Citi Secured card - Anyone have useful DP's?

[Anonymous]

Opened a Citi Secured card with a $300 limit about 6 months ago. Yes, I am aware of the Maturity date listed on the card for 18 months out. I have searched the forums a bit and have trouble finding any DP's on graduated cards. More so what happens AFTER graduation. 

Upon graduating I know you switch to the black card. You can PC the card as well. 

Anyone who has kept their graduated card OR their graduated PC'd card- did it bucket? Did it grow? Is it useful to you? Did it really open up a door with Citi? Or does it stop at a credit building card with no real potential afterwards? 

I am debating whether or not I should close this card. If it is going to be treated like Cap One treats their starter cards then I am not interested in continuing to keep up with this. I only run my OnStar sub and my Amazon Prime sub through it monthly and PIF. While I am not being impatient or trying to graduate early. I am just debating if Citi is a lender I will really use in the future. If I do choose to use Citi, hopefully my credit profile will be much cleaner and I can app for something without depending on my history of this secured card. 

Any DP's from experience are appreciated. I tried looking up as much information as I could on this forum and I am simply not finding anything on what happens to these cards down the road. Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Citi-Secured-PC-to-Double-Cash-CLI/td-p/60468... 

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/CITI-SECURED-CARD-GRADUATION/td-p/5707692 

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Citi-secured-card-FINALLY-graduated/td-p/5648046 

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Early-Citi-Secured-Card-Graduation/td-p/5930125 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  Thanks, but I have already read all 4 of those threads. I was diligent in my search for the information I'd like to receive. All of those mention graduating and an initial 1k to 2k increase being granted by request, not automatically. I want to know if people from experience see this as a card that grows like a regular Citi card would grow. I have yet to find a thread where anyone can say their formerly Citi Secured card is NOT bucketed, yet nobody has said it IS bucketed either. 

Surely I am making sense. After that graduation and initial CLI you can request...... does it grow? Does it bucket?

Hate to ask twice, but this is the information I am seeking answers to based on experience. That is all. I see other answers on the longevity of a formerly secured card for lenders like BofA and Discover. But not Citi.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Imo if your credit is clean , not alot of inquiries and havent burnt them, you can get Citi cards in the future without depending on a secured cc  to establish a relationship.  I think secured cards from Citi are better for people trying to reestablished credit with them than those who never had Citi. Ive burned Citi in a bk7 and im back in with plenty of Retail and Legacy

[AverageJoesCredit]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous  Thanks, but I have already read all 4 of those threads. I was diligent in my search for the information I'd like to receive. All of those mention graduating and a 1k to 2k increase. I want to know if people from experience see this as a card that grows like a regular Citi card would grow. I have yet to find a thread where anyone can say their formerly Citi Secured card is NOT bucketed, yet nobody has said it IS bucketed either. 

Surely I am making sense. After that graduation and initial CLI you can request...... does it grow? Does it bucket?

Hate to ask twice, but this is the information I am seeking answers to based on experience. That is all. I see other answers on the longevity of a formerly secured card for lenders like BofA and Discover. But not Citi.

---

if you arent finding the specific answers, chances are you found your answer already. Believe me, if people had such experiences chances are high they would have posted it here especially on myFico. Ive been here 4 years so if its not here in your search probably doesnt exist. 

[Anonymous]

@AverageJoesCredit  thanks. That's one way to look at it I guess. I didn't think from that perspective and should have before making this post. That may in fact answer it.

[Anonymous]

My Citi secured graduated about 5 years ago.  At the time of graduation,  my negatives had fallen off my report.

I had a 200 CL.  It increased to 500 with a SP after graduation.  I used it only for the easy deals at the time.  I eventually converted it to the Costco card and the CL is currently 7,500.  I stopped asking for a CLI last year, as I will never need a higher limit on that card, so I'm unsure if it would've been higher had I kept requesting an increase.

it was just north of 5,000 when I converted it to the Costco card.  All my CLI were a SP.

hope that helps 

[AverageJoesCredit]

lol, indeed. If you like a different perspective on Citi and secured let me see if @pizza1  chimes in

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

My Citi secured graduated about 5 years ago.  At the time of graduation,  my negatives had fallen off my report.

I had a 200 CL.  It increased to 500 with a SP after graduation.  I used it only for the easy deals at the time.  I eventually converted it to the Costco card and the CL is currently 7,500.  I stopped asking for a CLI last year, as I will never need a higher limit on that card, so I'm unsure if it would've been higher had I kept requesting an increase.

it was just north of 5,000 when I converted it to the Costco card.  All my CLI were a SP.

hope that helps 

---

This was a DP I was looking for! Thank you kindly! It has helped in aiding my decision not to close it since there IS room for growth as well as the already stated product change. I couldn't find many posts with a story like yours and I tend to try to research before posting something everyone has seen many times before me. Thanks again. This helped. 

[Anonymous]

I fully intend on being able to app with Citi aside from my secured card as my profile gets cleaned. All that's there now is 2 late payments on a student loan falling off early 2021 and an old charged off auto loan falling off in early 2023 with some lates that I won't even bother trying for GW. No collections.