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Best Secured Cards that Graduate

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate


@joltdude wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@atomicfront wrote:

I got 11 cards in a month and got added authorized user to 2 other cards.  My scores went up to 640 in two months.  I am sure all the major banks who won't give me credit now will be lining up to give me credit when my last negative come off my report next year.  

 

My my point was Capital One was willing to give me an unsecured card along with multiple other lenders when Discover wouldn't even give me an secured card.  


My first secured card was Discover and I've enjoyed the rewards. Discover is finicky... and I would consider them to be more of a builder than a rebuilder in terms of what your file looks like. They like thin files in general, and I know if you have outstanding debt, you have a very hard chance of getting in, even under secured.

 

It's not always just about the financial risk. Sometimes, they just don't want you as a customer at all.


The more I hear about how picky Discover is, the more I realize how very fortunate I was to be approved by them!


 

Discover is a bit unpredictable but I 1. Like them and 2. Recommend them for secured cards...

With the transparency out of the way

 

I think Discover is trying to widen its target audience... but with caution..... for them the secured card is a probationary period to a real card.. You might have some baggage and baddies in the past... if you havent burned them... and they also seem to want to now go after folks post bk who have paid their dues but still have a hesitation to take the full risk on them...  discover isnt looking to be a quick fix for obtaining credit.... they want you for the long haul.... and how the secured card works just shows all of that..

 

 


I actually had a Discover card for many years that I shut down when I got seperated from my first wife and did not burn them. 

 

Bank of America and Capital One who I burned both gave me credit cards.  Capital One unsecured and B of America 99/500 321 rewards .   I don't really care. I thought with my credit scores so low I would have to apply for unsecure card first.  Little did I know I could get plenty of unsecurd cards.  11 in fact.  I think the 99/500 is a useful card.  i have gotten 80 dollars in cash rewards in two months. 

Message 31 of 56
stellar
Established Contributor

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

This thread can be extremely useful to people...if it stays on topic.  

 

To that end...

 

Anyone considering the USBank Harley card be aware that it will unsecure into a Harley card only and can't be PC'd into any other USBank cc.  If you like Harley points, that's great.  Also, USBank will likely approve you for another USBank cc once you graduate.  A new acct.  That was my experience.

 

For Citi, yes they graduate at 18 months like clockwork and turn your cc into a Diamond Preferred.  You can PC to another Citi cc like the DC.  However, you can only PC to DC if your limit is at least 300.  And Citi can be tough abt CLIs.  So if you want to turn your Citi secured into a DC, put at least 300 into it.

 

 

Message 32 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

This is some good information. It seems that a secured card may be a better route to a higher SL for those building their credit.

Message 33 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

 
Message 34 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

I snagged both Capital One secured and Discover secured even tho I was borderline being approved for unsecured versions.

I prefer having a $2500 and $3000 secured CL than a $300 or $200 one.
Message 35 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate


@stellar wrote:

This thread can be extremely useful to people...if it stays on topic.  

 

To that end...

 

Anyone considering the USBank Harley card be aware that it will unsecure into a Harley card only and can't be PC'd into any other USBank cc.  If you like Harley points, that's great.  Also, USBank will likely approve you for another USBank cc once you graduate.  A new acct.  That was my experience.

 

For Citi, yes they graduate at 18 months like clockwork and turn your cc into a Diamond Preferred.  You can PC to another Citi cc like the DC.  However, you can only PC to DC if your limit is at least 300.  And Citi can be tough abt CLIs.  So if you want to turn your Citi secured into a DC, put at least 300 into it.

 

 


+1

Message 36 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

I started my rebuild journey with Open Sky in 2015 (yeah, I know...open sky sucks) and then added a Cap One secured and The Build Card from Republic Bank (it's unsecured but I don't recommend because of the stupid annual fee and I doubt there's ever a CLI, I plan on closing it once it won't affect my AAoA or total credit line very much). After that I got approved for a small Care Credit line which I haven't used but have it just in case I need it. Somewhere in those 2 years since opening my first CC, I got and paid off 2 different car loans through a local credit union. And 2 months ago I was approved for a secured Discover card. And then this month my bank, Citizen's Bank, told me when I was there cashing a check that I was pre approved for an unsecured card with a 1600 SL. 

 

So bit my bit I think the secured cards obviously helped out alot with my rebuild. My Open Sky, Cap One and Discover are all secured. Out of all of those, I'd say Discover would be my favorite because it has cash back rewards and it will supposedly graduate after 7 months. Cap one gave me a 200 SL with a 99 deposit and increased the limit to 500 after however many months, but hasn't increased since then and I'm doubtful that it will ever graduate and I've had it for almost 2 years. After reading this thread, I'm actually surprised that Discover approved me for even a secured card because apparently Discover is picky? I have 29 derogs on my report, all medical bills. Some are falling off in the next 2 years but regardless, with that amount of negative marks I'm surprised I was approved for anything. I'm steadily rebuilding and have never had a missed payment on any of my CCs or loans but it's just the stupid medical bills so I guess they're not sensitive to that. 

