Wells Fargo Secured Card graduation

[Anonymous]

Just received a letter from Wells Fargo that my secured credit card will graduate to an unsecured credit card end of April. I opened it in January 2016 with a $2k deposit as I had zero credit history then. Even though I do not use this card that much anymore, I read many comments here that WF is rather reluctant in graduating their secured cards, so I feel somewhat honored that they are graduating my card.

It is another confirmation for me that all the effort to build a good credit history actually pays off after a while. It truly was a tough start a little more than a year ago. On this occasion, I also have to give big props to AMEX as they were the ONLY ones giving me a $5k credit card right after I had just obtained my American SSN. They already new me for some years from overseas and did not care about my empty US credit file. Very thankful for that and I never made them regret it (and do not intend to ever change that).

[DeeBee78]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just received a letter from Wells Fargo that my secured credit card will graduate to an unsecured credit card end of April. I opened it in January 2016 with a $2k deposit as I had zero credit history then. Even though I do not use this card that much anymore, I read many comments here that WF is rather reluctant in graduating their secured cards, so I feel somewhat honored that they are graduating my card.

It is another confirmation for me that all the effort to build a good credit history actually pays off after a while. It truly was a tough start a little more than a year ago. On this occasion, I also have to give big props to AMEX as they were the ONLY ones giving me a $5k credit card right after I had just obtained my American SSN. They already new me for some years from overseas and did not care about my empty US credit file. Very thankful for that and I never made them regret it (and do not intend to ever change that).

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Congrats on the upgrade. You're absolutely right about their unwillingness to unsecure for some profiles. I had a WF secured Visa for 23 months that they refused to budge on. I ended up closing it (along with all my other WF accounts) right after I got approved for my first unsecured card.

[Anonymous]

Congrats. Same thing happened to me that happened to DeeBee. Had the secured card (which I will admit I got on Recon and was happy with the service and card) but I had it for 18 months, no graduation. They say they will start looking at 12 mo but they only graduate cards in Sept/October and March/April. 2X a year. So if you don't get it by April or October you need to wait 6 more months. I finally got frustrated because I was getting Disco and Chase and Amex and I still could not get my measly $500 WF card to unsecure. When you call they always say "you can apply for a new card" but that wasn't the point. I had raised my FICO over 200 points and had a mid 700 score and they didn't care.

I closed them.

So feel grateful and happy. Enjoy your graduation. It is rare.
I'm not a WF hater like some on here... so I say enjoy the card and update in 6 mo or so once you use it and see how you like the new unsecured card. Did it graduate to a rewards card or not? Any CLI?

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! And here's hoping you enjoy your new card and SL.

[Anonymous]

The letter said my card will actually remain the same, so there is/was nothing to chose from in terms of a rewards cards etc.. So this card basically has zero perks, other than I think you can use it at Costco (never tried that). But it is my oldest account and it now finally comes with no AF, so I'm going to keep it open and use it every once in a while.

The letter also said the APR will remain unchanged at approx. 19%, which does not bother me at all as I never carry a balance. It does not say anything about the CL going forward, but from what I read here I'm expecting that the CL will most likely remain unchanged. Its just that you receive your deposit back 30 days after the graduation took place.

Initially, I also had my checkings and savings account with WF, but closed those completely in December 2016 and just kept the secured card. Maybe this is WF's way of saying that they do not want to see me leave them entirely. I already decided for myself that if that graduation does not happen within the first 23 months, I would close this card to avoid another $25 annual fee.