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Hi everybody, new to myfico. I am hopping that this community could help me out in choosing the best secured credit card. I know that secured credit cards can cost an arm and a leg, but my credit score is so insufficient, I couldn't even get a walmart credit card. I was trying to choose between the capital one secured credit card and the applied bank secured credit card. Does anyone here have any experience with them and know which is better? Im open to other cards as well. Also is their a way I could work my score up without a secure credit card? Thanks in advance
Have you thought about the Bank of America secured card?
I think it's the best in the secured CC's market for now.
Secured credit cards are pretty much a requirement for a non-student... there's a few unsecured lenders which charge massive fees which personaly I'd avoid.
BOFA is definitely worth a look if you can get it: their secured card now has their 1-2-3 rewards package which is absolutely the best in this strata of card.
Cap One is another good app too.
You want at least 2, and perhaps 3 (anecdotally people have had better results by three), but 1 is absolutely too few. A third card is basically anything you can qualify for, but six months positive history on a pair of credit cards opens up some better options too than a secured (like an Amex Zync among others).
From the countless searches I've done on this site, the besti secured card is Capital One.
Three Reasons:
No Monthly Fee
Reports to all 3 bureaus - (and does not report as a secured card)
For a $49 deposit, you get a $200 CL
Bank of America (BofA) - reports as a secured card as of this year.
The Cap1 card CL can be increased 1:1 on your deposit... give them $300 and your 200 CL will be a 500 CL.
BofA is rumoured to graduate to a non-secured card after 12-18 months.
I would stay away from Citibank because I haven't read anything compelling about their secured card.
Careful, both BofA and partially secured Cap One cards are NOT GUARANTEED APPROVAL. In fact, with BofA , there are lots of denials.
OP, do you have negatives on your credit report or basically just a blank file/thin file?
Here are some guaranteed approval cards that aren't a total ripoff:
firstprogress.com: not too high annual fee and no outrageous terms like no grace period
SDFCU (need to double check this one but pretty sure it is guaranteed with deposit): No annual fee, get interest on security deposit, up to 100k secured card available.
I rebuilt with 3 secured credit cards, but I had 5 large chargeoff on my report. I ythink it is overkill for most.
If you are starting new, I think 1 secured card is enough to start and I would recommend large deposit, or build it up over time. If you are in a hurry and have a lot of cash to deposit you can go to second secured card. But if you let the secured card report for 6 months or longer, you can start getting unsecured store cards or other major cards.
On the other hand, if you have some bad credit history, definitely get 2 secured cards, maybe 3.
Capital One is a good secured card,
It is relatively easy to qualify.
Easy to build up deposit over time.
It includes credit step so you might get extra unsecured limit at 6 months.
It will help get a much better unsecured card from them later.
Annual Fee is low.
Most of the other major bank secured cards are good, but are generally for limited or new credit, check them out if that's you.
2-3 cards will build up FICO score faster. However higher CL on card will help.
@Anonymous wrote:
I checked my credit report and it says I have one bad mark against me. I broke a lease on an apartment building and they put a 9k mark on my credit last year. Would I still be able to work up my score with this bad mark? Would it even be worth it?
It is always worth it to build your FICO score up .
Yes you can still make improvements, get the secured cards; though as Crashem correctly points out there are some which are more difficult than others to obtain. Worst case go with "high risk" lenders and just eat the fee structure for a year, you absolutely want to get positive history on your report.
I think OpenSky doesn't even do a credit check; I don't know anything about them but people have posted here about it.
Dapper Dan: need two credit cards anyway, secured reporting doesn't matter too much, and BOFA in this case graduates anyway and will grow long-term with an individual. FICO building isn't a short-term endeavour; however, it's a good point that if you don't have much money for the security deposit or AF, it's pretty much impossible to beat C1's offering. I hadn't looked at it that way previously, thank you for making it.