@Anonymous wrote:I rather do a secured card with a credit union(s) with no AF. Those AFs on those other cards are horrible. Better to save 250 and put in secured card that you will get back vs. paying 50/75/100 AF. Likely to have to work with crappy cards until those medical collections get old/fall off which means 2-3 years.
Most secured cards don't have an eggregious AF, I'm just fine with BOFA's $39 that'll graduate even. If you have free cash flow and can afford to tie it up for call it 2 years (can be less) secured cards are the way to go I think. Easier approval, less AF, and these days better (read: more than zero) rewards.
@Anonymous wrote:Don't think OP will even qualify for BofA Secured. If you can get BofA Secured, that is good card. I am comparing secured to ones like Credit One, First Premier, etc.
Dunno, medical collections don't count the same as "standard," there's been numerous reports of Chase not evaluating them the same way, and I suspect BOFA would be similar in that case. I also think the full denial pictures people post about various cards aren't always accurate: I've received the BOFA secured card a total of 3 times (back in my stupid and cash-based days) with a laughable albatross open on my records... and the most recent was 2 open collections, and two tax liens, and a card closed by BOFA earlier even.
I think like any other approval, it's very much YMMV, but I'm not convinced that BOFA is necessarily harder to get than many others these days, perhaps *especially* these days with every lender wanting more deposits on record. I wouldn't rule out good secured cards for nearly anyone these days, open judgements appear to be the only really sticky issue.
I would go the secured route with Cap1. Even FP, just use them wisely.
