Cap1 has Unsecured me :)

[catherine412]

Hi, all. I have had a Capital One secured mastercard with a $250.00 credit limit for the past two years, and it's the only card that I have. (Well then, somehow I applied for another one with a low limit and got it, so I combined them both but still only got a total combined credit limit of $500.00). I was starting to feel hopeless at the 2 year point, that they would just never unsecure it and of course with a secured card they won't up the credit limit, their rep told me on the phone...basically not much controlling power. Well today they didn't tell me but I checked and they unsecured the card (I got an email about it), and uped my credit limit to 1,500.000. It's not quite as high as I genuinely would desire, but I was happy with that since I was going to give up hope. It's a lot more liveable than my credit limit before and considering I have a couple hard inquiriys for applying for new cards that won't disappear for 2 years, i might not be able to get approved for a new card for quite some time so I was happy that they uped it to a more liveable amount of money. Also, take into consideration the fact that I have decided to go back to college FT, and am only a PT worker right now (had to give up a decent paying FT job to bang school out FT in a reasonable amount of time), so I am not really making much money at all right now for a halfway decent credit limit.

I applied for a Chase Slate card two months ago, and feel like I was approved but just got stuck on the verification process....they gave me a list of all the things that could verify my information 3 ways (couldn't use driver's license due to having a separate mailing address than home address), and I couldn't provide that information. I don't own a home, I don't have an apartment anymore, my car was gifted to me and both the car and the insurance are not in my name even though it is my car, i didn't have a bill to show them, my tax form has my mailing address on it so that was a no. They wouldn't accept government clearances, government licenses, or a drivers license. But literally out of what they told me which was steered in the direction of home insurance or car insurance, I could not provide any of that and so I wasn't penalized for it but I didn't get the card. After faxing them multiple things and losing hope, my Cap1 card was unsecured with the CL raised so it was a nice small consolation prize for losing out on Chase.

[Anonymous]

---

@catherine412 wrote:

Hi, all. I have had a Capital One secured mastercard with a $250.00 credit limit for the past two years, and it's the only card that I have. (Well then, somehow I applied for another one with a low limit and got it, so I combined them both but still only got a total combined credit limit of $500.00). I was starting to feel hopeless at the 2 year point, that they would just never unsecure it and of course with a secured card they won't up the credit limit, their rep told me on the phone...basically not much controlling power. Well today they didn't tell me but I checked and they unsecured the card (I got an email about it), and uped my credit limit to 1,500.000. It's not quite as high as I genuinely would desire, but I was happy with that since I was going to give up hope. It's a lot more liveable than my credit limit before and considering I have a couple hard inquiriys for applying for new cards that won't disappear for 2 years, i might not be able to get approved for a new card for quite some time so I was happy that they uped it to a more liveable amount of money. Also, take into consideration the fact that I have decided to go back to college FT, and am only a PT worker right now (had to give up a decent paying FT job to bang school out FT in a reasonable amount of time), so I am not really making much money at all right now for a halfway decent credit limit.

I applied for a Chase Slate card two months ago, and feel like I was approved but just got stuck on the verification process....they gave me a list of all the things that could verify my information 3 ways (couldn't use driver's license due to having a separate mailing address than home address), and I couldn't provide that information. I don't own a home, I don't have an apartment anymore, my car was gifted to me and both the car and the insurance are not in my name even though it is my car, i didn't have a bill to show them, my tax form has my mailing address on it so that was a no. They wouldn't accept government clearances, government licenses, or a drivers license. But literally out of what they told me which was steered in the direction of home insurance or car insurance, I could not provide any of that and so I wasn't penalized for it but I didn't get the card. After faxing them multiple things and losing hope, my Cap1 card was unsecured with the CL raised so it was a nice small consolation prize for losing out on Chase.

---

Congrats on your unsecuring, I know how awesome it feels.

1) If you don't have any particular preference for a CC or CCC, and you basically want to improve credit, I'd steer away from commercial banks (I like Cap1 though) and explore the CUs world, which is pretty big. Advantages being they'll tipically give you higher SLs (sometimes regardless of any income or your current CLs), usually less/lower fees, and they're much more flexible with fair scores and issues in the past.

2) 2 HPs shouldn't be much of a concern. After 12 months HPs are not even computed in your FICO, and after 6 months they also have much less effect. Also, after 5-6 recent HPs on your report any extra HP doesn't affect at all. I.e. I have 16 HPs on my EQ report right now, 13 of which from the last 3 months, and I am counting the days to apply again.

The agressive approach is that every 3 months you should be able to apply and get approved for some LOCs. If that feels like too much, then every 6 months is safer. But 2 years is unnecessary unless you wanted to garden/age your current accounts. However I prefer to apply now and age later than aging 1-2 cards now and apply in bulk in years, bc it'll take me double the time (or more) to reach the same AAoA.

Hope it was helpful

[AverageJoesCredit]

Congrats on unsecuring, i understand C1 can be difficult to do so. Enjoy your new limit

[Anonymous]

It be so cool if we could figure out how they conclude who gets unsecured. Is there any rhyme or reason?

[Total80sKid]

Congrats!

I’m going on 3yrs with my AF secured Cap1 QS1 with a $850 limit.

The fee gets charged in Dec. I will call towards the end of November and ask one more time and if they tell me again that my account isn’t eligible and I will cancel my card instantly.

I don’t have a use for it. It won’t grow with me so why would I want to pay $40 a year for that?

I have cards at $20k now, for goodness sakes

[Anonymous]

Congrats! As AJC stated, not easy to do with Cap1, so good job!

[JoeLuvsHisCredit]

Congrats

[Shooting-For-800]

OP - Congrats on Cap One.  

I have found them to be very generous and forgiving.

Be loyal and make large or PIF payments and they should grow with you.

Sometimes it is easier to open an new account to get better rates and credit lines.

Some starter accounts will have glass ceilings, but they are not saying that you cant get more credit, just have to open a new acct.

Several times I have been denied for CLI and opened a new account with a higher SL than the card I had that I was trying to get CLI on.

Use the card, pay the card, make smart decisions, and hang in there.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!!!!! 

[Anonymous]

Two years is a loooooonnnnng time to wait for unsecuring. Of course, forever is even longer. I’d love to get another Cap1 card, but their triple pull policy has me gun shy. I was hoping to PC my secured card when it unsecures, but am becoming discouraged. It just reported my 11th month ... all PIF and on time. Not on the unsecuring.