Capital One Secured Card Approval Timeline- score jump 0 to 723

[elle_t]

Hi, new member here, very first post. Hope it helps somebody.

Background info prior to CapOne Approval: new immigrant, 4 hard pulls on credit file, no open credit lines

04/14/14: Received secured card email offer from CapOne (I had previously applied for their Journey Card and was instantly declined.)

04/28/14: Applied online for the secured card, approved instantly for $49 down and $200 Credit Limit

05/06/14: Paid the $49 fee

05/07/14: Payment cleared my bank account

05/16/14: Received email from CapOne that they had shipped the card on that day

05/19/14: Received the card in the mail, activated it, signed up for online banking and CapOne Credit Tracker

                (Credit Tracker Report: 5 inquiries, no open accounts, credit score zero)

05/20/14: Logged into online banking, there was a $29 balance which was the CapOne Member Fee charge, transcation date was 05/19/14

05/25/14: Made a small charge

05/30/14: Made another charge (balance posts 2 days after transactions but the available credit limit is updated instantly-before the actual balance is posted to account) 

06/05/14: Sent CapOne a secured message through online banking asking when my first payment was due and my account statement date. Got a response within 2 hours that due date is 6th of each month, first payment due 07/06/14 and statement date is the 9th of each month.

06/09/14: Logged into online banking, balance was posted, due date was 07/06/14 (as the rep stated), minimum balance $25 but the actual account statement had not yet   posted in online banking

06/11/14: Received email from CapOne that my new Account statement had been posted in online banking (yeah I had opted to receive paperless statements)

06/14/14: Received email from Credit Tracker that TransUnion detected changes to my Credit report- a new account was posted. Logged in to online banking, checked the alert, it said that the new account was from CapOne, balance $68. (Credit Tracker Updates once per month, seeing that I initially checked it on 05/19/14, my next update would be 06/18/14 (the 18th of every month)

06/18/14: Logged in to online banking & credit tracker and my credit score was 723 (yep from zero to 723!) Naturally, I was ecstatic  Balance $68, utilization 34%, open accounts 1, payment history 100%, available credit $132, inquiries 5, no derogatory marks  nor delinquent accounts.

Will try to keep my balance below 30% for each statement though.

Good luck all and hope this post helps at least one person looking for thiskind of  info.  

[myjourney]

Welcome to the forum 

Great job thus far keep up the good work

[elle_t]

Thanks! Will do. 

[sponge_gto]

Just a couple of things to note off the top of my head:

1. Capital One score tracker uses a FAKO which is not what lenders typically use. It gives an indication of your credit worthiness but don't go thinking you can get cards that others with 700+ scores and years of history can qualify for.

2. Don't just stop at keeping things <30%. A week before the statement date, pay your current balance down to a few dollars. In fact, anticipate any pending or future transactions that could post before the statement date and pay most of those too. Use an external bank account with bill pay feature to do the payment so you're not limited to paying the current balance. Also be careful to leave at least $2 on the account since Capital One will write off small balances (not sure how small but I had a $0.49 charge written off). When this happens you get a few cents for free BUT this being your only card, your credit utilization will become 0% which is something to be avoided. Optimum utilization to allow on your statement is <10%.

Anyways it's refreshing to see someone with a shorter history than mine. Keep up the good work!

[elle_t]

Yea, I've been researching a lot so I'm aware of what I can/can't and should/shouldn't do at this point (unlike 4 months ago).

I had no intention of applying for anything else right now; it was just refreshing to see a score above 0 and code 9003 (Experian).

I'm only on my second statement and I have been using the card and making payments multiple times per month and paying the balance below 30%. I plan to keep that up until the 5th/6th statement when I will begin to pay it down below 10% just before the statement cuts.

Thanks for the encouragement/ compliment!