Approved -BOA secured credit card now what?

[JasonKR]

I'm turing 20 soon, normal college student who gets 2k each quarter.

I applied credit card on local CU with 1k CL on September and got denied (no credit history)

Then applied to Citibank student credit card and got denied (becuase of hard inquiry  from CU)

Then applied to BOA secured card and got approved with $300 CL!

Got some questions about this.

1. Since my credit limit is $300 per month, I need to maintain spending under $100 per month correct?

2. I heard there's 1-2-3 reward card for secured card, how do I apply & any disadvantage by applying it?

3. When I am sending payment, is it better to send payment more than one time per month? (let say I spent $60, pay $20*3days)

4. How long does it take to graduate from secured card to unsecured card?

5. Any other advise for me?

so excited to use first credit card!

Thanks!

[Revelate]

---

@JasonKR wrote:

I'm turing 20 soon, normal college student who gets 2k each quarter.

I applied credit card on local CU with 1k CL on September and got denied (no credit history)

Then applied to Citibank student credit card and got denied (becuase of hard inquiry  from CU)

Then applied to BOA secured card and got approved with $300 CL!

Got some questions about this.

1. Since my credit limit is $300 per month, I need to maintain spending under $100 per month correct?

2. I heard there's 1-2-3 reward card for secured card, how do I apply & any disadvantage by applying it?

3. When I am sending payment, is it better to send payment more than one time per month? (let say I spent $60, pay $20*3days)

4. How long does it take to graduate from secured card to unsecured card?

5. Any other advise for me?

so excited to use first credit card!

Thanks!

---

Welcome to the forums!

1) Your spending can be whatever you want, and you can make multiple payments to the card.  I wouldn't worry about this so much right now, just make sure you make the payments on time, oh and do take some care not to go over the limit which can be a challenge.  Multiple payments may well be your friend.

2) You can get the 1-2-3 rewards package added on certainly as soon as you receive the card.  There is a huge upside to this (rewards), and no downside other than they'll will send you a new card though the old one is still valid during that period anyway.  May be able to get it earlier actually, someone will likely clarify that for me fortunately .

3) Doesn't matter how many payments you make, if you can do it as one lump sum I would anyway just from a convenience perspective.

4) BOFA reliably graduates in one year, think I've only heard of one exception to that.

5) I highly recommend taking the time to peruse the information here as there's a wealth of useful data here.

[Cadillac-XTS]

Congrats on your approval

[JasonKR]

Thank you for the advise! No worries on typos. I got lots of information from this forum!

[JasonKR]

Thank you!

[ccnewb23]

After 6 months you can pull a FICO score to see where you're starting. If your score is high enough, you might be able to get an unsecured card with companies like Capital One. After a year, you can call BofA to graduate your secured to unsecured. I was in the same position around Aug-11. Garden garden garden.

[JasonKR]

I will just leave it as it is haha then I will earn more credit then apply for Amex or Citi credit card or something. Boa looks find though. My main use is focused on oversea use, rewards and simple/easy payment.

[Springer]

---

@JasonKR wrote:

I'm turing 20 soon, normal college student who gets 2k each quarter.

I applied credit card on local CU with 1k CL on September and got denied (no credit history)

Then applied to Citibank student credit card and got denied (becuase of hard inquiry  from CU)

Then applied to BOA secured card and got approved with $300 CL!

Got some questions about this.

1. Since my credit limit is $300 per month, I need to maintain spending under $100 per month correct?

2. I heard there's 1-2-3 reward card for secured card, how do I apply & any disadvantage by applying it?

3. When I am sending payment, is it better to send payment more than one time per month? (let say I spent $60, pay $20*3days)

4. How long does it take to graduate from secured card to unsecured card?

5. Any other advise for me?

so excited to use first credit card!

Thanks!

---

call this number, 888-260-4696, tell them you just got your secured card and would like to add 123 rewards to it.  Takes about 10 minutes.  Just did it 2 days ago

[JasonKR]

Thanks for the info! I searched forum but seems like majority of people are saying that I need to add it after card arrives.

[BellaBuckie]

Congrats!!