Woke up this morning with a message from Capital One:
Congratulations! Because you’ve used your card responsibly, you’ve been upgraded to an unsecured Capital One® Platinum Mastercard®. Go, you!
And they returned (or applied) my security deposit to my card. It's a small victory but for a person who had struggled with credit for so long and just being irresponsible, young and dumb, I can't believe how far in a year I've come. Last year at this time, I had 0 credit cards and score in the low 500s. Now my score is in the high 600s and I have 3 CCs including an AMEX, which I thought I'd never get, and a few store cards that I use. I know it's not much but it just feels good to know your rebuilding is paying off. Thanks to everyone in the forum for all the help because I literally would've have been lost and discouraged if I didn't read the stories people post.
It took me 10 months to graduate for anyone that curious. In that time, I only had one auto CLI that was 2x (Cap1 doesn't allow for secured CLI requests). Does anyone know after you graduate, is there a timeline to request a CLI? Or look to upgrade your card? I wouldn't mind the Venture card though I may be getting ahead of myself but just curious does anyone have any more knowledge on how to make it grow now that it's finally unsecured?
Thanks again everyone. These forums are amazing!
That's awesome news. Congrats.
Not to be a buzzkill, because it really is a good thing that Cap One graduated your card, but getting Cap One to grow significantly is difficult these days. I've tried over and over again, multiple different strategies and they just didn't wanna give much credit, I actually sock drawered mine a couple of months back because since getting their card I've been approved for cards with much bigger starting limits, rendering the cap one useless in my case other than helping out my aaoa maybe.
I would suggest continuing to use the card however you've been using it up to this point, then once you break into the 700 club start going for other cards with generous limits. (Amex BCE, BoA, NFCU, Penfed)
Not to be a buzzkill, because it really is a good thing that Cap One graduated your card, but getting Cap One to grow significantly is difficult these days. I've tried over and over again, multiple different strategies and they just didn't wanna give much credit, I actually sock drawered mine a couple of months back because since getting their card I've been approved for cards with much bigger starting limits, rendering the cap one useless in my case other than helping out my aaoa maybe.
I would suggest continuing to use the card however you've been using it up to this point, then once you break into the 700 club start going for other cards with generous limits. (Amex BCE, BoA, NFCU, Penfed)
Congrats! 
Nice job Seems a pretty hard to graduate card
Seems a pretty hard to graduate card
Way to go!
@iowe wrote:
That's awesome news. Congrats.
Not to be a buzzkill, because it really is a good thing that Cap One graduated your card, but getting Cap One to grow significantly is difficult these days. I've tried over and over again, multiple different strategies and they just didn't wanna give much credit, I actually sock drawered mine a couple of months back because since getting their card I've been approved for cards with much bigger starting limits, rendering the cap one useless in my case other than helping out my aaoa maybe.
I would suggest continuing to use the card however you've been using it up to this point, then once you break into the 700 club start going for other cards with generous limits. (Amex BCE, BoA, NFCU, Penfed)
Actually I don't use my Cap One Platinum that much anymore because I have other cards. MY QS for pretty much everyday purchases like gas and I use my BCE for travel, restaurants, etc. MY BCE is easily my favorite card in terms of rewards right now but I just try to keep it low and PIF so it can keep growing. I was just curious to anyone who has had their card graduate to how difficult it was to get it to grow. Because if it is difficult, I may just sock drawer it and wait until I get an offer for a Venture or something like that.
I'm in the garden for a while but cracking 710-720 would seriously make consider PenFed's card. It's tempting. Ideally, I'd like to get in with PenFed and Citi or Discover to round out my portfolio. But right now, I'm just going to wait it out.
I'll probably just sock drawer this Platinum until I get an offer to upgrade I can't refuse. I'm just happy it graduated because you always hear stories about how it's hard to graduate of lately.
