Close Discover Secured and reapply, Or wait for graduation?

[Anonymous]

Hi, there! This is my first official post on the forum, so please bear with me! I've searched everywhere for this topic, but unfortunately couldn't find anything.

I've had the secued Discover card, along with a few other 'starter cards', for about seven months. Last month, after steadily building my credit history, following the common guidelines posted on the forum, I app'd and was approved for some quality cards: Amex Blue Everyday, Chase Freedom, BoA Cash Rewards. I also tried for the unsecured version of the Discover It. The reason for denial was "too many accounts with Discover". Not even the "too many new accounts" in general, as that would have been expected.

So following more advice from the forum, I sent a secured message asking what that was all about, explainging that I only have one account with them, and they basically told me to wait the year or so for the card to graduate. So this got me thinking: Should I bother waiting another 6 months for the card to graduate(it's limit is $200, so an unsecured card with that limit will do me no good at this point), or should I just close the secured card, and apply straight out for the unsecured. For context, my Freedom and BoA card have 1500 and 2000 Sl. I highly doubt that the Discover card would graduate with atleast a 1000 CLI.

I'd appreciate any feedback on this. Thanks!

[austinguy907]

Congrats on the new additions.  Discover though likes to only issue 1 card per person and maybe 2 after the initial card is over a year old.  This being said you're already in with them as for having an account secured or not.  Give it a few more months to age to a year and then hop on chat and ask them to unsecure it.  They may or may not but, if you push them you'll finally graduate it.  It's a good card to keep if you have patience and persistence with them.

It's not costing you anything to hold onto it and will reward you well.  The reason you don't find much on the topic here is the terms change constantly from unsecure, graduate, convert, and so on. 

[Anonymous]

I dont know how it would affect it if you close the card, but I do know for a fact discover only allows 1 card in 12 months. I would make sure before you cancel, if you do, that it will free you up for another card early.

If you decide to wait it out you can always request to deposit more money to get a higher limit. Then once it graduates it will keep that limit once they refund it all. Ive read of other people doing this.

[Anonymous]

mainMethod- auto pay some steaming services to it,put it in the drawer...it will unsecure and grow😃

(Fluffybubbles) is rite ...add more if you can I did with all 4 of my secured CC !!!

[Anonymous]

OP, good luck with Discover. They can be odd at times, I had their secured card for over a year and they would not graduate it to unsecured. Someone else here (I think) waited two years, and others have very good to excellent credit and Discover will not approve them. Wait at least to the one year anniversary of you account and run some spend through it monthly. This may help, when I called to finally close my secured account they asked why, I explained that I had several accounts with AMEX, CapOne, Chase, and others all unsecured. I have no pressing need for a Discover card so basically I said you don't want my business (in a nice way). Waited two months after closing to app for a regular, declined, so I'll wait till I get a preapproved and see what's offered. I usually PIF or by second cycle at the most, so no swipe fees for them.

[Anonymous]

Just for reference, Discover has always told me they review monthly once it hits a year old to see if they can graduate you but graduation cannot be requested by the cardholder. Mine'll be officially 2 years old on November 30 and it's still secured (but I still have blemishes on my credit so while I'm disappointed, I can't really say I'm surprised).

You could call them to increase your credit line if you want to (it'll be another deposit, but when it unsecures it'll be at the higher limit). Otherwise, you can wait it out or try to get an unsecured card but Discover is one funny lender when it comes to approvals so it's possible it'll deny and they may even deny a fresh secured app.

[austinguy907]

There was someone else recently that mentioned they had the CLI link pop up and it asked for the normal info and then came to a splash screen asking them to call an 800# to speak with someone.  I think they were a little over a year at that point and the CLI option triggered a release to unsecured status.  I just like to pester Discover when it comes to giving me more spending power.  Sometimes not being shy with them works well too.  Someone else put a gun to their head with a BBB/CFPB complaint or something along those lines and managed to get the EO attention on the matter of perfect payments for 1-2 years and no movement on the graduation of the card.  It's safe to say waiting until your anniversary in the least is goal 1.  After that it seems to be fair game with bugging them and succeeding at getting it unlocked.

[Anonymous]

 Thanks for the advise guys! So plan of action is to deposit more into it, then bug the heck out of them after the one year mark.  Now that's something I know I'm capable of!

[AverageJoesCredit]

Good advise so far. I agree, you are already in with Discover so just use this year to build history with them. You really did get a nice crop of cards so you are going to be fine. Best of Luck

[Anonymous]

+1
Mostly great input
I'll add that since you've already taken the HP' for a Disco card (+ all the others you have recently gotten) it just doesn't make sense IMO to close an already opened account that's over half a year old, that HP is 5 months away from aging out of weighting importance

Why go backwards?
You're a Disco cardholder...you say it won't graduate to at least $1000...why in the world would you think that?
Disco is weird but whatever they are going to approve you for won't be much affected to a better degree by you closing and reapplying right away.

Save your HP
Manage this and all your recent cards well and in 5 months or so the card will graduate, you get back your deposit and you can app up at, that point for a CLI
Remember Disco will do a SP CLI in many cases (if they want to HP they'll ask)

I'd just manage the card you already have and allow those 7 months to work FOR you as far as aging and just keep it moving.

Good luck