Message 37 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

Adding max deposit limits to the data. If you know the max on any that are missing info, please post. Thanks.

Message 38 of 56
NGeorge
Valued Member

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

I applied for a Discover secured on a lark in June of last year with $2000 -- I have some student loan default issues I'm working with and my scores always hovered in the 560 - 590 range. No late payments or issues with credit cards/car loans other than a single late on HSBC in 2011 (which should fall off this month) -- my issues are all private student loan related. Discover approved me immediately at 576... I was blown away as I did it on a lark. Previous to that I had my 2 Capital One's (one was an old HSBC that sat at $300 since 2007 and the other was a $700 QuickSilver One), a $400 CreditOne (now $550) and a $750 Continental Finance that was my first card and a Target card that sat at $200 since 2009 until it jumped to $1000 in 2015.

 

What is odd is that over the last year, Discover's in-app credit score always runs higher than any other credit scores I've seen... They now say I have a 661 at 12 months later -- still no graduation but it seems like I'm making progress with them. Everyone else says I am in the 590-600 range -- including CreditKarma who supposedly uses the same TransUnion score that Discover does. The other odd one is CreditOne... they say I have a 576 Experian in-app, although Experian themselves say I am 592.

 

Although my scores don't seem to be going up much outside the Discover app, the Discover card has helped me in other ways -- almost immediately after Discover approved me (within 30 days), Capital One, who had NEVER offered a CLI in almost 10 years, upped me to $600 on the ex-HSBC $300 card, then 3 months later bumped it to $750 as well as offered an upgrade to QuickSilver One from Platinum. The newer Capital One QuickSilver One got bumped from a start of $500 to $600 after their "graduation steps", then jumped to $750 last month. Also last month Target upped me from $1000 to $1300.

 

Most recently last month, Capital One sent me a pre-approval to re-finance my car loan -- at 5.1% cheaper than GM Financial/Americredit -- so it's down to a more palettable 12% -- that essentially takes an entire year off the car loan.  The car loan had been at 17.1%, and it was a serious PAIN to even get that -- I went to a number of dealers pointed me to Credit Acceptance or Wells Fargo with insane rates... the dealership I ended up with had to work HARD to find someone who would take me for less than 19%. Capital One at the time wanted 23.2%... I paid it every month on time, and sent in an extra $100 monthly to attempt to negate some of the insane interest, and keep the loan-to-value from going totally upside down. Needless to say I jumped at Capital One's offer.

 

So SOMETHING is happening... I credit it to the Discover card because everything started to pop very quickly after I got it. I'm not sure it was the car loan -- because I had paid off my previous car loan which was from a company called Premier Financial and had on-time +$100 month not too terribly long before -- and nothing happened on my cards during that time.

 

I'm not sure I want to mess with anything since it seems to be moving in a positive direction... the dealerships threw around 35 hard inquiries on my reports over the course of 2 months when I was car shopping trying to get my interest rate to something--anything below 19%. I felt lucky to get 17.1 with GM Financial.

 

I'm pondering dropping the CreditOne and Continental Finance... the CreditOne just seems to be dead weight and I've had it for 18 months and it has the $79 fee. The Continental Finance is as insane as it always was -- even worse now. It's still $49 per year, plus now $18 a month for "service fees" (they used to be 10... then 12... then 15) although it is my oldest card -- but it appears to only report to Experian now, and that seems to be my worst report (not sure why as all 3 of my reports look fairly uniform).

 

I'm wondering about the Citi Secured card... from what I am reading they graduate at 18 months, and if I dropped 2 grand on it and got rid of the Credit One/Continental, that would be another "major bank" card with a higher CL.... but then again not sure I want to poke the hornet's nest... that said, if I did all of this at once (within 30 days) -- the car refinance, dropping the 2 cards, and got the Citi card -- and then just paid everything on time and let those dealer hard pulls fall off, I wonder if that would be a better strategy long term. I've finally got some negotiation going on the student loans -- but that's a long term situation... I just am trying to get my current credit as low-priced as possible with minimal fees and reasonable limits. Does anyone know if the Citi is a "guaranteed" graduation at 18 months with on-time payments? If so I'd probably lean towards that rather than "eligible for" graduation cards because the student loan issues are just kind of stuck there and until that's resolved (it'll be a while) I can't see my scores going over 680. 

 

N

 

 

Message 39 of 56
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best Secured Cards that Graduate

@NGeorge Did you ever move forward with the Citi Secured? Or cancel the Credit One and Continental Finance?

 

I was just interested after reading your post.

Message 40 of 56
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