproval is not 100% guaranteed, but usually they are quite solid and then you are not wasting HPs shooting apps in the dark.
It would be best to show better utilization before apping if you report high util monthly. If your cyrrent due date does not work, you can change it, online, I believe. It may take a couple cycles to get everything straight reporting-wise once you request the change of due date. You need to make sure that by the statement date you have your payments/charges cleared and have what you want reporting on that date. You probably want $5-$10 reporting so you don't get an all-zero penalty for scoring.
For Cap One, both me and my SO make payments directly through the Cap One app/website and it generally ppsts by midnight, if I make it early enough or by midnight the following day if I make the payment later in the day/night. I give myself enough room to let the payment post and charges clear before the statement date, usually 2 days.
Good luck!
