I am also still holding onto a secured Discover card that is now 21 months old. I, too, had a "returned" payment snafu around month 12 that was corrected prior to payment due date. I now firmly believe that despite never carrying a balance on this card and always paying in full before statement date, I will never automatically "graduate" to unsecured. I have called, I have chatted, same canned responses. I think I will wait until March 2018 when it is officially 24 months old and the "returned" payment is a year old and if it doesn't unsecure I will close, get my funds back and wait until I'm eligible to reapply for a new card, even if it is a secured one again. Maybe the second time around will be a better experience.
@Anonymous wrote:The canned responses are ridiculous - I can recite their responses almost verbatim by now. "Your account will be reviewed each month on your statement cut date to determine if you are eligible to graduate."
The killer irony is that I was instantly approved for 5k LOC with them last night after applying... I would honestly try this https://www.discovercard.com/application/prequal to see if you pre-qualify (no impact to your credit score).
I will be calling them once my final pending purchase/payment for it posts and seeing if there is ANYTHING they can do to expedite the return of my security deposit. Their site says, "up to two billing cycles + 10 business days"
All my credit reports are frozen right now so the prequalifier won't work for me. Don't want to open anything new until March 2018 anyway. I am still working on some "baddies" on reports; paying off charge-offs from 2014. Currently have enough open credit in good standing right now, including a $5000 limit USAA Amex so don't really "need" the Discover right away. Already got my cash back match and all I use it for now is to cover prescription co-pays unless a 5% category is useful. They can keep my $200 for another 3 months then it will be time to cut ties and re-invest my money elsewhere. I learned how to say "bye, bye, bye" from AJC...lol.
I wonder if your secure card got stuck due to the payment issue.. even though it wasn't really an issue..
That said.. Even if that was the case... I do think it was worth the time/effort in getting that cleared up, even WITH the preapproval... I might have given another billing cycle... (remember sometimes they use stale reports)... but youve waited long enough... sometimes the only way to clear a logjam is to start anew... This happens with Cap One cards.... so not surprising with Disco
By clearing up the issue.. you may have paved the way for a more binding preapproval =)
Congrats on the 5k card BTW
-J
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi Iam new here.....I just got a secured Discover It card 7 months ago . I was suppose to graduate Dec 20,2017 but I haven't heard anything as of yet . I read all of your forums and most of you graduated after ur 7 months.
My TU score 599
My EF score 607
My Experian 609
I gave them a security deposit of $200. I've never been late ...one time I used $179 of my card because I didn't have a choice had to help my dad buy some car parts he needed. But I paid it off before my due date.
My question is won't they graduate me cause of that reason. Plz help ...
Some graduate on the dot, some do a few days afterwards. I use the crap outta my $200 limit (charge it up to the top, pay it down, repeat), and so have others. I don't see that being a barrier to graduation. Are those your current scores or the scores you started with when you got the secured card?
