In case you missed it, for a short period of time Amazon and Synchrony offered a secured version of their store card with a max deposit of $500. After a couple of months, the card was shutdown because people thought Amazon was preying on people with less than perfect credit. Personally, I disagree, but I digress. Because of the very small window, datapoints are lacking, so I decided to share some info I just received from a rep while helping my mother with her account. She was freaking out because while her statement cut showing available credit, the account was showing -$3 available. Being that English is not her first language, I had to speak to the rep.
- when making a payment, the account is credited immediately towards the balance, but the available balance will not be released for 7 days. This is where her problem was. While she had made a payment and got credit for it before statement cut, the available was showing negative. She was afraid that it would affect her card graduating. The rep stated that she was not actually negative and there were no internal derogatory marks. Her history was "flawless".
- the rep stated that she could see the card was scheduled to graduate after the next paymemt. When asked to clarify, she said the cards are scheduled to graduate after the 7th payment. If she's correct, this clears up any question about the blurb on the app about needing to meet Synchrony's credit criteria. Her scores are currently around 600. Once there's confirmation, I will update the thread. My mom wanted to make an additional payment to speed up the process so the rep took the payment over the phone and congratulated her on graduation.
- according to the rep, it will take about 30 days for the process to finish, at which point, a letter and/or email will be sent confirming graduation. A check for the deposit should arrive around that time as well.
- nothing will change with the card other than it showing as unsecured. Her balance and history will transfer over to the new unsecured account and she'll retain the existing card number.
- it's unknown if there will be a CLI that goes with the graduation, or if one can be requested immediately after it graduates. We'll give it a try and update here.
If anyone else has some datapoints to add, please feel free. I know there are a few people here that are wondering what the process will be and I'm sure it would help them. While at it, feel free to discuss whether the card should have been shut down or not and if these types of products would be nice to see more often with other brands.
Congratulations for your mother on graduated account!
@Remedios wrote:
A quick reminder to keep your posts free of politics, TOS and all that.
This. It's non-negotiable. Thank you.
@calyx not sure why more banks don't have graduati g secured cards. It would allow them to sign up more people, give them capital to work with in the form of the deposits, and if someone defaults the loss would be somewhat mitigated