Bank of America secured card

[-Cain-]

Hello all, first post here, great forum from what I've read while lurking..

I've searched but haven't found my answer, so I'm going to ask. Does anybody know B of A's normal response time to an online app for their secured card? It's been a week, but I get the same status answer on their site about if you're approved blah blah blah. I've chatted with a rep and a branch rep and they've said up to two weeks. Seems a bit long. Is there automatic approve/deny status or does everyone get the same generic answer.

Thanks

[creditguy-378]

welcome to the forum!!!! well when I was a bof a customer it took about 2-3 weeks for a response for my card it wasn't a secured card though instead of the bofa secured card check out the citi secured card the main reason is they put it in a cd and it gives you a 1% return on your money and you can add to it anytime and after 18 mos of good standing with them they will give you your deposit back with interest and give your a unsecured card with the limit you previously had on the secured card unlike a lot of secured cards they give your deposit back without haveing to close the card and they are good about growing with you 

[vish1]

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@creditguy-378 wrote:

welcome to the forum!!!! well when I was a bof a customer it took about 2-3 weeks for a response for my card it wasn't a secured card though instead of the bofa secured card check out the citi secured card the main reason is they put it in a cd and it gives you a 1% return on your money and you can add to it anytime and after 18 mos of good standing with them they will give you your deposit back with interest and give your a unsecured card with the limit you previously had on the secured card unlike a lot of secured cards they give your deposit back without haveing to close the card and they are good about growing with you 

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Apologies if I missed something, but what's so great about this? BofA will unsecure your card in 1 year and will give you a unsecured CL higher than your secured CL. Mine went from 500 to 7500. BofA has been known to be generous with CLIs also.

The only benefit I see with citi is that they will give you 1% which I dont believe means much.

[creditguy-378]

i use to be a bofa customer back in the day, but in my experiences and others i know i just don't think that they have the best of service in anything when your starting out and trying to build credit they just never grew with me but once you do have a established yourself and your credit they are worth dealing with. never heard about citi not growing with someone unless they messed up somehow along the way   

[-Cain-]

I applied for bofa as I already have my accounts with them and for what I've needed theyve been ok so far. I may look into a Citi secured though now that you mention it. Thanks.

[-Cain-]

After the status update not being changed since I applied, I received an email stating that a decision had been reached on the card. Instructions were to go the the banks website and check the status. Well, I went back and it still has the same answer about "If approved...", but my checking account is showing a debit in the amount of the deposit. All it says is debit processing $xxx.xx. Should I take that as an approval?

[vish1]

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@creditguy-378 wrote:

i use to be a bofa customer back in the day, but in my experiences and others i know i just don't think that they have the best of service in anything when your starting out and trying to build credit they just never grew with me but once you do have a established yourself and your credit they are worth dealing with. never heard about citi not growing with someone unless they messed up somehow along the way   

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This could be that you personally had a bad experience with BofA or I had a good experience with them (in terms of growing, not in terms of service). My secured card unsecured in a year (infact 2-3 days less than a year) and my CL went from 500 to 7500 at that point (end of feb) and yesterday I called for a CLI and they pushed my CL to 10k.

This said, I have always had 1 key problem with their CSRs, many of them talk different things and don't provide complete info and sometimes mislead.

Anyway, I am not against your suggestion and its all a classic case of YMMV...

[vish1]

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@-Cain- wrote:
After the status update not being changed since I applied, I received an email stating that a decision had been reached on the card. Instructions were to go the the banks website and check the status. Well, I went back and it still has the same answer about "If approved...", but my checking account is showing a debit in the amount of the deposit. All it says is debit processing $xxx.xx. Should I take that as an approval?

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I would think this as a approval.

Treat it well and keep paying online as soon as you can after transactions post. This suggestion doesn't have any grounds, but I used to do this and they treated me really well.

Another suggestion I have is don't block too much money to get a high CL unless you need high CL (your deposit has no impact on what kind of unsecure CL you will get when you get this unsecured). Again this is my thought YMMV.

[-Cain-]

For better results do you pay entire balance in full or leave at least a few bucks as a balance?

[lenz99]

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@vish1 wrote:

I would think this as a approval.

Treat it well and keep paying online as soon as you can after transactions post. This suggestion doesn't have any grounds, but I used to do this and they treated me really well.

Another suggestion I have is don't block too much money to get a high CL unless you need high CL (your deposit has no impact on what kind of unsecure CL you will get when you get this unsecured). Again this is my thought YMMV.

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Initial CL matters and you're the only one I've seen with such a big CLI upon "graduation". Most ppl receive the standard $500 CLI for unsecuring so a big initial deposit definitely helps.